Issues and Debates flashcards

universality

any human characteristic that can be applied to all, despite differences in gender, experiences and upbringing

alpha bias

researches that focuses on and exaggerates the difference between men and women

often position women as inferior to men

example of alpha bias

Freud psychosexual development - phallic stage develop desire for opposite-gender parent

• in boys creates strong castration anxiety, resolved when he identifies with his father

• girls eventual identification is weaker → weaker superego (due to taking on same-gender parents moral perspective)

• therefore women are morally inferior to men

Ways it favours women

• Chodorow suggested mothers/daughters have greater connection due to biological similarities → women develop better abilities to bond with others and sympathise

beta bias

research focuses on the similarities between men and women, and ignores/minimises the differences

example of beta bias

Fight or flight

• biological research favours male animals (female is affected by hormonal changes with ovulation) - ignores any differences

• assumed both males and females would react with fight or flight

• more recent research suggests women more commonly have a ‘tend and befriend’ approach due to higher quantities of oxytocin than men

• therefore misrepresentation of women’s behaviour

Research on attachment

• assumption that emotional care is provided solely by mothers

• research on role of the fathers show than men can supply this

• therefore misrepresentation of men’s behaviour

androcentrism

male-centred

‘normal’ behaviour is judged according to the male standard

therefore female behaviour is often judged as abnormal

evidence of androcentrism

• American Psychological Association published list of 100 most influential psychologist of 20th century

• only 6 women were included

• suggests psychology is very male centred

• eg. women’s anger is described as due to premenstrual syndrome (medicalises their emotions)

• men’s anger is often seen as a rational response to external pressures

limitation of gender bias - differences are not fixed

• findings from gender studies conclude that girls have better verbal ability and boys have better spatial ability

• Maccoby and Jacklin suggest these differences are hardwired into the brain before birth

• however - brain scans found no sex differences in brain structure or processing

• therefore the data from Maccoby and Jacklin’s study may have only been popularised because it fitted existing stereotypes rather than being factual

• should we wary of accepting research findings as facts when they may instead be stereotypes

limitation of gender bias - promotes sexism in research

• women remain underrepresented in university departments (particularly science)

• most psychology undergraduates are women, but lectures are most likely men

• therefore research is more likely to be conducted by men which may disadvantage female participants

• eg. male researcher might expect women to be irrational and unable to complete tasks → expectations are likely to make women underperform in studies

• therefore methods of psychology may produce gender-biased findings

limitation of gender bias - challenging findings may be hidden

• study analysed 1000 gender related articles published over 8 years

• found that research on gender bias is funded less and also published by less prestigious journals

• therefore fewer scholars become aware of it or apply it within their own work

• therefore it’s not taken as seriously as other biases eg. culture bias

culture bias - most likely groups studies by psychologists

Westernised

Educated

Industrialised

Rich

Democratic

People outside of this are therefore underrepresented and inevitably seen as abnormal/inferior

culture bias within psychology research

• 68% of research participants in studies come for the US

• 96% from industrialised nations

• 80% were psychology undergraduates

ethnocentrism

judging other cultures by the standards/values of one’s own culture

extreme form - belief in superiority of one’s own culture may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures

examples of ethnocentrism

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

• criticised for only reflecting the norms/values of Western culture

• suggested that the ‘ideal’ attachment type was secure - showing moderate distress when left by mother figure

• led to misinterpretation of child rearing practices in other countries, seen to deviate from the American ‘norm’

• eg. Japanese infants more likely to be classes as insecurely attached (high distress on separation)

• most likely due to the fact that they are less seperated from their mother

cultural relativism

idea that norms and values + ethics and moral standards can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts

etic approach

looks at behaviour from outside a given culture and attempts to describe the behaviours as universal

emic approach

functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours specific to that culture

imposed etic

when an observer attempts to generalise observations from one culture to another

eg. Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

eg. Definitions of abnormality

limitation of culture bias - influential studies

• many of the most influential studies in psychology are culturally biased

• Asch and Milgram - exclusively with US participants (mostly white, middle-class students)

• replications in different countries produced contrasting results

• eg. Asch replication in collectivist cultures found much higher conformity rates than the original studies from an individualist culture

• therefore understanding of topics eg. social influence should only be applied to the cultures they were studies in (individualist)

strength of culture bias - individualist-collectivist distinction

• traditional argument is that individualist countries (US) value individuals and independence, while collectivist countries (India/China) value society and needs of the group

• however, comparison of studies found that 14/15 comparing US and Japan found no evidence of individualism or collectivism

• described the distinction as lazy and simplistic

• therefore culture bias may be less of an issue in more recent psychological research

strength of culture bias - emergence of cultural psychology

• the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experience

• emerging field which incorporates work from researchers in other fields eg. sociology, political science etc

• strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions, take an emic approach, work alongside local researchers using culturally-based techniques

• cross-cultural research focused on 2 cultures instead of larger scale with 8+

• suggests modern psychologists are mindful of the dangers of culture bias and are actively avoiding it

free will-determinism debate

questions if our behaviour is selected without constraint (free will) or if its the product of a set of internal/external influences (determinism)

free will - humanistic approach

determinism - biological, behaviourist, cognitive approach

free will

notion that humans can make choices are their behaviour/thoughts are not determined by biological factors or external forces

determinism

view than an individuals behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal/external forces rather than an individuals will to do something

hard determinism

view that all behaviour is caused by something, free will is an illusion

eg. principles of science - everything is cause-effect relationship

soft determinism

view that behaviour may be predictable but there’s also room for personal choice from a limited range of possibilities (restricted free will)

eg. cognitive approach - scientists may explain what determines our behaviour but there is still freedom to make rational conscious choices in everyday situations

biological determinism

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

eg. autonomic nervous system on the stress response

eg. influence of genes on mental health

environmental determinism

belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (eg. systems of reward/punishment) that we can’t control

eg. behaviourism - free will is an illusion and our behaviour is the result of conditioning

psychic determinism

belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that we can’t control

eg. psychodynamic - determined by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood

strength of free will - practical value

• whether free will exists of not - thinking we exercise free will can improve mental health

• study looked at adolescents with hard determinism

• found that they had a greater risk of developing depression

• those with an external LOC are less likely to be optimistic

• therefore believing in free will can have a positive impact on mind and behaviour

strength of determinism/limitation of free will - brain scans

• study where participants had to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while their brain activity was being measured

• they had to say when they felt the conscious will to move

• findings - the unconscious brain activity leading up to the conscious decision move came half a second before the participant consciously felt they decided to move

• therefore even our most basic experiences of free will are actually determined by our brain

limitation of determinism/strength of free will - legal system

• hard determinist stance is that an individual choice is not the cause of behaviour - not consistent with legal system

• in law, offender are held responsible for their actions

• main principle is that a defendant exercised their free will in committing the crime

• therefore in the real world, determinist arguments don’t work

nature-nurture debate

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

not whether is one of the other - every behaviour/characteristic arises from a combination of both eg. eye colour is only about 80% heritable

interactionist approach

explaining behaviour in terms of biological and psychological factors

interaction of both can causes a behaviour/characteristics

eg. attachment type - baby’s innate personality (temperament) affects and combines with the parents response/attachment relationship (nurture)

diathesis-stress model

diathesis = genetic vulnerability (nature)

stress = stress trigger (nurture)

eg. OCD - genetic vulnerability of OCD + psychological trigger (eg. trauma) may result in the disorder

epigenetic

change in genetic activity without changing the genes themselves - caused by interaction with the environment

eg. smoking/trauma leave marks on our DNA - explains why they can have lifelong influences even after they’re over

epigenetic changes may go on and influence the genetic codes of our children and their children

nature

inherited influences

nativists argue that all human characteristics even aspects of knowledge are innate

psychological characteristics like intelligence/personality are determined by biological factors, the same as how eye colour/height are

nurture

influence of experience and the environment

empiricists argue that the mind is a blank slate at birth which is shaped by the environment (behaviourist approach)

levels of the environment

Lerner

• biological influences - prenatal factors affecting a foetus (eg smoking)

• psychological influences (eg music)

• social influences - social conditions a child grows up in

measuring nature and nurture

degree to which 2 people are similar on a particular trait can be represented by a correlation coefficient = concordance

provides an estimate about the extent to which a trait in inherited = heritability

0.1/1% = genes contribute almost nothing to individual differences

IQ = around 0.5 (only half is determined by genetic factors)

strength of research into nature-nurture debate - adoption studies

• adoption studies are useful as they separate the influences of nature and nurture

• if adopted children are found to be more similar to their adoptive parents, it suggests the environment is the bigger influence

• if they’re more similar to their biological parents then genetic factors are presumed to dominate

• meta-analysis of adoption studies - found genetic influences accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression

• shows how research can separate influences

strength of research into nature-nurture debate - support for epigenetics

• evidence of epigenetic effects from WW2

• Nazis stopped food distribution to Dutch people and 22,000 died of starvation

• women who became pregnant during this famine had low birth weight babies

• these babies grew up 2x more likely to develop schizophrenia when they woke up

• supports view that life experiences of previous generations can leave epigenetic markers that influence the health of their offspring

strength of research into nature-nurture debate - real world application

• research suggests OCD is highly heritable (76%)

• can lead to genetic counselling in order to understand that high heritability doesn’t make it inevitable

• people who have high risk of OCD due to family background can receive advice about they likelihood of developing it and how they may prevent it eg. manage stress

• debate can have important practical value

holism-reductionism debate

question which one is a better approach in order to understand human behaviour

there is no continuum between them

holism

looks at a system as a whole, ignores subdividing it into smaller units

humanists approach - focuses on the individuals experience and therefore cant be reduced to biological units

use of qualitative methods to assess themes rather than breaking concepts into component behaviours

reductionism

seems to analyse behaviour by breaking it down into constituent parts

levels of explanation (eg. for OCD)

• socio-cultural level - interrupts social relationships

• psychological level - experience of anxiety

• physical level - movement eg. washing hands

• environmental/behavioural level - learning experiences

• physiological level - abnormal functioning in frontal lobes

• neurochemical level - underproduction of serotonin

Each level gets more reductionist as the list goes down

biological determinism

form of reductionism attempting to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level (in terms of genes, hormones, evolution etc)

eg. OCD reduced to the level of neurotransmitter activity

environmental reductionism

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

eg. learning theory of attachment reduced idea of love to a learned association between the person doing the feeding and food resulting in pleasure

strength of reductionism/limitation of holism - forms basis of scientific approaches

• well controlled research needs the operationalisation of variables to be studies

• makes it possible to conduct experiments and record observations in an objective and reliable way

• eg. strange situation operationalised component behaviours such as separation anxiety

• gives psychology greater credibility along with the natural sciences

limitation of reductionism - oversimplifying

• may oversimplify complex phenomena and reduce validity

• explanations operating at the level of the gene/neurotransmitter don’t include the analysis of the social context within the behaviour occurs - may derive its meaning

• eg pointing a finger - physiological process is the same regardless of context, but an analysis won’t tell us why it was pointed

• therefore reductionist explanation may only form part of an explanation

limitation of reductionism - can’t explain some behaviours

• some behaviours may only be understood at a higher level

• some social behaviours only emerge in a group context and so can’t be understood in terms of individual group members

• eg. effects of conformity to social roles - Standford prison experience

• importance was the interaction between people and the behaviour of the group - couldn’t be understood by observing the participants as individuals

• social processes like conformity can only be explained at the level they occur

• therefore some behaviours may be better understood at higher level explanations eg. holistic

idiographic approach

Study of individuals to understand human behaviour due to obtaining lots of detailed information

Small participant groups, sometimes just one person

Initial focus is understanding the individual before making generalisations

nomothetic approach

Study of large + varied groups to make generalisations about human behaviour - establishing norms

Generalisations made to create laws/general theories

Idiographic-nomothetic debate

has implications for types of research methods used by psychologists - in depth individuals, or larger groups and discuss in averages

Idiographic - type of research

Qualitative - participants interviewed in-depth, focus may be on a particular facet of human behaviour

Data is analyses then emergent themes are identified

Conclusions may help mental health professionals determine best practice

Idiographic research examples

Humanistic approach - Rogers sought to explain self development + role of unconditional positive regard from in-depth conversations with clients in therapy

Psychodynamic - Freuds explanations of human nature were based on his observation of individuals eg Little Hans

nomothetic type of research

Quantitative

Hypotheses are formulated, samples of people assessed, then numerical data produced is analysed for its statistical significance

Seeks to quantify behaviour

Nomothetic research examples

Behaviourist - Skinner studied animals to develop general laws of learning

Biological - may use small samples e.g. Sperrys split brain research but is used to understand general concepts (hemispheric lateralisation)