Issues and Debates comprehensive

This contains both AO1 and AO2 for all subtopics in issues and debates

What is Gender Bias?

When a gender is treated differently from the majority

What is Alpha Bias?

There are real differences between the two sexes however they are exaggerated

What is Beta Bias?

The differences between men and women are ignored and applying the results from studies to all genders

What is Universality Bias?

Results can be applied to everyone regardless of gender or culture

What were Freuds beliefs regarding gender?

• Females do not experience the phallic stage as they do not have a penis and therefore have no fear of castration

  • they experience less anxiety

• Have a underdeveloped superego and are inferior to males

What is Androcentrism?

When theories and behaviours are judged at a male standard. suggests that male behaviour is the norm

• leads to a male dominated society

Gender Bias AO3: limitation + counterpoint (biological differences)

• Biological differences are presented as fixed

• Gender sturdies by Maccoby and Jacklin have females have superior verbal abilities whereas males have superior spacial abilities and researchers suggested these differences are ‘hard wired from birth

• Study carried out Joel et al using brain scans found no such differences in brain structure or processing

• The study carried out by Maccoby and Jacklin may have been popularised because it fitted preexisting stereotypes showing we shouldn't accept all research.

• Counterpoint - However some research has fount that women are better at multitasking than men. Therefore research regarding gender differences shouldn't be ignored as there may be some biological differences.

Gender Bias AO3: limitation (Promotion of discrimination)

• Gender bias promotes sexism in the research process

• Women remain under represented especially in science

• This means research is likely to be conducted by men

• Therefore institutions may produce gender bias research

Gender Bias AO3: Limitation (Research challenging gender bias)

• Research challenging gender bias may not published

• Research to do with gender bias is funded less and published in less prestigious journals

• This means there is less awareness of gender bias

• Therefore there is less research on gender bias despite women being half of the population showing it is not being taken seriously enough

What is culture bias?

Ignoring cultural differences and Interpreting phenomena / results through ones own culture

What is Ethnocentrism?

When one culture thinks it is superior to others and therefore sees its behavioural standards as the norm which is applied to other cultures

What are examples of culturally bias research? (Cochrane and Sashidharan)

• Carried out culture bound research and suggested that African, Caribbean immigrants were 7 times more likely to have mental illness

  • However mental illness in different cultures are perceived differently

What are examples of culturally bias research? (Joseph Henrich)

• Reviewed 100 studies 65% came from the US and 96% came from industrialised nations

  • This means most research cannot be applied universally

What are examples of culturally bias research? (Brislin)

• Western cultures regard intelligence by who solves problems in the shortest time however this is not the case in all cultures

What is cultural relativism

• Behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture it originated in

What is the Emic Construct?

• Things that are specific to a given culture and vary from one culture to another. Behaviour is looked at from the inside of the culture system

What is Etic?

• Behaviour is analysed form the idea of universal where behaviour is looked at from outside the culture

  • Lack of this is imposed etic

Culture bias AO3: Strength (real world value)

• Culture bias can have real world value

• For example harmful stereotyping. The US army used IQ test that was designed for Americans on Europeans which made them seem as thought they had a lower IQ

• This can lead to negative attitudes towards Europeans e.g. discrimination

• This means research into culture bias has real world value ensuring people are made aware of cultural differences

Culture bias AO3: Strength (increased open-mindedness)

• Psychologists are more openminded

• There is now increased exchange of ideas between psychologists which helps to reduce ethnocentrism and allows understand of cultural relativism

• This leads to awareness of cultural diversity and the development of indigenous psychologists

• Therefore has practical value for research

Culture bias AO3: Limitation (Not enough recognition)

• Cultural bias should be recognised

• Smith and Bond found that 67% studies are American, 32% European and only 2% are the rest of the world

• This shows that psychological research is very unrepresentative hindering how we can generalise it and should be improved by selecting different cultural groups to study

Culture bias AO3: Limitation (Intellectual studies)

• Intelligence studies are usually culture bias

• Both Asch and Milgram used middle class white American men.

• When the studies were replicated in collectivist cultures the ppts tended to perform worse

• This is not a true representation of their intellectual ability and can lead to discrimination

What is free will?

The principle that humans can make their own choices and their behaviour is not determined by factors which cannot be controlled

What are the different types of determinism?

• Hard

• Soft

• Biological

• Environmental

• Psychic

What is hard determinism?

Also known as fatalism and is the principle that all behaviour is controlled by internal or external factors which are out of our control such as biology ➙ behaviour is not a choice.

What is soft determinism?

Human behaviour is due to an extent to internal or external factors but we do have some control ➙ e.g. the cognitive approach.

What is biological determinism?

The principle that most of our physiological and neurological processes are controlled by the autonomic nervous system.

What is environmental determinism?

The principle that the environment / nurture determines our behaviour through reinforcement or conditioning

What is psychic determinism?

Freud believed that free will is an illusion and that behaviour is a actually controlled by the unconscious

What is an advantage of determinism?

Scientific basis

• Determinism is an easy subject to study

• It is replicable and easy to measure in a scientific capacity

Free Will AO3: Strength (Justice system)

• The justice system is a huge support for free will

• For example, if criminal behaviour was deemed to be deterministic humans would go without punishment because it would be unethical to punish someone for something out of their control

• This means that crime would easily be blamed on uncontrollable factors

• Therefore humans must believe in free will to of developed the current justice system

Free Will AO3: Limitation (Testable)

• Free will is difficult to test

• For example there is a very small number of studies which support free will and the ones which do are subjective

• This means that free will as a theory for behaviour lacks empiricism as there is a lack of scientific basis

• Therefore free will is not a reliable explanation of behaviour

Determinism AO3: Strength (Science base)

• Determinism is science based

• This makes determinism easy to study for example studies which support determinism as a cause for behaviour use scientific scans

• This means that the results cam be evaluated and observed under controlled conditions by many researchers meaning that it is falsifiable and empirical

• Therefore there is increased reliability

Determinism AO3: Limitation (Justice system)

• Determinism does not work with the law

• For example if all criminal behaviour was due to determinism the entire justice system would be void

• This means humans must collectively believe in free will as an explanation for behaviour or current justice systems would need major reform

What is nature?

The principle that our behaviour is influenced by things we inherit.

• e.g. genetics ➙ the idea is that it is INATE (nativism)

What is nurture?

The principle that the environment influences our behaviour

How can nature and nurture be measured?

Concordance rate ➙ the degree to which if one family member has a trait that another family member will also have that trait.

What is the interactionist approach?

Behaviour arises from both genetics and the environment

What is the diathesis stress model?

• There is a gene which is making someone vulnerable to disorder

• The environment triggers the gene

What are epigenetics?

This is change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves

• This can happen through interaction with the environment which leaves marks on our DNA e.g. smoking

Nature vs nurture AO3: Strength (adoption studies)

• Adoption studies are a strength of the nature vs nurture debate

• These are useful because they separate nature from nurture an we can see whether the children are more similar to their biological parents or their adopted parents suggesting which had more influence nature or nurture

• Meta analysis showed that genetic influence accounted for 41% or aggressive behaviour

• Therefore these researches separate the debate and make it easier to study.

Nature vs nurture AO3: Counterpoint (adoption studies)

• However this approach may be misguided

• Nature and nurture may not be factors we can separate. Studies show that people create their own ‘nurture’ by selecting environments appropriate for their ‘nature’

• This means a more aggressive child may have felt more comfortable with other children who behaviour similarly and will be in their social group

• Therefore it doesn't make sense to test them separately and doing so might hinder validity

Nature vs nurture AO3: Strength (real world)

• There is real world application

• Research shows that OCD is a highly genetic mental disorder. The heritability rate is 76%

• This can help genetic counselling because it is important that high heritability rate does not make it inevitable but people who are vulnerable can receive advice.

• Therefore this is jot just a theoretical debate and can be useful in the real world

Nature vs nurture AO3: Strength (evidence to support)

• There is support for epigenetics

• Environmental effects can span generations for example woman who were pregnant during a famine due to the nazis blocking food to Dutch people went on to have low birth wight babies

• These babies were then twice as likely to have schizophrenia

• This supports the view that previous generational experiences can leave genetic marks on later generations

What is holism?

The principle that it is better to study an individual as a whole rather than each behaviour being seem differently

What is reductionism?

The principle that behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller counterparts

What is the reductionist hierarchy?

As we increase our understanding of psychology then principles at the top of the hierarchy will slowly be replaced by those at the bottom

What is a reductionist approach?

Psychological behaviours should be replaced by biological ones ➙ e.g. biological / cognitive psychology

Holism AO3: Strength (complete)

• Provides a more complete understanding for behaviour

• For example rather than over simplifying such complexities like behaviour psychologists are able to consider all causes for behaviour

• This provides a more global understanding of behaviour unlike reductionism

• Therefore has external validity

Holism AO3: Limitation (testable)

• Cannot be rigorously tested

• For example the holistic approach takes into account every possible cause for behaviour such as genetics, environment, childhood, cognition etc

• This means it would take too much time and expertise to test

• This causes the results to lack reliability and be speculative

Reductionism AO3: Strength (scientific)

• It is easier to test scientifically

• for example Bandura measured learnt behaviour and genes and this was found to cause OCD

• This means causes for behaviours can be established easier

• Therefore reductionism is more empirical

Reductionism AO3: Limitation (to simple)

• Reductionism oversimplifies behaviour

• For example Ellis’ ABC model states that mental disorders are first triggered by an activation event

• However this approach does not consider those who have a mental disorder which was not triggered by an activation event

• Therefore environmental reductionism fails to account for the complexities of behaviour

What is the ideographic approach and its features?

Focuses on how to describe the individual from their own experiences

• The individual is not compared to a norm or a standard

• Uses techniques such as interviews, case studies and is qualitative

• Subjective

What is the nomothetic approach and its features?

An approach which uses general laws of behaviour which are used to describe all human behaviour ➙ used as a standard to compare against

• Zimbardo, Milgram

• Scientific, lab based and quantitative, large sample, questionnaires

• Objective

Ideographic AO3: Strength (contribution)

• The ideographic approach contributes to the nomothetic approach

• Qualitative data from in-depth descriptions of a person helps to form hypotheses which when studied can form general laws of behaviour

• For example, patient HM was used to create the MSM which is now used to describe memory stores in all people

• The ideographic approach is practical and helps to form general laws

Ideographic AO3: Limitation (restricted)

• The ideographic approach is narrow and restricted

• Meaningful generalisations cannot be made without further examples as there is no adequate baseline in which we can compare behaviour to

• Case studies are not as scientific as controlled nomothetic studies and are much more subjective as they produce qualitative data e.g. Hanns

• `Therefore it is difficult to build general laws on behaviour from one person

Nomothetic AO3: Strength (science)

• Nomothetic approach fits with the aims of science

• The processes involved with nomothetic research are similar to those used in natural science e.g. establishing objectivity through standardisation, control and statistical testing

• The triangulation approach (studying a topic using multiple methods, sources, or perspectives to get a more complete and accurate understanding) is often used

• This increases the validity

Nomothetic AO3: Limitation (lack of focus on individual)

• The nomothetic approach loses understanding of the individual

• We know that there is a 1% chance of developing schizophrenia in a lifetime however we know little of what is like to live with it

• Therefore it is hard to specialise treatment for everyone

• The nomothetic approach fails to relate to experience

What kinds of research have had large impacts?

• Bowlby’s research on MD which allowed him to sit on the WHO board

  • Mothers were given higher custody

  • No free childcare

What must psychologists be careful of?

• Psychologists have a responsibility to carry out research which may be difficult but they should not publish it due to discrimination

Ethical Implications AO3: Strength (research socially sensitive topics)

• There are good reasons why socially sensitive research should be carried out

• Homosexuality in DSM-1 1952 was labelled ‘sociopathic personality disorder’

• This was removed in 1973 due to the Kingsley report with questionnaires regarding men and their sexual behaviour. This also included 6000 interviews from women

• This highlights the importance of socially sensitive research

Ethical Implications AO3: Strength (reliance on socially sensitive research)

• Policy makers rely on research which is socially sensitive

• The government looks to research when developing social policies this includes decisions regarding child care, health care and education

• The ONS collects data on the economy, society and population

• Psychologists are needed to provide this data and analyse it

Ethical Implications AO3: Limitation (consequences)

• Some research has negative consequences

• Research which investigates to general basis of criminality has found that there is a ‘criminal gene’

• If we disregard free will as a cause for behaviour the judiciary system becomes void and people will not be able to be punished for their behaviour

• Psychologists must take careful consideration before publishing research

Ethical Implications AO3: Limitation (erroneous findings)

• Poor research design can lead to erroneous findings

• Burt stated that IQ was genetic and so an exam was created which determined which school children can go to

• This created negative long0term impacts e.g. still exists today and can cause discrimination

• Research should be carried out with care