Issues and Debates

What is a key example of Alpha Bias favouring males?

Psychosexual development - During the phallic stage of development, both boys and girls develop a desire for the opposite-sex parent. With a boy this is resolved when he identifies with his father, but a girl’s eventual identification is weaker (as it develops as a result of taking on the mother’s moral perspective) which means her superego is weaker. Thus females are morally inferior to males.

What is a key example of Alpha Bias favouring females?

Chodorow (1968) suggested that daughters and mothers have a greater connectedness than sons and mothers because of biological similarities. As a result of this closeness as a child, women develop better abilities to bond with others and empathise.

What’s a key example of beta bias which was proven wrong?

Biological research on “Fight or Flight” has explicitly tested male animals as females are affected by hormonal changes but was applied to females. However, Taylor et al (2000) claimed that as the love hormone oxytocin is more plentiful in women, and that they respond to stress by increasing this hormone. This reduces the fight or flight response and and enhances a preference for “tend and befriend” response.

Why is Beta bias a problem?

Research that minimises gender differences may result in a misrepresentation of a gender (usually women).

What are the negative implications of gender biased research?

It may create misleading and damaging assumptions about female behaviour that fuel stereotypes. This can affect the lives and prospects of women.

Promotes sexism in the research process. Women remain underrepresented, which leads to more research conducted by biased males whose expectations cause women to underperform. This means that the institutional structures and methods of psychology may produce findings that are gender biased.

What did Tavris (1993) say about the implications of gender biased research?

In a domain where men set the standards of normalcy, “it becomes normal for women to feel abnormal”.

What is an example of research that had negative impacts for women?

Dalton (1964) suggested that during part of the menstrual cycle, women are more likely to carry out accidents, comment suicide and have lower IQ test scores.

What are the positive implications of gender bias?

Led to challenging gender bias - by developing a greater understanding of gender bias, psychologists have been trying to find solutions, like doing studies that illustrate the value of women and their importance. This is important in reducing gender bias.

Led to establishments of criteria’s on how to avoid gender bias. e.g. studying diverse samples of women and studying them in the natural settings in which they function.

What is an example of research emphasising the importance and value of women?

Cornwell et al (2013) noted that females are better at learning, as they are more attentive and organised.

What is an example of Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism?

Ainsworth and Bell’s (1970) Strange Situations - it was criticised for reflecting only the norms and values of Western culture, as their ideal attachment type was characterised by the babies showing moderate amounts of distress when left by their mother figure. However, this led to misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries, for example Japan (Takahashi 1986) as they were more likely to be classified as insecurely attached as they showed large signs of distress but this was due to the fact that Japanese babies are rarely separated from their mothers.

What does Berry (1969) argue about Cultural Relativism?

That psychology has often been guilty of an imposed etic approach - arguing that theories are universal despite coming from emic research inside a single culture. He suggests that researchers should be more mindful of the cultural relativism of their research - that the things they discover may only make sense from the position of the culture from which they were discovered.

AO3: Are individualist and collectivist cultures as much of a problem now?

No, they may be less on an issue - critics argue that the terms are lazy and simplistic distinctions that no longer applies. Takano and Osaka (1999) found that 14/15 studies that compared American and Japanese cultures found no evidence of the traditional distinction between individualist and collectivist cultures.

AO3: What has culture bias led to?

The development of indigenous researchers - theories drawing explicitly on the experiences of people in different cultural contexts. This matters as it has led to theories much more relevant to the lives of particular cultures.

What is an examples of indigenous research?

Afrocentrism - a movement which suggests that because all Black people have roots in Africa, theories about them must recognise the African context of behaviour and attitudes.

What’s a negative implication of culturally biased research?

Can fuel stereotypes and give them a scientific basis, which is damaging to particular groups livelihood and can lead to other groups believing they are superior.

What’s an example of a study that made a specific group feel superior.

Herrnsteirn and Murray 1994 used an American IQ test which showed Europeans and African Americans as having a lower IQ than Americans as the test was based around American history. This created the stereotype that Americans are mentally superior.

A03: How has understanding cultural bias been positive? What’s an example of this?

A way to deal with cultural bias is to recognise it. Smith and Bond 1988, found in their survey that 66% of psychology textbooks were American, 32% European and 2% from the rest of the world. This shows much psychological research is underrepresented and needs to be improved.

What are the strengths of determinism?

Determinism is consistent with the aims of science. The belief that human behaviour is orderly and obeys laws places psychology on equal footing with more established sciences.

Scientific research is based on the idea that all behaviours have a cause that can be measured. An IV is manipulated to see the effect on the DV and this measurement is needed to control and predict human behaviour.

What are the real life applications of Deterministic research?

Prediction and control of human behaviour has led to the development of treatments, therapies and behavioural interventions - e.g SSRI for depression.

What are the Weaknesses of determinism?

The hard determinist aspect isn’t consistent with the way in which our legal system operates. In a court of law, offenders are held morally responsible for their actions.

It can be seen as unfalsifiable because it is based on the idea that causes of behaviour will always exist even thought they may not yet have been found. This is impossible to prove wrong.

Whats a real life example of determinism being used in court?

Bradley Waldroup shot his wife’s friend 8 times and admitted he was responsible. However his defence team got him a scientific assessment and found he had a variant of the MAOA (warrior) gene and he didn’t get charged as guilty.

What are the strengths of free will?

Everyday experiences gives the impression we are constantly exercising free will through our choices which demonstrates the concept of face validity as it makes cognitive sense.

Research suggests that those with an internal locus of control, who believe that they have control over their actions, tend to be more mentally healthy. Roberts (2000) showed that those who believed in fatalism were more likely to have depression. Shows that even if we don’t have free will, thinking we do can have a positive impact on mentality.

What are the weaknesses of freewill?

Neurological studies of decision making by Libet (1985) have revealed evidence against free will and that the most basic experiences of free will are decided and determined by our brain before we become fully aware of them. e.g. researchers found that activity related to whether to press a button with the left or right hand occurs in the brain up to 10 seconds before the pps report being consciously aware of making such decision.

Unfalsifiable- it cannot be tested in an experimental way and thus makes psychological research and theory irrelevant.

What are people who believe in the nature side of the debate known as?

Nativists

Who was an early nativist and what did he argue?

Descartes and he argued that human characteristics and knowledge were innate and hereditary.

What are people who believe in the nurture side of the debate known as?

Empiricist.

Who was an early empiricist and what did he argue?

Locke and he argued that the mind is a blank slate at birth, and we learn through the environment.

What are some examples that side with nature and how?

Biological → genetics which cause behaviours.

Bowlby’s theory about attachment → every baby is born with an innate predisposition to form an attachment

Which approaches take the side of nurture and how?

Behaviourist → conditioning

SLT → Vicarious reinforcement.

What third element does the idea of epigenetics bring into the nature/nurture argument?

The life experience of previous generations.

What experimental proof is there for epigenetics?

Dias and Ressler (2014) conditioned mice to associate a scent with being shocked. The mice’s children then went on to fear the smell despite never being exposed to the smell or shocks.

What experimental proof is there for the diathesis-stress model?

Tierni et al (2004) found that in a group of Finnish adoptees most likely to develop schizophrenia had a biological relative with history of the disorder and family relationships described as dysfunctional.

What support is there for the Nature side of the debate?

Nestadt et al found that in previous twin studies 68% of identical twins shared OCD as opposed to 31% of non-identical twins. This suggests a genetic influence on OCD.

What support is there for the Nurture side of the debate?

Causes of schizophrenia have been linked to schizophrenogenic mother, expressed emotion and double bind theory. These are all environmental factors.

What support is there for the interactionist approach?

Neural plasticity - The brain can reorganise itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Maguire et al (2000) investigated the hippocampi volume of London taxi’s brains. She found that this region of the brain was larger in taxi drivers compared to non-taxi drivers. Thus, Maguire, concluded that driving a taxi (nurture) actually influenced the size of the hippocampi (nature).

What are the levels of explanations of reductions from lowest (top of pyramid) to highest (bottom of pyramid)?

Social and cultural explanations (the influence of social groups on behaviour), psychological explanations (cognitive, behavioural/environmental), biological explanations (neurochemical, genetics, brain structure etc.).

How can the levels of explanation of reductionism be used to explain depression?

Lowest level: can be explained by genes and action of neurotransmitters e.g. serotonin or dopamine.

Middle level (psychological explanations): negative self-schemas.

Higher level: Gender (women are more likely to experience depression).

What are the strengths of holism?

There are aspects of social behaviour that only emerge in a group context and can’t be understood through an individual group member. e.g. the effects of conformity to social roles in the Stanford Prison Experiment couldn’t be understood through individuals.

What are the weaknesses of holism?

Doesn’t really involve scientific testing so can become vague and speculative. Lacks empirical evidence and so is unfalsifiable.

What are the strengths of reductionism?

Forms the basis of scientific research. To create operationalised variables it’s necessary to break down target behaviours into constituent parts.

Increases reliability. Behaviourist approach demonstrated how complex learning could be broken down in a lab. Increases the credibility of psychology by placing lower down the reductionist hierarchy with the natural sciences.

What are the disadvantages of reductionism?

Oversimplifies complex phenomena leading to a loss of validity. Genetic explanations don’t analyse the social context within which the behaviour occurs. E.g. physiological process of pointing one’s finger will be the same regardless of context but won’t tell us why it was pointed.

Gender Bias

A bias that arises when there is a failure to consider adequately differences between men and women.

Bias

Leaning towards a subjective view that doesn’t necessarily reflect objective reality.

Universality

Any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing.

Beta Bias

Exaggerating the similarity/minimising the differences between men and women → misrepresenting one of the genders.

Alpha Bias

Exaggerating/overestimating the differences between men and women → devaluing a gender in comparison to the other.

Androcentrism

Taking male thinking/behaviour as the accepted norm and regarding female thinking/behaviour as inferior and abnormal. → devaluing and misrepresenting women.

Gynocentrism

Taking female thinking/behaviour as the accepted norm and regarding male thinking/behaviour as inferior and abnormal.

Cultural bias

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

Ethnocentrism

A culture bias leading to the belief in the superiority of your own culture, causing prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures.

Emic behaviours

The behavioural constructs particular to a specific culture.

Etic behaviours

The behavioural constructs that are universal to all people.

Imposed etics

When emics and etics get mistaken for each other → misunderstanding and misinterpretation of behaviours.

Cultural Relativism

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

Free will

The idea that we are able to control and choose our course of action. We can make our decisions and act in unconstrained ways.

Determinism

The idea that behaviour is controlled by internal or external factors beyond our control.

Hard determinism (fatalism)

Environment, genetics, unconscious impulses and other influences/causes control people to act the way they do; and because of that, they’re not responsible for their actions.

Soft determinism

Acknowledge that all events, including actions, have causes but it allows for some actions involving choice. Whilst acknowledging that all human actions have a cause, it suggests some room for manoeuvre in that people have a conscious control over the way they behave.

Biological determinism

The belief that behaviour is caused by biological factors (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary etc.) we can’t control.

Psychic determinism

The belief that behaviours are caused by unconscious conflicts that we can’t control.

Reciprocal determinism

Acknowledging that whilst the environment can influence behaviour, we can influence the environment

Nature

The influence of inheritance or hereditary.

Nurture

The influence of experience and the environment.

Relative importance

It’s impossible to know how much influence nature and nature separately have so we are now more likely to seek the relative contribution of each influence.

Heritability coefficient

Used to assess hereditary. Ranges from 0-1, indicates the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis.

Diathesis-Stress Model

Suggests behaviour is caused by a biological or environmental vulnerability which is only expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental trigger/stressor.

Epigenetics

A change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves. Aspects of our lifestyle or events leave “marks” on our DNA and they way the genetics are expressed.

Constructivism

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

Holism

It only makes sense to study an individual system rather than its constituent parts.

Reductionism

The belief that human behaviour is best understood by studying the smaller constituent parts.

Biological reductionism

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level

Environmental reductionism

The attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience.

Experimental reductionism

Oversimplifying the complexity of human behaviour for the benefit of isolating variables to test scientifically and establish cause and effect.

Machine reductionism

Over-emphasising the analogy of “computer processing” and the human mind.

Idiographic

Studying individuals

Nomothetic

The study of large and varied groups to make generalisations about what is typical in different aspects of human behaviour.

Ethical issue

A conflict between the rights of the participants and the aims of the researcher.

Ethical implication

The impact that psychological research may have in terms of the rights of other people. The consequences of a study.

Socially sensitive research

Studies in which there are potential consequences or implications, either directly for the pps or for the class of people represented by the research.

Collectivist culture

Value the group and their needs.

Individualist culture

Value the individual and independence.