Studied by 4 people
Universality
Any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experiences and upbringing. Gender and culture bias threaten the universality of findings
Gender bias
Free will
The notion humans can make choices and their behaviour/thoughts are not determined by biological or external forces
Determinism
The view that an individual’s behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual’s will to do something
Hard determinism
The view that all behaviour is caused by something, so free will is an illusion
Soft determinism
The view that all behaviour may be predictable but there is also room for personal choice from a limited range of possibilities (restricted free will)
Biological determinism
The belief that behaviour is caused by biological influences that we cannot control
Environmental determinism
The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment that we cannot control
Psychic determinism
The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that we cannot control
The nature-nurture debate
Concerned with the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics
Heredity
The genetic transmission of both mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another
Environment
Any influence on human behaviour that is non-genetic. This may range from prenatal influences in the womb through historical and cultural influences at a societal level
Nature
Inherited influences
Nurture
Influence of experience and environment
Epigenetics
A change in our genetic activity without changing the genes. It’s caused by interaction with the environment
Idiographic approach
An approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a means to understanding behaviour
Nomothetic approach
The nomothetic approach aims to study human behaviour through the development of general principles and univeraal laws
Ethical implications
The consequences of any research in terms of the effects on individual participants on or on the way in which certain groups of people are subsequently regarded
Social sensitivity
Sieber and Stanley define it as research in which there are potential consequences or implications, either directly for the participants in the research or for the class of individuals represented by the research
Asch - Example of ethnocentrism and gender bias
A test to see if people would conform to the majority
Only American men used
Milgram - Example of ethnocentrism and the nature/nurture debate
Only used Americans
Wanted to measure levels of obedience
Determine if evil could be induced or natural
Berry et al - Etic and emic
Etic = assumes that results from one culture can be taken as universal laws
Emic = research is specific to one culture
Hare-Mustin and Marecek - Alpha and beta bias
Alpha = Exaggerating the gender differences between genders
Beta = Minimising the gender differences between genders
Cochrane and Sashidharan - Cross-cultural research -Schizophrenia diagnosis in the Uk
African-Caribbean culture compared to the rest of the population
African-Caribbean cultures were 7x more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia
From this, people could draw the conclusion that people of African-Caribbean origin may have a higher genetic predisposition towards it
But by looking at the rates of schizophrenia in the Caribbean, they are no higher than in the UK
So people could have a misconception about schizophrenia rates in African-Caribbean
Littlewood and Lipsedge - Cross culture research -Prescription medication
African-Caribbean patients are more likely to be prescribed higher dosage medications
Suggests interpretations of symptoms were stronger
Smith and Bond - Replication
Perfect replication of studies are impossible due to interpretation of data differences
Mead - Gender roles
Studied 3 tribes in Papa New Guinea regarding gender roles
For accurate generalisability all tribes must have been studied to create universal data
Berry - Imposed etic
Research should always be in meaningful contexts
Conducted by researchers close to the study culturally
Can help reduce imposed etic
Note
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