Issues & Debates

AQA - A Level Psychology - Issues and Debates

Bias: Key Concepts

Universality - Any underlying characteristic that is true for all people

Culture Bias

Gender Bias

Gender Bias: Key Concepts

Beta Bias

Alpha Bias
- Androcentrism
- Gynocentrism

Beta Bias: Definition, Example & Issue

Exaggerating similarity between men & women

Fight or Flight (only males studied)

Misrepresents one of the genders

Alpha Bias: Definition, Example & Issue

Exaggerating or overestimating differences between men & women

Psychodynamic Approach

Theories devalue one gender in comparison to the other

Androcentrism

Taking male behaviour as the accepted norm

Regarding female thinking as deviant, inferior or abnormal if it is different

Gynocentrism

Taking female behaviour as the accepted norm

Regarding male thinking as deviant, inferior or abnormal if it is different

Implications of Gender Bias

- Scientifically misleading research

- Sexism in research process

+ Reflexivity

Gender Bias: Research Issues

Scientifically misleading research → Upholds or fails to challenge stereotypical assumptions → Validating discrimination → May provide scientific ‘justification’ to deny women opportunities within the workplace

Gender Bias: Research Process

Promotes sexism in research process → lack of females appointed at senior research level → female concerns not reflected
Male researchers and gender differences more likely to be published

Institutional sexism

Gender Bias: Reflexivity

Modern researchers recognise effect of their values
Embrace as a crucial & critical part of research
May leader to greater awareness of role of personal bias

Culture Bias: Key Concepts

Cultural Bias

WEIRD sample

Ethnocentrism

Emic Behaviours

Etic Behaviours

Imposed Etics

Cultural Relativism

WEIRD Sample

White, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic

Cultural Bias: Definition & Issue

A tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all behaviour through the norms of your own culture

Leads to misinterpretation of behaviour

Ethnocentrism: Definition, Example & Issue

Culture bias leading to belief in the superiority of your own culture, causing discrimination to other cultures, seeing them as deficient or underdeveloped

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation - inappropriately negative language

Prejudice and Misinterpretations

Emic vs Etic Behaviours

Emic - specific to a culture

Etic - universal

Imposed Etics: Definition, Example & Issue

When emics and etics get mistaken for each other

Strange Situation - saw lack of affection as insecure attachment for UK whereas in Germany it’s a sign of independence

Misunderstanding and misinterpretation of behaviours

Cultural Relativism: Definition, Example & Issue

The idea that norms and values can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural

Diagnosis of mental health disorders -
Cochrane (1995): African-Carribbean immigrants are 7x more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness (12x more for schizophrenia)
DCM/ICD may lack validity for diagnosing those outside of the culture they’re created in

Avoids cultural bias but limits universality

Cultural Bias: Evaluation as an Unsolvable Issue

- Individual/Collectivist Cultures
Value different ideals (personal freedom vs interdependence) so no comparable for origins of behaviours → ethnocentrism or imposed etics

- Cross Cultural difficulties
Researchers may be unable to relinquish their own worldview which may bias interpretations
Barriers of communication (reliance on interpreters & translated materials)
Unfamiliarity with research traditions leads to demand characteristics

+ Reduced issue due to increasing global outreach and social media
Lines between individualist & collectivist behaviours becoming blurred
Takano & Osaka: no evidence of individualist v. collectivist differences in behaviour

Types of Determinism

Hard determinism (fatalism) - caused by factors which we have no control over

Soft determinism - caused by internal or external factors bu we still exercise a limited amount of choice

Biological Determinism

Environmental Determinism

Psychic Determinism

Arguments for & against the free will stance

+ Free will is intuitively correct
We know behaviour can be unpredictable and this should be incorporated

- Free will is unfalsifiable
Cannot be tested in an experimental way so makes research and theory irrelevant

Arguments For & Against the Determinist Stance

+ Scientifics emphasis on causal explanations

- Ethical Implications (Bradley Waldroup)

Nature/Nurture: Key Concepts

Nature (Nativists): Result of genes and biological factors

Nurture (Empiricists): Humans as ‘blank slates’ shaped by prenatal and postnatal environment interactions

Relative Importance

Concordane
Heritability
Twin studies
Adoption studies

Nature/Nurture Debate: Points for Interactionist Stance

Diathesis Stress Model

Epigenetics

Constructivism

Nature/Nurture: Epigenetics

Lifestyle & events leave ‘epigenetic marks’ on our DNA

Stay in our genes and can be passed down

Can tell our bodies which genes can switch into high or low function if triggered

Nature/Nurture: Constructivism

People create their own nurture by seeking and selecting environments that suit their nature

Plomin (1994): niche building

Illogical and impossible to try to seperate influences

Holism/Reductionism: Key Concepts

Holism - whole is greated than the sum of the parts

Reductionism - breaking down
Parsimony - all phenomena should be explained using the simplest principles

Levels of Explanation (high to low): Social & Cultural, Psychological (Cognitive/Behavioural), Biological

Types of Reductionism: Biological, Environmental, Experimental, Machine

Holism: Evaluation

+ Best way to study social influence (conformity, deindividuation etc) as requires context

- Rigourous scientific testing and pinpointting causeis difficult, lacks practical value

Reductionism: Evaluation

+ For scientific research, variables need to be operationalised
Gives credibility

- Oversimplifies complex phenomena so lacks validity
Fails to explain why, only how

Idiographic/Nomothetic: Key Concepts

Nomothetic- study as a species

Idiographic- Believe in uniqueness of individuals, use case studies

Idiographic: Evaluations

+ In depth, qualitative methods provide complete account

+ Adds detailed understanding and detail of experience

+ Appropriate in specific cases of unusual behaviours

- Only a narrow restricted view

- No meaningful generalisations can be made without further validation

- Relies on subjective interpretation

Nomothetic: Evaluation

+ More scientific

+ Can be repeated so can find reliability

+ Processes have enabled psychologists. to establish norms of ‘typical’ behaviour

- Accused of ‘losing the whole person’

- In experiments, ppts seen as results rather than individuals

Ethical Issues: Key Concepts

BPS Ethical Guidelines

Ethical Implications - impact that research may have

Socially Sensitive Researcg - studies where there are potential social consequences

3 Implications

Socially Sensitive Implications

Implications for the Research Question - asking questions like ‘Are Germans different?’

Implications in Dealing with Participants - are ppts or friends/family affected long time by findings?

Implications in Findings Used

Ethical Implications: Evaluation

+ Socially sensitive research could benefit the groups being studied
Kinsey: 5000 anon. interviews with men about sexual behaviour and concluded homosexuality is a normal variant
Importance of tackling socially sensitive topics
Cost-benefit analysis must be done before publication

- Poor research design may have long term impact
Example: Poorly constructed IQ tests leading to educational opportunities (11+ exams) shown to be unfair but long term impacts remained
Needs to be designed with care