Issues and Debates

Question 1

What is gender bias?

Answer 1

-Psychological research which does not justify the experiences of both men and women, usually favours only one gender.

Question 2

What is universality?

Answer 2

-All behaviours and characteristics can be applied to both genders. Gender bias threatens this.

Question 3

What are the two types of gender bias?

Answer 3

• Alpha bias,

- Beta bias.

Question 4

What is alpha bias?

Answer 4

-Believing there are real differences between men and women. Typically undervalues women.

Question 5

What study shows alpha bias?

Answer 5

-Sociobiological theory; states that it is in the male’s genetics to impregnate as many women as possible and pass on his genes, however, women need to do the opposite and protect the few offspring they can have. So promiscuity for men is genetically determined, whereas for men it is seen as going against their nature.

Question 6

What is beta bias?

Answer 6

-Ignores/minimises any differences between men and women.

Question 7

What study shows beta bias?

Answer 7

-Much of fight or flight research has been done on males, however, Shelley Taylor found that women actually inhibit the response to protect their offspring and make defensive networks with other women.

Question 8

What is androcentrism?

Answer 8

-Behaviour and norms that are judged according to a male standard, and usually women’s behaviour is seen as deviant and misunderstood.

Question 9

What study shows androcentrism?

Answer 9

-Anger is explained using PMS, however, male’s anger is explained as a rational response to pressure.

Question 10

What are the strengths of gender bias?

Answer 10

• Feminist psychology; many more women researchers and women PP involved in research process which reduces the impact of gender bias.
• Reflexivity; many researchers have recognised gender bias in their studies, they have used this as a critical aspect of research and now raise more awareness of gender bias in research.

Question 11

What are the weaknesses of gender bias?

Answer 11

• Implications of gender bias; has created many stereotypes about women, which have had an affect on the opportunities that they may have had in the workplace which have been taken away from them due to this gender bias causing stereotypes.
• Gender bias in the research process; not many women researchers or PP and so women concerns are not involved in studies, which may cause problems with generalisation.

Question 12

What is cultural bias?

Answer 12

-Ignores cultural differences, it looks at behaviours through one culture’s norms.

Question 13

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 13

-Judging other cultures by the norms and values of one own culture.

Question 14

What study shows ethnocentrism?

Answer 14

• Strange situation-can only be used for US children.
• Stated that the strange situation can be used to explain all attachments in all cultures, however, e.g. German women would be seen as cold and rejecting rather than encouraging independence.

Question 15

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 15

-Idea that norms and values can only be understood

and applied to one culture.

Question 16

What is imposed etic?

Answer 16

• Identifies behaviours as being able to be universal and applied to all culture.
• E.g. strange situation-Mary Ainsworth believed it could be used in all cultures.

Question 17

What is imposed emic?

Answer 17

-Identifies a behaviour and that it can be applied to only that specific culture.

Question 18

What are the strengths of cultural bias?

Answer 18

• Individualism vs collectivism; cultural bias says these two countries are too different, however, Osaka and Takano found 14/15 studies shown no clear distinction between the countries, so cultural bias may not be such a big problem
• Changes in research; less research has an imposed etic, more of a focus on an emic approach.

Question 19

What are the weaknesses of cultural bias?

Answer 19

• Unfamiliarity with research; some countries may not have full understanding of research process unlike western countries, and so demand characteristics may be more of an issue.
• Operationalism of variables; some variables may not be experienced in same way by PP of different cultures and so may cause validity problems. E.g. people in China see invasion of privacy as the norm whereas in western countries it may be seen as a threat.

Question 20

What is free will?

Answer 20

• Human beings are self-determining and in control of our actions.
• Links to the humanistic approach.

Question 21

What is determinism?

Answer 21

-External forces control all our actions, we have no control over them.

Question 22

What is hard determinism?

Answer 22

-Our behaviour is always controlled by internal or external forces, we have no control at all.

Question 23

What is soft determinism?

Answer 23

-Behaviour always has a cause, however, it can also be controlled with our conscious choices.

Question 24

What is biological determinism?

Answer 24

• Behaviour is caused by biological influences we cannot control, e.g. genes/hormones.
• Link to biological approach.

Question 25

What is environmental determinism?

Answer 25

- Behaviour is caused by features of the environment that we cannot control. - Links to behavioural approach.

Question 26

What is psychic determinism?

Answer 26

- Behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts we cannot control. - Links to psychodynamic approach.

Question 27

What are the arguments for free will?

Answer 27

- Face validity; as we believe we have complete control over our choices. - Allows us to be more mentally healthy; Roberts found that teens who believed in free will were at a less risk of becoming depressed.

Question 28

What are the arguments against free will?

Answer 28

-Neurological evidence against free will; Libbet and Soon found that our brain is predetermined when for example, we need to make a choice in what button to press. Our brain is already aware of the choice before we are made consciously aware.

Question 29

What are the arguments for determinism?

Answer 29

- Development of treatments; the control and predetermination had led to many therapies being developed for mental disorders. - Schizophrenia patients as evidence; SZ patients lose complete control over thoughts and so shows determinism at work.

Question 30

What are the arguments against determinism?

Answer 30

-Inconsistent in legal system; everyone is held morally accountable for all actions and so cannot rely on the determinism.

Question 31

What is the nature debate?

Answer 31

- Human characteristics are innate and a result of heredity. - Empiricists believe the mind is a blank state where experiences build upon it. - Heretability coefficient assesses heredity; 1=fully genetically determined.

Question 32

What is the nurture debate?

Answer 32

- Behaviour is influenced by environmental factors. - Lerner identified two types of environment; pre-natal (mother's physical health during pregnancy) and post-natal (social context we grow up in).

Question 33

What is the interactionist approach?

Answer 33

- Attachment between parent and infant is a "two-way" street, as the innate behaviours of the child will elicit a response from the caregiver, and this response will affect the child's behaviour. - Nature makes nurture.

Question 34

What is the diathesis-stress model?

Answer 34

- We all have a genetic vulnerability for a mental disorder however we need a stressor to trigger it. - Shows nature works with nurture.

Question 35

What are epigenetics?

Answer 35

- Change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code. - Caused by environmental factors like pollution which leave "epigenetic marks" on our DNA.

Question 36

What are the evaluation points of the nature-nurture debate?

Answer 36

- Shared and unshared environments; individual differences may result in twins who live in same environment to have different experiences, this shows that nurture and nature influence each other. - Constructivism; people create their own nurture by picking the most appropriate environment for their nature- "niche-picking and niche-building". - Implications of nativism and empiricism; nativists believe environment has little input, whereas empiricists think the environment has an influence.

Question 37

What is holism?

Answer 37

-Breaking up any behaviour is inappropriate, and the person should be studied as a whole.

Question 38

What is reductionism?

Answer 38

-Analyse behaviour by breaking it down into constituent parts. All phenomena should be explained using the most basic parts.

Question 39

What is biological reductionism?

Answer 39

-Explains social/psychological phenomena at lower biological levels, e.g. through evolutionary and neurochemical influences.

Question 40

What is environmental reductionism?

Answer 40

-Explains behaviour in terms of stimulus-response experiences.

Question 41

What is are the arguments for holism?

Answer 41

-Conformity studies like Zimbardo's prison study had to look at the whole group's behaviours rather than individual. This provided a more complete understanding.

Question 42

What are the arguments against holism?

Answer 42

- They are very vague explanations. - A holistic approach to explaining mental disorders like depression may not be effective because we are unable to see what are the direct causes of depression and so we need to break it down to lower levels.

Question 43

What are the arguments for reductionism?

Answer 43

- Behavioural approach breaks down complex learning into simple stimulus-response behaviours. - Variables can be broken down down and studied precisely giving psychology more credibility.

Question 44

What are the arguments against reductionism?

Answer 44

- Oversimplify complex phenomena leading to loss of validity. - Explanations at genetic level cannot account for meaning within a social context.

Question 45

What is the idiographic approach?

Answer 45

-Focus on individual case as a means of understanding behaviour.

Question 46

What is the nomothetic approach?

Answer 46

-Study behaviour through development of general laws.

Question 47

Where is the idiographic approach used in psychology?

Answer 47

-Humanistic psychology=Rogers and Maslow focused on the individual, their "self" and unique experiences.

Question 48

Where is the nomothetic approach used in psychology?

Answer 48

-Reductionist determinism=hypotheses are made and applied to large samples of people.

Question 49

What is the case for idiographic approach?

Answer 49

- Produces a complete and global account of the individual. | - One case for example, HM, can generate a new hypotheses.

Question 50

What is the case against idiographic approach?

Answer 50

- Approach may have a narrow view, e.g. Freud's Little Hans study only done on one child but applied to all. - Conclusions from case studies may be subjective and lack generalisation the whole public.

Question 51

What is the case for nomothetic approach?

Answer 51

- More scientific, as there is more prediction and control, e.g. in the field of IQ found the average as 100. - Gives psychology greater scientific credibility.

Question 52

What is the case against nomothetic approach?

Answer 52

- Subjective experiences are ignored, so ignores any human experiences. - Using statistics can result in the "loss of the whole person", e.g. we don't know what life is like for people with depression, we just know that there is a 1% risk of developing it.