Issues And Debates

When does Gender Bias occur?

When one gender is treated less favourably than the other, often referred to as sexism.

What are consequences of Gender Bias?

• Scientifically Misleading

• Upholding stereotypical assumptions

• Validating sex discrimination

What is Universality?

Any underlying characteristics of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing. Gender Bias and Culture Bias threaten the universality of findings in psychology.

What is Alpha Bias?

Exaggeration or overestimation of differences between sexes. Women are usually devalued in relation to males.

What is Beta Bias?

Contrast to alpha bias - this bias minimises differences between sexes. Usually occurs when females are not part of the sample and the findings are assumed to generalise to both sexes.

What is Androcentrism?

A consequence of Beta Bias. Male centred - ‘normal’ behaviours are judged to a male standard. Judging normal behaviours by a male standard means that behaviours that deviate from this norm may be classified as abnormal.

What is a positive consequence of Alpha Bias?

Has led to a healthy criticism of cultural values that praise certain ‘male’ qualities e.g aggression as desirable.

What is a negative consequence of Alpha Bias?

Ignores differences within genders e.g women differ from each other. Can sustain stereotypes + prejudices.

What is a positive consequence of Beta Bias?

Has led to equal treatment of men and women in terms of access to employment and education.

What is a negative consequence of Beta Bias?

Draws attention away from the differences in power between men and women.

What is Reflexivity?

Researchers recognise the effect of their own values and assumptions about gender on their work. They use this as a crucial discussion point in their findings. it helps to highlight and acknowledge gender bias.

What is Essentialism?

The view that gender bias is inevitable and unavoidable. Often used to disguise political arguments as facts e.g research suggesting women should not go to university as it will cause their ovaries to shrivel up.

What are Implications for everyday life?

Gender biased research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour and validate discriminatory practices. Provides scientific justification for gender bias.

What is a limitation of Gender Bias?

• Ideas are unchallenged

• Issues of gender bias are often unchallenged e.g Darwin’s theory of sexual selection (women are more selective in choosing mates)

• Only recently challenged by new DNA and analysis.

What is a Strength of Gender Bias? (Better understanding)

• Recent years has seen a better understanding of gender bias, some theories focus on the importance of women

• E.g. Cornwell et al (2013) women are better learners as they are more attentive

What is another strength of Gender Bias? (Feminist approach)

• Feminist Approach

• Other theorists have taken a Feminist approach, feminist psychology accepts there are biological differences between men and women

• Eagly (1978) stated that men are better leaders than women, but the point of the research was to develop training programmes to increase the number of female leaders in the world.

What is one more strength of Gender Bias? (Changes in society + psych)

• Changes in society and psychology

• Have led to different methodologies used and in the earlier theories proposed

• Gilligan proposed that women have a different moral understanding than men

• She stated that neither was better than the other, but just that they were different.

What is Culture Bias?

A tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the lens of one’s culture.

What is Ethnocentrism?

• The belief in the superiority of one’s own cultural group

• In psychology ethnocentrism can result in the belief that any behaviour that does not conform to the modern culture (usually western) can be deemed as deficient.

What is Cultural Relativism?

• Phenomena discovered in psychology may only make sense from the perspective of the culture within which they were discovered (emic approach)

• Acknowledging this can avoid cultural bias in research

• A lot of the time research involves an imposed etic - researchers outside of a culture attempt to describe behaviours within the culture and then apple these finding universally.

What is an Emic Approach?

The investigation of a culture from within the culture itself.

What is an Etic Construct?

A theoretical idea that is assumed to apply in all cultural groups. Assumes that most human behaviour is common to humans but cultural factors influence the development of this behaviour.

What is a limitation of Culture Bias?

• Variables are operationalised across cultures

• When conducting research in different cultures, operationalised variables may not be experienced the same by all ppts

• For example, the invasion of personal space in the UK would be seen as anti-social and threatening, whereas in China it would be seen as normal

• These issues may affect interactions between researcher and ppts and affect the interpretation of behaviours in research and reduce validity.

What is another limitation of Culture Bias?

• Familiarity with research traditions can influence findings

• This isn’t the same for all cultures and assuming this is ethnocentric

• therefore, demand characteristics may be exaggerated when working with members of the local population and can have an impact on the validity of research findings.

What is a strength of Culture Bias?

• Individualism and collectivism are less distinct

• critics have suggested that in this age of global communication and increased interconnectedness, a simplistic distinction between individualism and collectivism no longer applies

• Takano and Osaka found that 14 out of 15 studies that compared the USA and Japan found no evidence of the traditional distinction between differing cultures

• this suggests that cultural bias in research is less of an issue as it one was.

What are Ethical Implications?

The impact psychological research may have in terms of the rights of other people, especially social sensitivity.

What do Ethical Implications include?

The influence of research findings on public policy and the way in which certain groups of people are regarded.

Do researchers have control over the research process?

Yes, but they will have little say in terms of how their research findings are represented in the media or the way their work impacts public policy or how their work represents a specific group of people.

What is Social Sensitivity?

Studies in which there are potential consequences or implications either directly for the ppts in the research or the target population represented by the research.

What type of research can be socially sensitive?

Gender or race

Why should more socially sensitive research be carried out?

It is important to tackle social issues

What is one group that may be affected by psychological research? (members of a group)

Members of the social group being studied such as racial or ethnic groups

What is a second group that may be affected by psychological research? ( R of people taking part)

Friends and relatives of those taking part in the study

What is a third group that may be affected by psychological research? (team)

The research team. there are examples of researchers being intimidated because of the line of research they are in.

What is a fourth group that may be affected by psychological research? (place)

The institution in which the research is conducted.

What is an ethical concern when considering SSR?

Implications - the wider effects of research

What is another ethical concern when considering SSR?

Uses/public policy - what is the research going to be used for?

What is a third ethical concern when considering SSR?

The validity of the research - researchers need to be critical and open with their research and the biases/preconceptions that could influence the findings need to be reflexive.

What is a strength of SSR? (beneficial)

• Beneficial to society and helped raise awareness of marginalised social groups

• this has allowed the public to gain a better understanding of issues such as race and gender, while simultaneously reducing prejudice

• for example, research looking at EWT can be considered as SSR as it may be a determining factor in whether someone goes to prison

• therefore this has changed the way that EWT is used in the justice system and demonstrates the value that SSR has.

What is another strength of SSR? (focused on other issues)

• Focused on other issues such as inequalities in gender, race and sexuality

• this research helps us gain a greater understanding of different social groups and reduce prejudice

• similarly, most psychological research is still carried out on white middle class americans. SSR is helping to redress the balance and make us more aware of other cultures and outlooks

• this highlights the benefits of SSR and the need for it to continue

• furthermore SSR is the most scrutinised research in psychology.

What is a limitation of SSR?

• used to dictate social policy and put certain groups at a disadvantage

• for example, eugenics research was used to justify the sterilisation of up to 80,000 people in the USA because they were of low intelligence or criminal etc

• this was widely supported by the scientific and psychological community research such as Goddard’s race and IQ research has been used to reinforce negative racial stereotypes

• therefore this highlights the damaging ehtical implications that SSR can have on individuals being studied and questions whether SSR should be allowed at all

• however, the guidelines used by psychologists to control SSR lack power and as a result are unable to prevent indefensible research being carried out

What is an example of SSR? (Hamer)

Hamer carried out genetic studies of gay men, suggested homosexuality influenced by genetics and not a choice. Aiming to reduce negative stereotypes.

What is an example of SSR? (Raine)

Brain scans of criminals show certain damage in area linked to impulse control. Suggested children screened for this and ‘something be done about it’.

What's an example of SSR? (Lowney)

Studied group of teenage satanists - found their behaviour mainly consisted of listening to music, underage drinking and drug taking – suggesting they are similar to other teenagers reducing negative stereotypes.

What's an example of SSR? (Humphreys)

Studied practices of gay men meeting in toilets for sex. took their number plates to find where they live and study their lies. found most of the stereotypes to be false and sexual practices not harmful- reducing negative stereotypes.

What is Hard Determinism?

• Known as fatalism – quite an extreme view

• All behaviour has a cause and we should be able to identify the cause to all behaviours

• Everything we think and do is due to internal or external forces that we cannot control

What is Soft Determinism?

• Important feature of the cognitive approach

• Human action has a cause but humans have the ability to mentally control these forces and determine their behaviour - link between internal/external forces + free will to act upon these forces

• Acknowledges ability to rationalise

What is Environmental Determinism?

Behaviour is caused by environmental factors e.g. genetics, neural issues - specific area of brain

What is Biological Determinism?

Assumes behaviour is caused by our biology e.g. classical conditioning, operant conditioning

What is a strength for determinism?

• Can be beneficial for the study of human behaviour

• Determinism is consistent with the aims of science assuming that human behaviour is orderly unpredictable increases psychology credibility as a science

• This is a strength because being able to predict and determine human behaviour has led to the development of important treatments and therapies e.g drug treatments for sz

• Therefore, mental disorders like sz really challenged the case for free will because many would argue that people do not choose to be seriously mentally ill

What is a limitation of determinism?

• This perspective is not consistent with our legal system in court

• Offenders are held accountable for the actions and behaviours. Hard determinism suggest that human behaviour choice is out of conscious control and this can give criminal and antisocial behaviour an excuse

• This is a limitation because people could use deterministic perspectives as a way of manipulating the legal system and it also questions humans moral responsibility in society

• therefore many psychologists aim to take a soft determinism approach to the study of human behaviour by considering internal/external forces that can influence behaviour

What is Free Will?

• It suggests as humans we are free to choose our own thoughts and actions

• As humans we have the ability to reject biological and environmental factors to be the masters of our own destiny – humanistic approach

What is a strength of Free Will?

• Locus of control research

• Suggest that those who have an internal locus of control are more mentally happy – they exercise fee will and see themselves as a sole controller of their lives

What is another strength of Free Will?

• Research support

• Roberts (2000) those who believe in fatalism – life is controlled by uncontrollable forces – suffer from more depression

• Both arguments don't prove that we have free will but demonstrate how feeling like we are free increases happiness and satisfaction

What is a limitation of Free Will?

• research support from Chungsion soon (2008)

• Brain activity that determines the outcome of choices that predates our knowledge of making choices

• Research found that brain activity related to pressing the button with the left or right hand occurs in the brain 10 seconds before people are aware of the decision

What is Holism?

Human behaviour should be studied as a whole integrated experience and not as separate parts

What is reductionism?

The belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler parts

What is environmental reductionism?

Behaviourist assume that all behaviour can be reduced to the simple building block of stimulus - response and complex behaviours are a series of stimulus response chains

What is biological reductionism?

The way that biological psychologist tried to reduce behaviour to a physical level and explain it in terms of neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones, brain structure.

What does a limitation of the holistic approach?

• speculative and vague

• When a theory assumes that there are many factors that contribute to a behaviour e.g. depression, it becomes very difficult to establish which factor is the most influential and treatment become difficult

• For example the humanistic approach in psychology takes a holistic approach to understanding human behaviour but generally lacks empirical evidence

• Therefore this is a limitation as it has suggests lower level explanations are more useful at times particularly when trying to determine cause an effect that can a treatment and therapy

What is a strength of the reductionist approach?

• forms the basis of scientific research

• To create operationalised variables target behaviours need to be broken down into consistent parts

• The behaviourist approach demonstrates how complex learning could be broken down to simple response links with an lab, this means that behaviour can be measured and predicted

• This is a strength as it has led to the development of effective treatments for example the dopamine hypothesis has led to the development of antipsychotics

• However, reductionist studies rely on highly controlled experimental research, the results are often skewed by the main characteristics and lack ecological validity

What is a strength for the holistic approach?

• Some social behaviours that only occur when a group context cannot be explained at the level of the individual

• For example, conformity cannot be explained by studying individuals and can only be explained through the interactions of people in the group

• This is evidence in Zimbardo's prison experiment where he demonstrated that conformity may be dependent on social roles the expectation that society as a group have the role and not on the individual

• This supports the idea that a holistic explanation can prove a more complete understanding of social behaviours and offer a more valid perspective

What is the main aim of the Idiographic approach?

To describe the richness of human experience

What type of data does the idiographic approach produce?

Qualitative data - uses case studies and unstructured interviews

What is the Idiographic approach attempt to do?

Study the nature of an individual - people are studied as unique entities, subjective experiences, motivation and values create the core of this approach.

What is the main aim of the nomothetic approach?

Produce general laws about human behaviour

What does the nomothetic approach say about human behaviour?

Laws allow human behaviour to be compared, classified and measured - behaviours are better predicted

What does nomothetic approach mainly focus on?

Quantitative, scientific methods - lab experiments.

What type of data does the nomothetic approach produce?

Quantitative data

What does research for the nomothetic approach involve?

The study of large amounts of people to establish common and comparable behaviours

What is an example of the ideographic approach in psychology?

Humanistic psychology – takes a phenomenological approach to studying human behaviour - humanistic psychologists aim to investigate unique experiences and are less concerned with producing general laws.

What is an example of the nomothetic approach in psychology?

Tend to be more reductionist + deterministic – hypotheses tested + formulated under controlled conditions. Most behaviourist, cognitive + biological approaches are nomothetic e.g skinner using rats and pigeons to investigate operant conditioning.

What is a strength of the idiographic approach?

• rich and qualitative methods

• Provides a complete and global account of the individual for example - the case of GENIE is an idiographic case study

• This has been used to support the nomothetic explanation of privation

• This is a strength as they can be used to complement nomothetic approaches to help create general laws of human behaviour

What is a limitation of the idiographic approach?

• The limitations and restricted nature of the approach

• For example Freud’s development of the Oedipus complex has been argued as it is based on the observations from one individual and therefore cannot be used as a general theory of behaviour without support from other examples

• A lot of graphic research tends to be less scientific than what is acceptable for a social science so let's reliability and applicability to all human behaviour

What is a strength for the nomothetic approach?

• Processes involved in research are more scientific

• This mirrors those employed within the natural sciences testing under standardised conditions

• For example, the field of testing IQ is founded in scientific study as quantitive data is used and analysed, then used to create averages of typical IQ scores

What is a limitation of the nomothetic approach?

• Argued to have lost the ‘whole person’ within psychology

• For example, knowing that there is a 1% lifetime risk of developing sz tells us little about what his life is like for someone suffering from the disorder

• Also in lab experiments ppts are treated as a score, not a whole individual – so subjective experience is ignored.

What is the nature nurture debate?

The central question is the extent to which our behaviour is determined by our biology(nature) and the jeans were inherit from my parents vs the influence of environmental factors (nurture) e.g. home, school, friends

What should the nature nurture debate focus on?

The relative contribution of each side of the debate to behaviour- describe how they interact with each other.

What is nature?

The view that all our behaviour is determined by biology - our genes.

What did Descartes say about human behaviour?

Human behaviours and knowledge is innate

What does nature say our behaviour is caused by?

Heredity - the genetic transmission of mental + physical characteristics from one generation to the other

What is the heredity coefficient?

It is used to assess heredity – ranges from 0 to 1 and indicates the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis e.g. 1 = entirely genetically determined

What is nurture?

The view that all behaviour is learnt and influenced by external factors such as the environment

What does Locke say about nurture?

We are born as "blank slates" and develop through environmental influences

What does Lerner say about nurture?

Prenatal influence, postnatal experiences, social and cultural contexts can all shape human behaviour e.g. social learning theory - learning through observation and vicarious reinforcement

What is the interactionist approach to explaining nature and nurture?

It acknowledges that nature and nurture are often dependent on one another and interact to cause behaviour e.g. Bowlby's theory of attachment - he stated that infants have innate social releases to form attachments, but the development of the attachment is determined by how the parent responds to the social releasers

What is the strength of the interactionist approach to the nature nurture debate?

• Epigenetics

• This states that the interactions with the environment can lead to a change in genetic activity without altering the genetic code

• For example, drinking and smoking can leave epigenetic markers on your genes and tell your body which genes to use and which to ignore. These changes can be passed on in a genetic code to future generations.

• This is a strength as it highlights that elements of nature and nurture interact to influence behaviour + neither work in isolation increasing reliability of the approach.

What is another strength of the interactionist approach to the nature nurture debate?

• Niche picking

• Plomin suggested that people select environments that are complimentary to their genes

• For example, people with aggressive personalities will seek out others with similar disposition and thrive in hostile environments

• Plomin argues that it is impossible to separate out the influences of nature and nurture and instead they should be considered as a whole supporting the interactionist nature of the debate

What is a limitation of the interactionist approach to the nature nurture debate?

• Offers a limited understanding of human behaviour

• The interactionist approach is often more useful at understanding behaviour as it is less deterministic and reductionist it helps to explain why very few proposed purely biological or environmental causes of behaviour

• For example the nurture view that dysfunctional families can lead to sz would assume that all people with sz come from dysfunctional families and this is not the case alternatively if we consider offending behaviour from a purely "nature" or "nurture" view it gives us very little insight instead the interactionist approach suggest we can be born with a biological predisposition to offend but it needs to be triggered by an external stressor, e.g. child abuse.

• This emphasises the importance of considering the influence of both nature and nature when studying human behaviour