issues and debates essay plans Flashcards
gender bias AO1
Universality - any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing
Gender bias - psychological theories/studies do not represent the experiences and behaviours of one gender
Alpha bias -psychological research that exaggerates gender differences - may heighten value of girls/women but usually values in relation to boys/men (Freud)
Freud - argues girl’s identification with same-gender parent weaker so superego weaker - girls/women morally inferior
Beta bias - psychological research that minimise gender differences, assuming that findings derived from one gender apply to everyone (Kohlberg)
fight or flight
- favoured using male animals
- assumed males and females respond the same
- Shelley Taylor et al - oxytocin released more in women which reduces fight or flight and enhances tend and befriend
Androcentrism - normal behaviour is equated with men’s behaviour so women’s behaviour is judged as abnormal or deviant
American Psychologist Association published a list of 100 most influential psychologists - only 6 women
gender bias AO3
Biological versus social explanations
P - limited as gender different often presented as fixed when they are not
E - findings of several gender studies that concluded girls have superior verbal ability and boys spatial and said to be hardwired
E - brain scans opposed this and found no sex differences in brain structure
L - some research findings presented as biological facts explained better by social stereotypes
P - however, psychologists shouldnt avoid studying differences
E - popular stereotype that women better at multitasking
E - women’s brains may benefit from better connections between hemispheres
L - there may be biological differences
Sexism in research
P - limitation is gender bias promotes sexism
E - women underrepresented in university departments, especially science
E - research more likely to be conducted by men and may disadvantage participants who are women
L - male research may expect women to be irrational and these expectations lead to women underperforming - institutional structures may produce gender-biased findings
Gender bias in research
P - limitation that research challenging gender biases may not be published
E - analysis of over 1000 articles relating to gender bias published over eight years
E - research is funded less often and published by less prestigious journals - fewer scholars become aware of it
L - gender bias not taken as seriously as other research
culture bias AO1
Universality - psychological research mostly based on weird cultures - westernised, education, industrialised, rich, democratic
so findings not universal
Culture bias - interpreting behaviour through the lens of own culture, so behaviour in non-weird cultures seen as abnormal or unusual
Cultural relativism -one cannot judge a behaviour properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates
eg understanding ‘hearing voices’ is seen as normal in some cultures
Imposed etic - a technique or theory developed in one culture and used to study the behaviour of people in another culture
eg using Strange Situation outside of the US and UK
Emic approach - something that applies only in one culture eg culture-bound syndromes
culture bias AO3
Classical studies
P - limitation is many of the most influential studies are culturally biased
E - eg Asch and Milgram - only US participants
E - replications in other countries produced different results eg conformity higher in collectivist cultures
L - understanding of topics such as social influence can only be applied to individualistic cultures
P - increase in media globalisation
E - individualistic-collectivist distinction no longer applies
E - 14 out of 15 studies that compared the US and Japan found no evidence of individualism or collectivism - distinction is too simplistic
L - culture bias in research may be less of an issue in recent research
Cultural psychology
P - strength is emergence of cultural psychology
E - study of how people shape and are shaped by cultural experience
E - avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking an emic approach and conducting research from inside a culture along with local researcher
L - modern psychologists are mindful of dangers of cultural bias
Ethnic stereotyping
P - limitation is led to prejudice against groups of people
E - first intelligence test led to eugenic social policies - tests were ethnocentric eg names of US presidents
E - poor performance used to inform racist discourse about genetic inferiority
L - cultural bias used to justify prejudice and discrimination
free will and determinism AO1
Free will - assumes humans are free to choose their behaviour, and that influences can be rejected at will - the notion that humans can make choices and behaviour are not determined by biological or external forces
Hard determinism - all behaviours have causes and these are internal or external events outside of our control - fatalism - free will is an illusion
Soft determinism - behaviours are predicted because they have internal or external causes, but are influenced by limited personal choices
Biological determinism - behaviours are caused by biological influences we cannot control eg genes, hormones
Environmental determinism - behaviours are caused by environmental factors we cannot control eg conditioning, reinforcement
Psychic determinism - behaviours are caused by unconscious factors we cannot control eg repressed conflicts and innate drives
Causal explanations - scientific principle - everything has a cause (determinism) causes can be discovered and explained using general laws
free will and determinism AO3
Practical value
P - strength of free will is practical value
E - common-sense view - we have free choice - thinking we can free choice improves mental health
E - those with strong belief in fatalism have significantly greater risk of developing depression - external locus of control less likely to be optimistic
L - if we do not have free will, believing we do has a positive impact
Roberts et al
Research evidence
P - limitation of free will is brain scan evidence
E - participants asked to choose random moment to flick wrist while brain activity measures - conscious will to move
E - unconscious brain activity leading up to decision came around half a second before
L - our basic experiences of free will determined by brain before aware of them
Libet et al - even the most basic experiences of free will are actually determined by the brain
P - findings involved in decision making not surprising
E - action comes before the conscious awareness of the decision to ask
E - doesnt mean no decision to ask - time to reach consciousness
L - evidence is not appropriate as a challenge to free will
The law
P - limitation of determinism is position of legal system on responsibility
E - hard determinism not consistent with the way in which legal system operates
E - offenders held responsible for their actions and main principle is defendant exercised their free will
L - in real world, determinist arguments do not work
nature and nurture AO1
Interactionist approach - how nature and nurture influence each other because it makes no sense to try and separate the two
Diathesis-stress model - interactionist approach - genes or other vulnerability - create a vulnerability and stressors in the environment trigger behaviours
Epigenetics - a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code
events switch genes on
Nature - heredity - characteristics are innate - eg intelligence determined by genes
Nurture - experience - environment shapes the mind - blank slate at birth - levels of environment include psychical, psychological, social
Measuring nature and nurture - heritability coefficient - proportion of differences between individuals in a population that is due to genetic variation
nature and nurture AO3
Adoption studies
P - strength into nature-nurture debate is use of adoption studies
E - separate the competing influence of nature and nurture - if adopted - children found to be more similar to their adoptive parents - environment is bigger influence
E - if more similar to biological parents then genetics - metaanalysis found genetic influence for 41% of variance in aggression
L - research can separate the influence of nature and nurture
P - research suggests this approach may be misguided
E - nature and nurture cannot be simply pulled apart
E - naturally aggressive child likely to feel more comfortable with children who show similar behaviours so choose environment accordingly - niche-picking
L - it does not make sense to look at evidence of either nature or nurture
Epigenetics research
P - strength of debate is support for epigenetics
E - Nazi blocked food for dutch people - many died from starvation
E - women who became pregnant during famine had low birth weight babies and twice as likely to develop schizophrenia when grew up
L - life experiences of previous generations can leave epigenetic markers that influence health of offspring
Real world application
P - strength is real-world application
E - OCD is highly heritable - heritability rate of .76
E - inform genetic counselling - those with high risk can receive advice about the likelihood of developing the disorder and how to prevent it
L - debate is not just theoretical but important at a practical level
Nestadt 68, 31
idiographic and nomothetic AO1
Idiographic approach - focuses on uniqueness of the individual, in-depth details using qualitative methods
- case studies, unstructured interviews
Example:
humanistic approach - rogers’ concept of unconditional positive regard
psychodynamic approach - freud’s case of Little Hans’s phobia
Subjectivity - aims to understand the unique subjective experience of the individual person rather than uncovering general laws
Nomothetic approach -
focuses on groups of people to establish general laws of behaviour using quantitative methods
- lab experiments, structured questionnaires
Objectivity - aims to understand behaviour through unbiased, standardised methods that can be replicated and results generalised
Example:
behaviourist approach
biological approach - Sperry’s split-brain research
idiographic and nomothetic AO3
Complete account
P - strength of idiographic approach is it contributes to the nomothetic approach
E - uses in-depth qualitative methods of investigation and provides a global description of one individual
E - may complement nomothetic approach by shedding light on general laws - eg hypothesis from case study can generate hypotheses for further study eg HM
L - even though focus on fewer individuals, idiographic approach help form scientific laws of behaviour
P - idiographic approach should still acknowledge the narrow nature of work
E - generalisations cannot be made without further examples
E - no adequate baseline of comparisons and methods tend to be least scientific as subjective interpretations and open to bias
L - difficult to build effective general theories of human behaviour in complete absence of nomothetic research
Scientific credibility
P - one strength of both is fit with aims of science
E - nomothetic - similar to those used in the natural sciences eg objectivity through standardisation
E - idiographic - seek objectify methods eg triangulation used to increase validity
L - both the nomothetic and idiographic approaches raise psychology’s status as a science
Losing the person
P - limitation of nomothetic approach is loss of understanding of the individual
E - preoccupied with general laws so accused of losing the person
E -understanding the subjective experiences eg schizophrenia prove useful in devising appropriate treatment options
L - in its search for generalities, may sometimes fail to relate to experience
holism and reductionism AO1
Holism - to understand a system, we should study it as a whole
Reductionism - behaviour is best understood by breaking it down to it’s constituent parts
Levels of explanation - the idea that there are several ways that can be used to explain behaviour- increasingly reductionist - socio-cultural - psychological- physical - environmental - physiological - neurological
Biological reductionism - explain behaviour at lowest biological level eg genes, hormones
Environmental reductionism - explain behaviour through stimulus-response links learned through experience (behaviourists)
holism and reductionism AO3
Practical value
P - limitation of holism is may lack practical value
E - become hard to use as more complex
E - many different factors that contribute to eg depression, past, present, jobs, relationships - difficult to know which is most influential
L - holistic accounts may lack practical value
Scientific approach
P - strength is reductionism is they often form the basis of a scientific approach
E - to conduct well-controlled research we need to operationalise the variables to be studied - breaking target behaviour to constituent parts
E - makes it possible to conduct experiments and observations
L - scientific approach gives psychology greater credibility - equal terms with natural sciences
P - reductionist approach accused of oversimplifying complex phenomena - reducing validity
E - explanations that operate at level of gene doesnt include social context
E - eg pointing finger is same regardless of context but no reason why the finger is pointed, aggression, attention
L - reductionist explanations can only ever form part of an explanation
Higher level
P - limitation of reduction is some behaviours only understood at a higher level
E - social behaviour only emerge within in a group and cannot be understood in terms of individual group members
E - eg conformity to social roles - zimbardo - interactions between people of group important and no such research as currently found conformity gene
L - for some behaviours, high level explanations provide a more valid account
ethical implications AO1
Ethical implications - the consequences of psychological research for individuals, groups and wider society
Social sensitivity - research is socially sensitive when it has potentially negative consequences for groups represented in the research
Implications for research - research question - phrasing may have negative impact on groups eg judging homosexual relationships against heterosexual norms
Implications for research - dealing with participants - informed consent, protection from harm and confidentiality
How findings are used - may give scientific credibility to prejudice and discrimination, used to justify public policy
ethical implications AO3
Benefits for group
P - strength is that it can have benefits for the group being studied
E - eg homosexuality removed from DSM due to Kinsey report based on anonymous interviews
E - showed homosexuality is typical expression of human sexual behaviour
L - illustrates the importance of researchers tackling topics that are sensitive
P - some studies could have negative consequences
E - eg research on genetic base on criminality found criminal gene
E -if true, someone convicted based on gene - not held responsible for crime
L - when researching socially sensitive topics, need for very careful consideration of outcomes
Real world application
P - strength is certain groups rely on research related to socially sensitive issues
E - government when developing social policies eg child care, education, crime
E - in Uk independent groups eg ONS that describe themselves as responsible for collecting, analysing and disseminating objective statistics
L - psychologists have important role to play in providing quality research on socially sensitive topics
Poor research design
P - one limitation is poor research design may lead to incorrect findings
E - eg impacted education system with false research causing 11+ to have continued use in the UK
E -independent schools have entrance exams based on same reasoning
L - any research needs to be planned with care to ensure findings are valid as can have long lasting effects
