Issues and Debates

Issues and Debates AQA Psychology

What is gender bias?

The differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences. Usually affects women.

What does gender bias undermine?

Psychology's claim to universality - the aim of developing theories in psychology that apply to all people regardless of time or culture.

What are 2 facts supporting institutional sexism in psychology?

Less women at senior research level
Burden et al (2007) - publication bias against women

What is alpha bias?

Exaggerates differences between sexes. More likely to devalue women

Example study of alpha bias?

Wilson (1975) - explained human sexual behaviour through "survival efficiency" which suggests it the males interest to mate as much as possible to increase chance of genes being passed on. Women should pass their genes on by ensuring offspring survive. Sexual promiscuity in men is genetically determined

What is beta bias?

Theories that ignore or minimise differences between the sexes. Occurs when women aren't part of the research process. It's assumed findings apply to both sexes.

Example studies of beta bias?

Asch + Milgram both only used men to find conclusions about social conformity. Would women behave the same?

What is a consequence of beta bias?

Androcentrism - if our understanding of normal behaviour comes from the findings of men

Examples of gender bias in psychology - social influence

Asch + Milgram studies only used male ppts and it was assumed findings apply to women as well- beta bias.

Examples of gender bias in psych - psychodynamic approach

Oedipus complex and the conflict caused by it is greater (according to Freud) than the Electra complex conflict for girls - boys identify w/ dad more due to this and have a stronger sense of morality and identity than women. Alpha bias.

What is universality

Any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all cultures.

Evaluating gender bias - important real life implications

Gender bias in psychological research has important real life apps.

Bern (1994) argued that through AB female differences were often transformed into female disadvantages.

This propagates a negative stereotype of women which has serious consequences for womens lives eg may lead to sexism.

Evaluating gender bias - difficult to overcome

GB may be difficult to overcome as theres sexism in the research process

In lab experiments

Evaluating gender bias - feminist criteria suggested to avoid it

Feminists have suggested a number of criteria that should be met in order to avoid gender bias in research.

Judith Worrel and Pamela Remer (1992) have put forward criteria that should be adhered to in order to avoid gender bias in research.

Women in IRL contexts

What is cultural bias?

The tendency to judge people in terms of one's own cultural assumptions. Takes the same 2 forms as gender bias.

Example of cultural bias - social influence

Asch + Milgrams studies were conducted with US participants so the findings may not apply to a different culture.

Example of cultural bias - Ainsworth SS

Assumed attachment styles were the same internationally

What is ethnocentrism?

Judging other cultures by the standards and values of ones own culture. In its extreme form

What's an emic?

Research done within a culture (more culturally relative) eg the Romanian Orphan study (Rutter et al)

What's an etic?

Research from the outside of a culture eg Ainsworth

What's an imposed etic

Where a technique/theory is developed in one culture and imposed on another

Ainsworth: Imposed Etic

Developed theories about attachment in the USA then imposed that on other cultures.

IQ tests and Wober: imposed etic

Psychologists used IQ tests made in western cultures to study intelligence in many other cultures

What is cultural relativism?

the practice of judging a culture by its own standards

Example of culture bias from abnormal psychology - schizophrenia

When native Americans experience hallucinations/visions they're thought to have powers

Evaluating culture bias - conducting cross cultural research challenges western ways of thinking

A benefit is that having cross cultural research challenges our assumptions and western ways of thinking.

Much research is carried out from an individualist perspective

Evaluating culture bias - limitation of research into CB: diff between individualist and collectivist culture may be too simplistic and outdated

Eg research by Takano and Osaka (1999) foun that in 14 out of 15 studies which made comparisons between the USA and Japan

Evaluating culture bias - limitation of culturally relative approach

May overlook universal aspects of behaviour

Ekman (1989) suggests facial expressions are the same and understood all across the world

Evaluating cultural bias - difficulty w conducting research in different cultures

Difficult to operationalise all the variables being measured.

Variables may not be experienced in the same way by all ppts

What is free will?

The belief that we have the ability to act freely and make our own decisions

What does the humanistic approach argue about free will?

It is a necessary part of what it means to be human.

What is determinism?

Individuals behaviour is controlled by internal/external forces

What is environmental determinism?

Behaviour is caused by features of the environment (eg systems of reward and punishment) that we cant control.

What is biological determinism?

Behaviour is caused by biological influences that we cannot control (genes

What is psychic determinism?

Behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control. We cant access our unconscious

What is hard determinism?

All human behaviour has a cause

What is soft determinism?

All human action has a cause but this allows some room for conscious choice

What type of determinism is in the biological approach?

Hard + biological

Claims behaviour is determined by biology

What type of determinism is in the behaviourist approach?

Hard + environmental

Behaviour determined by experiences thru classical and operant conditioning

What type of determinism is in the cognitive approach?

Soft.

Human behaviour does have a cause

What type of determinism is in the social learning theory?

Soft.

We're determined by environmental factors yet cognitively choose which actions we store and imitate. Bandura proved this with the bobo doll study - environmental factors are important but we are free to choose what we pay attention to.

What type of determinism is in the psychodynamic approach?

Hard + psychic.

Persona behaviour is determined by their unconscious motives

What type of determinism is in the humanistic approach?

None. Free will.

We make choices concerning thoughts and behaviour. Some internal and external forces may influence us but we can control or ignore them. Eg Roger's client centred therapy believes that people are free to control their own lives.

Why is determinism more scientific than free will?

Establishes cause and effect- causality allows us to look for general laws

The case for determinism: science

Consistent with the aims of science

The case for determinism: mental disorders where people experience loss of control

Eg OCD and schizophrenia.
People cannot control their behaviour or thoughts

The case against determinism: not consistent with legal system

Hard determinism states individual choice isn't the cause of behaviour. But how can we say someone's committed a crime?
If bio determinism was used as a legal defence this would impact the legal system- is it right to punish someone for things that are out of their control?
(Stephen Mobley tried to appeal his death sentence by saying he'd inherited a criminal gene)

The case against determinism: unfalsifiable

Something has to be falsifiable to be scientific. Based on the idea that causes of behaviour always exist

Case for free will: face validity

It has face validity- it makes cognitive sense

The case for free will: supported by the humanistic view

Maslow and Rogers humanistic view supports the idea of free will

The case for free will: mental health

People who have an internal locus of control are found to be more mentally healthy (Roberts 2000)

The case against free will: Libet et al 1983

Found that the brain activity that determines the outcome of our decisions happens before we are aware we've made a choice.
He found this by asking ppts to push a button when they felt like it. Motor regions of brain were active before they registered conscious awareness of decision to push the button.
Biological determinism

Nature-nurture debate background

Argument over whether a persons behaviour is mainly due to genes or more to environmental influences. Descartes argued some characteristics are innate and hereditary. Locke argued the mind is like a blank slate upon which learning and experience write and shape. Nowadays it is more about gaining an understanding of how genetics work within the environment (interactionist approach).

What is the heredity coefficient?

Used to assess heredity

Nature

Behaviour is viewed as the product of innate/internal biological forces. Traits can be passed onto offspring (hereditary).
Genetic explanations - often study concordance between identical twins

Nurture

Behaviour is a product of environmental influences

The interactionist approach

The nature-nurture debate is impossible to answer because environmental influence in a child's life begins as soon as it is born and nature and nurture are linked to such an extent it isn't logical to separate them.
Eg in twin studies it's difficult to tell whether high concordance rates are the result of shared genetics or shared upbringing.
The interactionist approach includes both nature and nurture factors.

Interactionist approach - diathesis-stress model

The diathesis stress model says that both a biological/genetic vulnerability (diathesis) to a condition and a usually environmental stress trigger are necessary for a person to develop the condition.
Tienari et al - found in a group of Finnish adoptees those most likely to develop SZ had bio relatives with a history of the disorder (vulnerability) and relationships with their adoptive families that were defined as dysfunctional (trigger)

Interactionist approach - epigenetics

A change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code. Happens throughout life and is caused by environmental interaction. Aspects of lifestyle and events for example smoking or pollution or war leave epigenetic marks on our DNA. These may influence genetic codes of children etc. This introduces a third element into the nature-nurture debate - the life experience of previous generations.
Dias + Ressler (2014) gave lab mice electric shocks every time they were exposed to the smell of a chemical used in perfume (acetophenone). The mice showed a fear reaction when the scent was presented. The rats children and grandchildren also feared the smell.

Nature and nurture in attachment

Nature - critical periods
Nurture - cupboard love
(Add more detail when proper revising)

Nature and nurture in depression (psychopathology)

Nature - can be treated with antidepressants + the role of neurotransmitters
Nurture - reactive depression + beck and ellis' models

(Add more detail when properly revising)

Nature/nurture A03: serious implications for both nativist (nature) and empiricist (nurture) views

Nature takes an extreme determinist view in the belief that "anatomy is destiny". This has led to controversy such as that which attempted to link race

Nature/nurture A03: nature and nurture are impossible to separate.

Even siblings raised in the same family may not have experienced the same upbringing. Dunn + Plomin introduced the idea of shared and unshared environments. Suggests individual differences means siblings may experience life events differently eg age/temperament affecting the way they react to something like a parental divorce. This would explain the finding that even MZ twins raised together do not show perfect concordance rates which supports the view that heredity and the environment cant be meaningfully separated.

Nature/nurture A03: constructivism

The notion that genes and environment interact. People create their own nurture by actively selecting environments that are appropriate to their nature. Therefore a naturally aggressive child is likely to feel more comfortable around children who show similar behaviours and will choose their environment accordingly. This environment then affects their development.
Plomin refers to this as niche picking and niche building. Impossible and illogical to separate n+n influence on someone's behaviour.

Nature/nurture A03: genotype-environment interaction

Scarr & McCartney - put forward a theory of gene-environment interaction that includes three types. Passive interaction is where the parents genes influence the way they treat their children (eg musically gifted parents are likely to play to their children and encourage engagement with music). Evocative interaction is where the child's genes influence and shape the environment in which they grow up (the musically talented child will be picked for school concerts and given other special opportunities). Active interaction is where the child creates its own environment through the people and experiences it selects (the child itself chooses similar musically talented friends and seeks out musical experiences).
This points to a complex and multi layered relationship between n+n

What is holism?

The view that the best way to understand the mind and behaviour is to take into consideration the person as a whole.

What is reductionism?

analysing behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts. The focus varies between different approaches

What are the 3 levels of explanation?

Social and cultural

Explain the cause of OCD from a number of different levels

Sociocultural: definitions of abnormality eg deviation from social norms eg obsessive hand washing- we consider these people abnormal

Psychological: obsessive thoughts can be explained at a cognitive level

What is biological reductionism?

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain social and psychological phenomena at a lower biological level

What is environmental reductionism?

The attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience. Does not consider cognitive processes.

The case for holism: takes context into account

gives more complete understanding

The case against holism: difficult to test scientifically

Humanistic psychology lacks empirical evidence

The case against holism: harder to apply to real world problems

Higher level explanations which combine different perspectives suggest there are several factors which contribute to disorders like OCD and depression.
This makes it difficult to know what the best approach to treatment would be.
Therefore holism isn't as easy to apply to real world problems.

The case for reductionism: allows scientific research to be conducted

To create operationalised variables we must break behaviour down into its constituent parts. Reductionist investigations mean we can identify an IV and control EVs. We can establish cause and affect relationships.
Reductionism has given psychology scientific credibility.

The case for reductionism: parsimony

Based on the scientific assumption of parsimony- complex phenomena should be explained by the simplest underlying principles possible.

The case for reductionism: led to research with practical applications

Biological reductionism led to development of biological therapies like SSRIs which are more effective than placebos in treating symptoms of OCD (Soomro et al 2008)

The case against reductionism: oversimplifies complex behaviours

Explanations that only consider genes or neurotransmitters are biologically reductionist and do not consider the social context in which the behaviour occurs. Reductionist explanations of attachment also oversimplify the process

The idiographic approach

Attempts to describe the nature of the individual. People are studied as unique entities

Examples of the idiographic approach in psychology

Psychodynamic - case studies like little Hans

The nomothetic approach

The aim is to produce general laws of human behaviour. They provide a benchmark against which people can be compared

Examples of the nomothetic approach in psychology

Behaviourist - skinners studies
Biological - brain scans on human brains to find out things like localisation.
Memory - multi store and working memory models
Attachment - internal working model Bowlby

+ idiographic approach A03: uses qualitative measures that give a full holistic understanding of the individual

Eg Little Hans or the case of HM. Extremely detailed and leads to higher validity because of the amount of qualitative data. We can use this to establish further theories and hypotheses on top of what we already have. Eg Little Hans helped us understand ore about development

- idiographic approach A03: subjective and cant be generalised

Narrow and restricted

+ idiographic approach A03: use of qualitative methods can help complement the nomothetic approach

Eg Shallice and Warrington - examined case of KF who had brain damage. His short term forgetting of auditory info was greater than his forgetting of visual

+ nomothetic approach A03: more scientific

Processes are more scientific like testing under standardised conditions and using data sets that provide group averages

- nomothetic approach A03: losing the whole person

The preoccupation with general laws

Ethical implications of research studies and theory

Ethical guidelines were established to help protect those involved in research. The social impact of research is harder to guide against. Researchers may have little say in how their findings are (mis)represented in the media and how it may influence our perception of particular groups in society.

Socially sensitive research

Any research that might have direct social consequences for the participants in the research or the group that they represent.
A study that examines cognitive processes involved in the LTM is unlikely to have far reaching consequences for those that take part or broader social groups

Ethical issues in socially sensitive research

Sieber & Stanley identified a number of concerns researchers should be mindful of
- implications: wider effects should be considered as some studies may be seen as giving scientific credence to prejudice and discrimination such as studies examining the racial basis of intelligence. Implications may however be difficult to predict.
Uses/public policy: what is the research likely to be used for and what would happen if it was used for the wrong purpose? This is related to the idea that findings may be adopted by the govt for political ends or to shape public policy.
Validity of research: some findings presented as objective in the past have turned out to be highly suspect and in some case fraudulent - Burt helped establish the 11+ exam in the UK but his research was made up and public assistants were invented. The 11+ still stands today. However many modern social constructionist researchers are more upfront about their own biases and preconceptions

Examples of socially sensitive research

Rosenhans sane in insane places
Ainsworth's attachment/Bowlby's monotropic theories
Lombroso's atavistic form
Racial link with IQ

+ benefits of socially sensitive research A03

Scarr argues studies of underrepresented groups and issues may promote a greater sensitivity and understanding of these. This can help reduce and encourage acceptance.
Socially sensitive research has also benefitted society

- socially sensitive research shouldn't be conducted as it can lead to discrimination A03

For example Burt carried out research into intelligence using identical twins who were separated early in life and raised apart. He concluded intelligence is mostly determined by genes. This can be used by the government to shape social policy and also discriminate against certain groups of people in society.

+ socially sensitive research can be conducted as long as researchers are careful - Seiber & Stanley

S&S argue researchers shouldn't shy away from socially sensitive research

- socially sensitive research can be used for social control

In America in the 1920s and 30s