Issues and debates

Define gender bias

the differential treatment and/or representation of males and females, based on stereotypes and not on real differences

What is alpha bias in relation to gender bias

the attempt to exaggerate or maximise the differences between male and female

• either to heighten or devalue the value of men or women

• usually to devalue women in relation to males

What is an example of alpha bias

• Freud’s theory of psychosexual development

• he believed femininity was failed masculinity

• believed that the two sexes are never in equal positions of power or worth

• ‘penis envy’

Who opposed Freud’s theory

Horney (1926)

• believed women weren’t jealous of men’s attributes but rather of their social class

• ‘womb envy’

• believed males were envious of female’s ability to have children and compensate for this by achieving higher in other areas e.g. finance

What is beta bias in relation to gender bias

the attempt to downplay or minimise the difference between genders

What is a consequence of beta bias

androcentrism - where male behaviour is seen as standard and women’s behaviour is seen as atypical

• Travis (1993) argues that most cultures take male behaviour as standard

What is an example of beta bias

• research into the ‘fight or flight’ response - seen as universal even though the results were gained from all male rats

• more modern research indicates that women are more likely to ‘tend and befriend’ (Taylor 2000)

What is universality

when all research applies equally to both genders

What is the issue with psychologists and universality

• psychologists have preconceived ideas and beliefs which can affect the universality of their conclusions

What is culture bias

a tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the lens of ones own culture

What was Chitling’s Intelligence Test

an example of a culturally biased test that tends to favour African Americans - people of other cultures traditionally under perform

What is alpha bias in regards to culture bias

when a theory assumes that cultural groups are profoundly different,recognition of these differences must always inform research

What is beta bias in regards to cultural bias

when real cultural differences are ignored or minimised and all people are assumed to be the same

What are emic constructs

specific to a given culture and vary from one culture to another, look at behaviour from the inside of the cultural system

What are etic constructs

analyses of behaviour focuses on the universal of human behaviour, universal factors that hold across all cultures. Looking at behaviour from outside of the culture

What is ethonocentrism

the term used to describe the belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic and cultural group. Our own cultural perspective is taken as a standard by which we measure other cultures

Define culture

the beliefs and customs that a group of people share, such as child-rearing practices

What is cultural relativism

behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates

What are some examples of cultural bias

• Depression - can be experienced differently in different cultures e.g. headaches in Latino cultures or weakness and tiredness in Asian cultures

• Milgram - claimed levels of obedience were down to the ‘power of the social situation’ when it may have been down to American characteristics like having a higher value of the police or being more obedient due to American schooling

• Ainsworth’s Strange Situation - found that the ideal attachment type was ‘secure’ however this attachment is not typical across all cultures. It could be interpreted that she is saying that this means other cultures child rearing practices are inadequate and even damaging

What is cultural relativism

insists that behaviour can be properly understood only if the cultural context is taken into consideration

What is free will

the notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces

What approach advocates free will

humanistic approach

What is determinism

the view that an individual’s behaviour is shaped by, or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual’s will to do something

• all deterministic stances suggest there is no place for free will in the explanation of human behaviour

• suggests that everything has a cause that is largely out of out control

What is hard determinism

implies that free will is not possible as our behaviour is always caused by internal or external forces

• compatible with the aims of science

• sometimes referred to as Fatalism

• All behaviour has a cause and therefore we should be able to predict and describe these causes

What is soft determinism

all events, including human behaviour, have causes but behaviour can also be determined by our conscious choices in the absence of coercion

• acknowledges that all behaviours have a cause but suggests we have conscious mental control over the way we act

• William James was the first to come up with soft determinism

What are the three forms of determinism

• biological

• environmental

• psychic

What is biological determinism

the belief that behaviour is caused by biological influences (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) that we cannot control

• biological approach emphasises this in its explanation of behaviour

• much of our physiological and neurological processes are out of our control e.g. fight or flight

• some mental disorders are thought to have a genetic basis e.g. schizophrenia

• modern views accept that the environment influences our biology which in turn influences our behaviour

What is environmental determinism

the belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward and control) that we cannot control

• Skinner described free will as an ‘illusion’ - argues all our behaviour is the result of conditioning

• while we think we are acting independently, our behaviour has already been shaped or determined by environmental events (e.g. parents, teachers, friends etc.)

What is psychic determinism

the belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts we cannot control

• Freud believes free will is an illusion but suggests our behaviour is determined by biological drives and instincts

• he sees behaviour as being driven by unconscious conflicts we have repressed in childhood

• suggests that there is no such thing as an accident and even a slip of the tongue can be explained by the underlying control of our unconscious mind

What is the importance of ‘cause’

• Causal explanations are things where we can clearly identify the cause of, or the reason behind.

• We can use causal explanations to predict and control events in the future and to establish general laws and principles 

• A+B=C 

• e.g. when you put mentos (A) and coke (B) together, they explode (C) 

• In psychology we use laboratory experiments to remove all extraneous variables to identify and isolate specific causes of behaviour so we can use these to predict and manage future behaviour 

what is the nature vs nurture debate

the debate concerned with the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired genes

Who believes in the nature side of the debate

• Nativists

• e.g. Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

What is the hereditary coefficient

a scale to determine to what extent characteristics are a result of genetics. 0 = no genetic basis, 1 = completely genetically determined

• Holland et al (1998) compared concordance rates of anorexia in MZ and DZ twins

• 56% concordance rate for MZ twins

• 7% concordance rate for DZ twins

• shows anorexia has a large genetic component: heritability may be as large as 0.8 for MZ twins

Who agrees with the nurture side of the debate

• empiricists

• e.g. John Locke (1632-1704) - ‘the mind is a blank slate on which learning and experience write’

What are the levels of environment

created by Richard Lerner - environment is to general

• pre-natal - mothers physical and psychological state during pregnancy

• post-natal - social conditions the child grows up in

• post-natal - cultural and historical context they are part of

What is the interactionist approach

argues for both sides of the debate

• e.g. attachment - child’s innate temperament will influence the way its parents respond to it and their responses in turn will affect the child’s behaviour (Belsky 1987)

• in this instance, nature is creating nurture, and heredity and environment are interacting

What did Scarr and McCartney (1983) do

developed a theory of gene and environment interaction that has three types that point to a complex multi-layered relationship between nature and nurture

• passive interaction - parents genes influence how they treat their children

• evocative interaction - the child’s genes influence and shape the environment in which they group up in

• active interaction - the child creates its own environment through the people and experiences it selects

What did Eleanor Maguire et al (2000) do

• studied the brain of London taxi drivers and found there was a significantly higher volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus that in a match control group

• this part of the brain is associated with special navigation

• she concluded that driving a taxi (nurture) influenced the size of the hippocampus (nature)

• this demonstrates the importance of an interactionist approach and presents evidence that nurture can affect nature

What is the diathesis-stress model + an example

• explores how heredity and environment interact with regards to mental illness

• suggests mental conditions are caused by a genetic vulnerability but are only expressed when triggered by an environmental trigger

• e.g. Tienari et al (2004) - study with Finnish adoptees discovered that those most likely to develop schizophrenia had biological relatives with a history of the disorder AND had dysfunctional relationships with their adopted families

What are epigenetics

• refers to a change in our genetic activity without a change in our actual genetic code

• this change happens because of interaction with the environment, the lifestyle we lead and events we encounter

• things like smoking, diet, exposure to pollution, war, famine and disease leave epigenetic ‘marks’ on our DNA

• these can also influence gene activity of our children and grandchildren

What is an example of epigenetics in action

• Dias and Ressler (2014) - gave lab mice electric shocks every time they were exposed to a specific chemical smell

• mice showed fear every time they smelt it

• mice’s children also feared the smell despite never having smelt the chemical or being exposed to the shocks

• as did the og mice’s grandchildren

What is holism

an argument or theory which proposes that it only makes sense to study an invisible system rather than its constituent parts

What is reductionism

the belief that human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into its smaller constituent parts. its based around the scientific principle of parsimony. all behaviour should be explained using the most basic (lowest levels) principles

What is the reductionist hierarchy