Psychology - Issues and Debates

AO1: What is the Nomothetic approach

• tries to establish general laws of behaviour

• uses scientific and experimental techniques such as controlled lab experiments and structured interviews to collect quantitative data

• include behaviourist, social learning theory, biological and cognitive approaches

AO3 for Nomothetic Approach

✅Scientific so can predict and control behaviour → e.g. biological approach OCD explanation allowed development of SSRIs ∴ RWA

❌fails to understand why behaviours occur → e.g. 65% shocked with 450volts in Milgram’s study but there could have been different circumstances as to why ppt obeyed ∴ overlooks complexity of behaviour

AO1: What is the idiographic approach

• doesn’t try to establish general laws of behaviour and studies individual’s subjective experiences and behaviour

• uses unscientific and non-experimental techniques such as case studies, open ended questionnaires and unstructured interviews to collect qualitative data

• includes humanistic and psychodynamic approach

AO3 for idiographic approach

✅provides detailed qualitative data → e.g. using non scientific techniques provides insight to complexity of human behaviour, complete and meaningful understanding of behaviour

❌subjective → e.g. Freuds Little Hans case study lacks reliability and is open to bias

Gender and culture: Gender bias

Define universality

• characteristics in humans that can be applied to all despite differences in upbringing or experiences

define gender bias

• researcher’s stereotypical views on males and females may affect theoretical assumptions

• views do not justifiably represent behaviour of men or women (usually women)

define alpha bias w/ example

• differences in men and women are exaggerated

• e.g. psychosexual development suggests women are morally inferior to men during phallic stage resolution

• (girls lack castration anxiety and thus identify less strongly with their mothers, leading to weaker superego)

define beta bias w/ example

• differences between men and women are minimised

• e.g. research on fight or flight is based on men, ignores women’s ‘tend and befriend’ response

define androcentrism

• ‘male centred’, when normal behaviour is judged according to male standard

• so female behaviour is seen to be ‘abnormal’ in comparison, leading to behaviour being misunderstood or pathogolised

how can gender bias be addressed

• positive discrimination → put women in senior roles

• compare differences between women rather than men and women

AO3 for gender bias

✅helpful to have an understanding of bias → e.g. lack of women in senior roles allows modern researchers to recognize effect their own assumptions has

❌gender bias promotes sexism → e.g. women are underrepresented in uni departments which increases gender bias, undermines psychology being universal

❌gender differences are given as fixed when they are not → fabricated study on women’s better ‘verbal ability’ and men’s better ‘spatial ability’ shows social stereotypes can be passed as biology due to gender bias

❌research challenging gender bias may not be published → when analysing 1000 studies, it was found they were less funded showing gender bias isnt taken seriously

define culture bias

• judging human behaviour based on one’s own culture, ignoring cultural differences

• e.g. Ainsworth’s strange situation

define ethnocentrism

• researcher’s believe their own culture is superior and use it as the standard when evaluating other cultures

define cultural relativism

• the idea that behaviour can only be understood within the context of the culture it occurs

how can culture bias be reduced

• don’t assume universal norms across cultures (use emic not etic approach)

• use researcher’s who are familiar with culture

• be sensitive to cultural norms when designing research and reporting findings

AO3 for cultural bias

✅bias can be reduced using reflexive approach → researchers are self aware and reflect on beliefs that can cause bias, increases validity of research

✅emergence of cultural psychology → reduces bias as researcher’s use emic approach, means modern researchers are mindful of the dangers of cultural bias and are taking steps to avoid it

❌findings may appear universal but are culture biased → e.g. Asch type experiments in collectivist cultures found higher rates of conformity than in individualist cultures, ↓ population validity

❌ethnic stereotyping → Ethnocentric IQ test done in US in WW1 where Europeans and African Americans scored lowest showing cultural bias can be used to justify prejudice + eugenic social policies towards certain ethnic groups

define hard and soft determinism

• hard → behaviour is determined by internal or external factors and humans have no free will

• soft → behaviour is partly determined by internal or external factors and partly free will (e.g. cognitive approach)

what are the types of determinism

• biological → behaviour is determined by biological factors we have no control over (e.g. hormone and neurotransmitter levels)

• psychic → behaviour is determined by unconscious & psychodynamic conflicts repressed in childhood we have no control over (e.g. id,ego,superego)

• environmental → behaviour is determined by environment and world experiences (e.g. SLT and behaviourism)

what is free will

• humans can consciously control behaviour and it isn’t determined by internal/external forces

AO3 for Free will and determinism

✅free will has practical value →Robert et al. found idea of exercising choice improves mental health as internal locus of control gives optimism

❌free will isn’t supported by brain scans, but determinism is → flicking wrist action shows unconscious decision occurs before conscious, showing our most basic experiences of free will are determined by our brain

counter: people become aware of actions a millisecond after meaning they have still made the decision to act, so this argument doesn’t hold substance for denying free will

❌determinism isn’t consistent with legal system → offenders are held responsible for actions on basis of free will, so in the real world, determinist arguments don’t work

what is the nature nurture debate

what is the interactionist approach

• debate about the relative importance of heredity and environment determining behaviour

• goes beyond assessing a relative importance of nature and nurture and suggests both actively interact and influence behaviour

define nature and nurture

• nature → nativists assumes human behaviour is innate and due to inherited influence (Rene Descartes)

• nurture → empiricists assume the mind is a blank slate upon learning from the environment (John Locke) 

what is diathesis stress model

what is epigenetics

• behaviour is caused by a biological vulnerability (diathesis) which is expressed only when paired with an environmental trigger (stressor)

• environment can influence genetic activity without affecting genes themselves

how can nature - nurture be measured

• heritability coefficient rate

• concordance → the degree to which two people are similar on a particular trait

AO3 for Nature vs nurture

✅RWA → heritability for OCD is 0.76 suggesting it is highly heritable so people with family history can receive education on likelihood and preventation of OCD ∴ practical value

✅epigenetics support → environment affects genes, in WW1 men died of starvation and their wives gave birth to low weight babies → nature and nurture intertwine

✅research support from adoption studies → allows to determine if behaviours are from nature, if adoptee is more similar to biological parents or nurture, if adoptee is more similar to adoptive parents

❌nature and nurture shouldn’t be studied individually → interactionist approach e.g. schizophrenia

what is reductionism

what is holism

• understanding a complex phenomena like behaviour and breaking it down to its most simple components

• studying human behaviour as a whole including internal and external factors

what are the types of reductionism

• biological → behaviour is reduced to biological factors

• environmental reductionism → behaviour is explained in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learnt through experience

what are the levels of explanation

• explanations vary from those at a lower level, focusing on basic components to a higher level which is holism

• the lowest level is biological, mid level is psychological explanations (includes environmental) and the highest level is socio-cultural

AO3 for holism vs reductionism debate

✅holism gives complete explanation → people with mental health disorders have valid understanding which provides support / ❌ lacks practical value, e.g. many factors influence behaviours like depression, so holistic approach makes it hard to know which is most influential & which to prioritise for treatment

✅reductionism is scientific → e.g. biological approach uses objective measures such as brain scans which increases internal validity and psychology’s credibility as a science, placing it on equal terms with natural sciences

✅reductionism has RWA for treatment → by reducing behaviour to biological elements, SSRIs for OCD has been developed, managing OCD

❌reductionism oversimplifies complexities of human behaviour → e.g. cognitive explanation to depression only explains reactive not endogenous depression, showing higher levels of explanation are needed