issues and debates

Nature vs. nurture

• Nature:

  • Nativist position, characteristics are a product of evolution and differences are due to unique genetic code

  • Behaviour is the product of biological and genetic factors, such as heredity (the passing of traits from one generation to another) and may be ‘wired in’ but show up later in life as a product of maturation

  • Examples:

    • Bowlby -- biological programming to form attachments, through genetic programming. This is supported by Lorenz and Harlow’s research

    • Gottesman -- 48% concordance rate for szn emphasises genetics on behaviour

• Nurture:

  • Environmentalist/empiricist position, view behaviour as a product of environmental influences, as we are a blank slate that is filled by experiences

  • Characteristics and differences are as a result of learning

  • Examples:

    • Attachment -- classical conditioning causes attachments to develop, through learning and associations

    • Schizophrenia -- the family dysfunction theory including double bind allows szn to manifest

    • Bandura’s bobo doll, little Albert, Pavlov and Skinner. Phobias or depression explanations and treatments

• Interactionism -- disorders are a result of both nature and nurture interacting with each other, including the diathesis-stress model that suggests genetic vulnerabilities and stress of life experiences can cause a disorder

Evaluations

• It’s too simplistic to consider nature and nurture in isolation, thus the interactionist approach suggests behaviour is best explained by their interaction. For example, in psychopathology, diathesis-stress model is used to explain development of disorders and protective factors that prevent them

• Nature can affect nurture, which can be demonstrated in the diathesis-stress model. For example, Tienari found there was an interaction between genetics and dysfunctional families in the result of developing szn. This gives strong evidence that szn can be best explained by looking at the interaction of nature and nurture

• Nature and nurture can be combined to explain neural plasticity through their interaction. Neuroplasticity is the changing of brain structures through life experiences. For example, Maguire found the hippocampus of taxi drivers was larger than non-taxi drivers, due to the interaction of learning the street names leading to changes in anatomy of the brain

Free will vs. determinism

• Determinism:

  • Determinism suggests free will is an illusion and our behaviour is controlled by internal (e.g biological) or external factors (e.g role of parents)

  • Behaviour always has a cause which is one of the basic principles of science, meaning deterministic psychologists predict behaviour using experiments to observe cause-effect relationships through manipulation of independent variables and control of extraneous variables

  • Hard determinism suggest we have zero control over our behaviour, this includes: 

    • Biological -- behaviour is innate, such as Gottesman finding 48% concordance rate for szn

    • Environmental -- external causes like experience and learning through conditioning, such as Watson and Rayner’s Little Albert experiment

    • Physic -- behaviour is the result of innate drives and unconscious conflicts of id, ego and superego, such as Freud’s theory of the psychosexual stages and Little Hans case study

  • Soft determinism -- behaviour is constrained by environment but there is an element of free will as our behaviour is predictable but we can choose our behaviour, such as Bandura’s mediational processes

    • Aspects of soft determinism in biological approach includes drug treatments for disorder management and neural plasticity which can be achieved through rehab and speech therapy that regenerates brain (which causes behaviour)

    • Aspects of soft determinism in behaviourism includes systematic desensitisation and idea of positive reinforcement only making behaviours more likely instead of guaranteeing them

  • The case study of Phineas Gage could be hard determinism, as his behaviour was changed via biology, but due to neural plasticity there is a chance for soft determinism being at play

• Free will:

  • Free will suggests behaviour is self-determined and that people have complete choice on how they behave, despite outside forces contributing to behaviour

  • The only complete free will approach is humanists, who use client-centred therapy and with Rogers and Maslow believing people have control over their behaviour and achievement of personal growth

Evaluations

• The deterministic viewpoint is consistent with the features of science, as it allows for psychologists to adopt an objective approach by using the manipulation of variables to find cause-effect relationships that predict future behaviour. However, this approach is criticised for discounting the important of extraneous variables that may not have been controlled, hard determinism makes sweeping generalisations about behaviour and doesn’t consider other influences because there are so many possible variables influencing behaviour that it is arguably impossible to identify a single cause. As well as this, physic determinism is NOT scientific

• Determinism is incompatible with conventional views of morality and the legal system, leading many psychologists to not favour the viewpoint. If accepting that external and internal influences control behaviour, this can be used as an excuse by offenders in court, such as the MAOA and other genes being used to mitigate liability and suggest they had no control over their behaviour. This means using determinism is undesirable due to the implication in society and legal issues

• Free will is a more appropriate approach to understanding behaviour because it is viewed as intuitively correct/desirable due to our subjective experience feeling that we are in control of our behaviour. This is supported by humanism, which has had a positive effect on society through therapy and counselling methods used today. Therefore, there is value in recognising free will as a positive and useful approach to explaining human behaviour.

• Free will is considered an illusion by psychologists like Skinner. Research has suggested that motor regions are activated in our brains before we consciously decide on actions ourselves, supporting biological determinism. The concept of free will is difficult to test as it is an unobservable and unquantifiable concept that cannot be falsified and psychology is a science, leading people to argue that things that aren’t measurable don’t exist. However, this is based on research that measured conscious decision-making through participants articulation as thoughts cannot be measured, which means that it’s possible that we do make decisions before our motor cortex is activated but these thoughts aren’t observable so have been discounted in research.

reductionism vs. holism

• Reductionism:

  • Reductionism is the view that behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into the simplest parts, which aligns with the scientific assumption of parsimony (everything should be explained in the simplest terms possible)

  • Biological reductionism reduces behaviour to single biological components such as genetics and NTs -- explanations of psychological illnesses highlighting a biological cause are biologically reductionist, such as dopamine causing szn

  • Environmental/stimulus-response reductionism -- classical conditioning as a behaviourist concept assumes behaviour can be reduced to a stimulus-response due to behaviour being learnt through associations. For example, attachment is explained as an association of caregiver and pleasure

• Holism:

  • Holism suggests behaviour is too complex to be broken down into parts and the ‘whole’ individual and their experiences should be considered when discussing their behaviour

  • Humanists use qualitative methods to support their holistic investigations and experiments, Maslow proposed his ‘hierarchy of needs’ which considers all contributors to human behaviour (including physiological/biological, esteem/psychological and belonging/social and cultural)

• Rose proposed that there is a hierarchy of different levels of explanations of behaviours, with biological explanations being the lowest and most reductionist; psychological explanations being middle level and social and cultural explanations being the highest

Evaluations

• Reductionism supports a scientific approach, as breaking down behaviour allows for experimental research to take place through manipulation and control of isolated parts/variables in a laboratory setting, allowing for the measuring of their contribution to behaviour. Experimental research has produced empirical support for theories such as the role of biology in psychological illnesses, including szn being caused by dopamine

• Biological reductionism ignores the complexity of human behaviour because reducing behaviour to smallest parts may result in other variables being overlooked and leading to a incomplete understanding of behaviour. For example, it’s problematic and dangerous to isolate a single biological cause for psychological illnesses like szn, because there are a variety of factors involved and people won’t be treated if those aren’t considered, which is expensive and amoral, and ignores the complexity of behaviour. Whereas, adopting the more holistic approach of interactionism has been more effective in explaining conditions like szn

• Holism considers all levels of explanations as it aims to provide a complete understanding of human behaviour. Such as humanists advocating that human subjective experience can’t be investigated through reductionism and can only be fully understood by considering the whole person, their free will and motivations. However, this is difficult to evidence as aspects considered like free will are untestable and theories can’t be objectively evidenced, especially considering that humanists who are psychologists taking the holistic approach are expressly anti-science. As well, reductionism allows for the testing of concepts but also supports the need to study the whole person, through breaking down behaviours.

Idiographic vs. nomothetic

• Reductionism supports a scientific approach, as breaking down behaviour allows for experimental research to take place through manipulation and control of isolated parts/variables in a laboratory setting, allowing for the measuring of their contribution to behaviour. Experimental research has produced empirical support for theories such as the role of biology in psychological illnesses, including szn being caused by dopamine

• Biological reductionism ignores the complexity of human behaviour because reducing behaviour to smallest parts may result in other variables being overlooked and leading to a incomplete understanding of behaviour. For example, it’s problematic and dangerous to isolate a single biological cause for psychological illnesses like szn, because there are a variety of factors involved and people won’t be treated if those aren’t considered, which is expensive and amoral, and ignores the complexity of behaviour. Whereas, adopting the more holistic approach of interactionism has been more effective in explaining conditions like szn

• Holism considers all levels of explanations as it aims to provide a complete understanding of human behaviour. Such as humanists advocating that human subjective experience can’t be investigated through reductionism and can only be fully understood by considering the whole person, their free will and motivations. However, this is difficult to evidence as aspects considered like free will are untestable and theories can’t be objectively evidenced, especially considering that humanists who are psychologists taking the holistic approach are expressly anti-science. As well, reductionism allows for the testing of concepts but also supports the need to study the whole person, through breaking down behaviours.

Evaluations

• The nomothetic approach is considered scientific as it adopts quantitative experimental methods, whereas the qualitative methods used by idiographic approach is criticized for unscientific nature, subjectivity and inability to create general laws or predict behaviours. This limits the usefulness of idiographic approach, particularly in application with treatments of psychological disorders. However, supports of the approach argue that psychologists can only predict behaviour through understanding each individual first, and that in-depth analysis increases validity of its findings

• Nomothetic approaches are useful for adopting the laws of science through controlling and predicting behaviour, leading to useful applications. The biological approach’s explanation of disorders has lead to drug therapies that have been beneficial to treating patients. However, some psychologists argue that alternate treatments like CBT and other therapies are more suitable due to having a more individual and person-centred approach that reflects idiographic principles

• Idiographic and nomothetic methods are argued as best in combination. Idiographic methods like case studies often have results that prompt further research using nomothetic methods, due to the depth and detail inspiring new research ideas or challenging previous theories from nomothetic research. This suggest both methods have value and a mixed method is best due to their complementation of each other. For example, approaches like the cognitive approach use nomothetic approach to create general laws but idiographic methods to explore topics in more depth (e.g KF case study for memory). Eysenck’s theory of personality also explains uniqueness in individuals by drawing on general laws around personality. Therefore, the idiographic and nomothetic distinction could be argued to be a false separation. 

Gender bias

• Gender bias is the differential treatment of genders based on stereotypes and without evidence

  • Alpha bias: theories exaggerate difference of males and females

  • Beta bias: theories minimises differences of males and females

  • Androcentrism: theories focused on males

  • Universality is when a theory can be applied to all people, regardless of culture or gender

• Alpha bias

  • Freud psychodynamic approach argues genders experience different conflicts in the phallic stage, and that women develop a weaker superego

  • Bowlby’s monotropic theory suggests infants innately form an attachment with their mother and deprivation can cause long-term social and emotional effects

• Beta bias

  • Asch’s study only involved male participants but assumed women would respond the same. Mori and Arai found that women were more likely to conform, for example

  • DSM 5 ignores differences in symptoms between genders, like only positive symptoms being more common in women

Evaluations

• Gender bias may affect the validity of research, because they find differences that don’t actually exist due to methodology such as experimenter variables or the fact that women perform differently in lab settings to real settings. Inaccurate research has less scientific rigour and is less useful to the scientific community

• Gender bias has gone unnoticed, leading to gender stereotypes like mothers being the primary caregiver which has real world implications. Researching gender bias calls out stereotypes and moves towards equality in male-dominated subject

Culture bias

• Culture bias is the differential treatment of cultures via alpha or beta bias and judging cultures using your own cultural assumption

  • Ethnocentrism: seeing the world from one cultural perspectives

  • Cultural relativism: understanding behaviour within the cultural context

  • Universality

• Jahoda, deviation from mental health uses autonomy and self-actualisation which isn’t necessary/valued in collectivist cultures

• Strange situation was designed in America but used to assess infant attachment in other cultures, demonstrating imposed etic and ignoring cross cultural differences like German children being more insecure avoidant

• Cultural relativism is needed in attachment types because of parenting styles needing to be taken into account as done by Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg, and psychological disorders like anxiety disorders are informed by culture by what situations/objects are more scary. In japan, there is a syndrome for upsetting people, but this would be a social phobia in UK

Evaluations

• Recognising culture bias is useful because most research is high in culture bias is useful because most research is high in culture bias of western culture and making samples more representative will reduce this

• Ethical implications from culturally biased research as it can cause cultural sterotypes like Americans performing better on IQ tests as they were created in America and can cause people to think Americans are more intelligent than other cutlures. This can lead findings to be invalid and stereotypical, which can be avoided with cutlural bias

• Aims to be more international in psychology, such as indigenous psychology to draw on people’s experiences in different cultural contexts and culturally aware by researchers

Ethical implications and social sensitvity

• Ethical implications are the impacts psychology research has on ppts and the wider context

  • Ethical guidelines are the rules of conduct for carrying out research

  • Ethical issues question morality, such as deception

• Milgram’s study had ethical issues such as informed consent and deception, as well as distress that affected ppts afterwards and effects on people in jobs that have high levels of obedience lik ethe army who are directly instructed by authority figures had results generalised to them making them seem bad/uncaring

• Zimbardo’s study was unethical due to causing distress that made the experiment be stopped early and continued to have adverse effects on the ppts psychologically after. Real police guards had research applied to them and seen as bad people, and Stanford uni was seen negatively for allowing research to take place

• Bowlby’s theory of monotropy has ethical implications as women might feel guilty for going to work when they are meant to be the primary caregivers and not having an attachment in critical period can cause lifelong problems to future relationships, and also makes fathers discouraged ot care for their children

• Socially sensitive research has potential consequences on the groups represented. The research question needs to consider effect on protected characteristics, methodology needs to consider ppt’s right to confidentiality, researcher should be mindful of how the data will be used and who is funding the research and how it may be interpreted and applied to the real world

• Research is not just unethical but socially sensitive if affects these 3 after the study is over (not just during):

  • The ppts in the research/friends and family were affected outside the research

  • The researchers were affected, the institution may also be affected as a result of the study

  • Groups impacted by the socially sensitive research, such as subcultures or subgroups with certain religious/political beliefs, ethnic minorities and sexual preferences (target population)

Evaluations

• Socially sensitive research can lead to discrimination as it has negative implications on members of society, such as Bowlby’s maternal hypothesis which can lead to discrimination against male primary caregivers and working mothers. This can be resolved by considering the wider implications of research

• Socially sensitive research is useful and beneficial to society, such as eyewitness testimonies and anxiety, which has reduced miscarriages of justice because socially sensitive research can be used by government and organisations to shape policy and research into same sex parents and the role of the father in attachment has contributed to paternity leave, showing importance and practical uses of the research