issues and debates in psychology

gender and culture in psychology: gender bias

universality and what threatens and limits it 

universality: any underlying characteristic of humans that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing. gender bias and culture bias (any bias) threaten this concept in psychology, as bias means theories will lean towards a subjective view that doesnt necessarily reflect the objective reality due to research bias.

gender bias

alpha bias

psychological research that exaggerates differences is alpha biased.

gender bias

beta bias

gender bias

androcentrism

gender bias

evaluation: strengths

gender bias

evaluation: limitations

free will and determinism debate

-is our behaviour a matter of free will (selected without constraint) or are we the product of a set of internal and/or external influences that determine who we are and what we do?

most approaches are determinist to some extent but disagree on the precise causes of human behaviour, where the humanistic approach embraces the concept of free will.

free will

-the notion that human beings are self-determining and free to choose their own thoughts and actions. a belief in free will doesnt deny the biological and environmental forces that exert some influence on our behaviour, but nevertheless implies that we can reject these forces if we wish. belief is advocates by the humanistic approach

determinism

proposes free will has no place in explaining behaviour, because we have no choice in our thoughts and actions.

-hard determinism: suggests all human behaviour and thought has a cause and dictated by internal or external forces of which we have no control over, therefore free will is impossible.

-soft determinism: all human behaviour has determining factors but with some room for choice (eg the cognitive approach) - whilst it might be the job of the scientist to explain what determines behaviour, it doesnt detract from the freedom that we have to make rational conscious choices in everyday situations.

types of determinism

biological determinism (hard determinism): all behaviour is innate and determined by genes, brain physiology and biochemistry. physiological and neurological processes in the body influence behaviour in certain situations (arent under our conscious control), eg the influence of auomatic nervous system. emphasises role of biological determinism in behaviour

environmental determinism: skinner described free will as an ‘illusion’ and argued all behaviour is the result and sum total of all past conditioning and reinforcement that influences us. our behaviour is shaped by environmental events and agents of socialising (parents and teachers etc)

psychic determinism: freud believed free will was an ‘illusion’ but emphasises the influence of biological drives and instincts. he saw behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood. no believed no such accidents only parapraxes.

the scientific emphasis on causal explanations

a basic principle of science is that every event in the universe has a cause and that cause can be explained using general laws (hard determinism).

free will and determinism debate

evaluation: strengths

free will has practical value: thinking we exercise free choice can improve our mental health; study by rebecca roberts et al (2000) looked at adolescents who had strong belief in fatalism: that their lives were decided by events out of their control

free will and determinism debate

evaluation: limitations