Issues and debates- P3 Flashcards
(20 cards)
1
Q
Free will AO1
A
Valentine identified 3 factors of free will:
1. having a choice (options)
2. not being coerced/threatened
3. acting voluntarily
this side of the free will/ determinism debate doesn’t ignore determinism but says we have the free will to overcome it
2
Q
Free will AO3
A
- S: we believe we are self-determining in everyday life e.g. what we have for breakfast, this has benefits- can lead to an internal LOC= better mental health
- HOWEVER: belief in something doesn’t make it true, Skinner argued that free will is an illusion
- W: contradictory research- Libet showed that the brain can indicate which hand a person will choose to move before they are consciously aware of their choice= their movement may be biologically determined, the brain indication came up to 10 seconds before the ‘choice’ was made
3
Q
Determinism AO1
A
determinism= we have no contol over our actions
types
1. biological= all behaviours are deermined by our biology: genetic, biochemical and neural factors
2. environmental= behaviourist approach, Skinner argued that all behaviours are a result of experience and conditioning
3. psychic= Freud believed that all behaviours are controlled by unconscious factors (unresolved conflicts/ repression)
levels
1. soft determinism= William James said that hard determinism is inconsistent with what we believe about human nature, instead both free will and determinism play a role
2. hard determinism= ALL behaviours are determined by factors outside of our control, all behaviours and their causes can be isolated into cause and effect components (causual explanation)
4
Q
Determinism AO3
A
- W: hard determinism contrasts with society’s stance on responsibility- e.g. the legal system relies on accountability and assumes responsibility, soft determinism is a better explanation
- S: scientific support- basic principle of science is to establish cause and effect, e.g. mental illness- must be determined as no one would choose to have a mental illness
-S: practical applications- if we can establish a cause, it is easier to develop a treatment
5
Q
Nature/ nurture debate AO1
A
- this debate concerns the extent to which our behaviours are due to ourbiology or our upbringing
nature- nativists argue that human characteristics/ behaviours are inherited and innate
- the heritability co-efficient= used to assess heritability- numerical value between 0 and which shows how much a characteristic is genetic (1= totally genetic) e.g. IQ= 0.5
nurture- empiricists argue that behaviour develops through experience whithin our environment, compares the mind to a blank slate at birth
interactionism
- modern psyc tends to take an interactionist approach: both nature and nurture play a role
- diathesis-stress model: behaviour can be explained biologically and environmentally, e.g. someone may have a genetic pre-disposition for schizophrenia but may only develop the disorder with an environmental trigger
- epigenetics: shows how genetics can be influenced by the environment, e.g. identical twins- share same genes yet their genetic expression may differ, e.g. if one of them smokes
6
Q
Nature/ nurture debate AO3
A
- W: ‘nature’ side has influenced eugenic movements, Galton: categorised humans as ‘good stock and bad stock’ based on IQ, creating the concept that good stock shoudl breed to create a better human race
-e.g. 1936-76 60,000 Swedish women were sterilised due to learning difficulties and mental illness- shows the danger of the debate - S: practical applications of ‘nature’ if we know that certain genes can lead to different mental health disorders, it is easier to screen and put in preventative measures, e.g. Nestadt- concordance rates of OCD were higher for those with a family history
- S: support for interactionism: Gottesman and Shieldsfound concordance rates for schizophrenia of 42% for identical twins but 9% for non-identical twins (which suggests a genetic influence however concordance for MZ twins wasn’t 100% therefore there must be some genetic influence)- could be explained by the diathesis-stress model
- S: debate has shown us that even the biological approach has some element of nurture, e.g. brain plasticity= how the brains structure changes due to environmental demands
-Maguire et al: compared brain scans of of London bus vs taxi drivers and found a difference in grey matter on the hippocampus
7
Q
Idiographic approach AO1
A
- attempts to describe the behaviour of the individual- people are unique entities with subjective experience, motives and values so does not compare people to a standard/ norm
- methodology: uses qualitative data e.g. case studies and self-report methods, to gain each person’s unique insight
- examples:
1. humanistic psychologists: Maslow and Rogers were interested in the ‘self’, describe thier own work as anti-scientific
2. psychodynamic psychologists: Freud used case studies and however he used them to generate general laws of behaviour
8
Q
Idiographic approach AO3
A
- S: qualitative methods- provide in depth, complete accounts for the individual which may challenge or support nomothetic laws, a single case study may generate further research (e.g. HM and research into brain damage/ memory)
-HOWEVER: qualitative methods are less objective and more open to bias - W: narrow and restricted- developing laws from case studies (what Freud did) is generalisation, e.g. Freud’s Oedipus complex came from Little hans
9
Q
Nomothetic approach AO1
A
- attempts to explain the behaviour of the masses, focusses on creating ‘universal laws’, generalises people, using objective knowledge based on quantitative data
- methodology= uses scientific methods like experiements to generate quantitative data to establish a hypothesis for statistical testing of significance
- examples: behaviourist, cognitive, biological
-Skinner used rats to create general laws of learning
-Miller’s law- we can remember 7+/-2 items using our STM
10
Q
Nomothetic approach AO3
A
- S: more scientific than the idiographic approach- experimental methods= better control= better reliability, laws can be tested, this all contributes to psychology as a science
- W: ignores individual differences: general laws may oversimplify behaviour and ignore subjective experience, unhelpful when trying to understand how individual experience contributes to mental illness
11
Q
Gender bias AO1
A
- gender bias= differential treatment of men and women in psychological research
- universality= underlying characteristics which make us all human, gender and culture bias threaten universality
- alpha bias= when differences between men and women are exaggerated e.g. Freud- only men experience the ‘Oedipal complex’ in the phallic stage, motivates them to relate to their father and internalise his morality, this means that men have a stronger superego than women (so women are morally weaker)
- beta bias= when differences between men and women are ignored so research is incorrectly applied to both genders, e.g. Asch investigated normative social influence using only male p’s, however applied his findings to everyone including women, but research has suggested that women are more likely to conform
- androcentrism= psychology is largely dominated by men, uses male participants and is applied to men, therefore the norms of males becomes the standard against which women are compared, this causes alpha and beta bias
12
Q
Gender bias AO3
A
- W: gender bias reinforces negative stereotypes- e.g. research has been conducted into the MAOA gene as a cuase of aggression, this suggests that men are more likely to be aggressive as women only have 1 x chromosome which carries the gene, these stereotypes can impact the justice system
- S: as a result of alpha bias many female psychologists have done research into the value of female qualities
-e.g. Gilligan’s theory= suggests that one sex isn’t better (like Freud) but we’re just different, our morals differ as a result of different socialisation - W: not all gender biased research is challenged- Darwin’s theory of sexual selection suggests that women are choosier than men when selecting a sexual partner (alpha bias) however, recent research has shown that genetically, both genders are equally competitive
- W: androcentric research may have low internal validity, Scultz and Shultz estimated that around 12% of psychologists in the early 1900s (in US) were female and more men were in senior positions, so research may conscously or unconsciously neglect the concerns of women or be misinterpreted
13
Q
Culture bias AO1
A
- culture bias= the tendency to misinterpret behaviour through the ‘lens’ of your own culture, assuming that behaviours from other cultures are abnormal
- most psyc research comes from WEIRD cultures= westernised, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic
- cultural relativism= when we interpret behaviours in the context of the culture they are in
- imposed etic= when a technique/ theory developed in one culture is applied to others (e.g. Strange situation)
- ethnocentrism= type of culture bias in which there is a belief in the superiority of one’s own culture, e.g. strange situation: Ainsworth classified the ideal attachment type using only western babies, but this doesn’t necesscarily apply to all babies in all cultures, Takahashi showed that many Japanese babies were said to have insecure attachment but most likely just a result of different cultural norms
14
Q
Culture bias AO3
A
- W: mant social influence studies suffer from culture bias (Asch, Zimbardo, Milgram), they all use only American samples but generalise findings to all cultures
-Milgram wanted to investigate whether all cultres would obey like the Germans did in WW2 however he only used one culture to do so
-Bond and Smith found clear differences in conformity between individualist and collectivist cultures (discrediting Asch), suggests that much social influence research only applies to individualist cultures
-HOWEVER: recent researcb suggests that differences may not be prominent, Takano and Osaka meta-analysis of behaviours in collectivist cultures and individualist cultures, 14/15 studies found no difference - W: ethnocentric research can contribute to racial stereotypes: Hernstein and Murray said that Asians were more intelligent than caucasians who were more intelligent than black people, but tested using a test created in America (imposed etic)
- W: cross-cultural research does have limitations: Smith and Bond- if a study is being replicated in another culture, the instructions/ questions etc need to be translated but translations are never completely accurate so they’d all be recieving sightly different instructions so results can’t be directly compared so it may lack validity
15
Q
Holism AO1
A
- holism emphasises the importance of considering human behaviour as a whole, taking into account all contributing factors (psyc is considered more holistic than biology or chemistry)
16
Q
Holism AO3
A
- W: lacks scientific rigour: e.g. humanistic psyc lacks empirical evidence, if we say behaviour is cause by a range of factors, it is hardy to study them and establish a cause to treat (e.g. depression)
17
Q
Reductionism AO1
A
- reductionism= understanding behaviour by breaking it down into component parts
- biological reductionism= explains behaviour through biology: genetic, neural and evolutionary theories
- environmental/ stimulus response reductionism= behaviourist approach explains behaviour in stimulus response relationships
levels of explanation:
1. social and cultural level: e.g. depression is a result of the recession
2. psychological level: behaviours are a result of cognitions/ thought processes, e.g. depression is a result of negative thoughts about the self, world and future
3. biological level: genetics, neurochemistry and brain structure, e.g. depression is a result of low serotonin
18
Q
Reductionism AO3
A
- W: environmental reductionism may be inapproperiate- early behaviourist work used animals for theories about conditioning e.g. Pavlov’s dogs and Skinner’s rats
-from a holistic POV, animals don’t interact with thier social and cultural environment in the same way as humans, we need to look at the bigger picture - S: reductionism has helped psyc as a science- experimental approach (IV and DV, cause and effect)= objectivity= reliability
-W: doesn’t always apply to real life situations: Loftus and Palmer used a lab study to investigate leading questuons but their findings weren’t supported by real-life research Yuille and Cutshall
- S: practical applications- drug therapies for mental illnesses like depression
19
Q
Ethical issues and implications AO1
A
- ethical issues= arise when then is a conflict between the needs of the researcher and the rights of the participant
- ethical implications= impacts of psychological research on wider society
- ways to overcome the issues and implications=
1. submit proposals to ethics boards and follow recommendations
2. cost-benefit analysis
3. be alert to the misuse of findings
4. consider the participants nd misuse of findings before the research takes place - Sieber and Stanley: identified 4 aspects of the scientific process that may raise ethical issues-
1. research question- how it is phrased
2. methodology- e.g. informed consent/ deception
3. institutional context- who is funding the research, could they misuse the findings
4. interpretation and application of findings- could the data inform social policy, could it reinforce stereotypes? - socially sensitive research= research that has ethical implications beyond the research situation- affects wider groups in society (such as subgroups of cultures like ethnic minorities)
20
Q
Ethical issues and implications AO3
A
- W: current ethical guidelines may be too limited- they consider p’s but not wider society, this can affect those who the p’s represent. This coul be dealt with by engaging with the wider impacts such as publication, media, policy makers
- S: there are ways to reduce SSR- e.g. by using a cost-benefit analysis, this ensures that the research is as ethically sensitive as it can be BEFORE it is conducted
-HOWEVER: cost-benefit analyses are subjective and it can be imposible to predict how findings might be used/ misused - W: to deal with ethical issues, just avoid certain research- about race, gender, mental health etc, HOWEVER this would rule out a lot of important research that may also have positive impacts
- S: there are benefits of SSR: studying sensitive topics leads to greater understanding, this can help overcome stereotypes, furthermore it can be beneficial for society (e.g. research into EWT has helped limit the miscarriage of justice)
