Issues and debates

• Issues --> gender bias, culture bias and ethical implications of research

  Debates --> free will v determinism, nature v nurture, hollism v reductionaism, idiographic v nomotheticholismreductionism
• Gender bias - refers to treating a person in a more favourable or less favourable way based on their gender - this can lead to stereotypes and potentially harm
• Alpha bias - misrepresentation of behaviour because researchers overexaggerate differences between men and women
• Beta bias -when there is a misrepresentation of behaviour because researchers minimise differences between men and women (often assume that the findings from studies using males can apply equally to females)
• Androcentrism - having a male centred of the world - male behaviour is seen to be the norm, more acceptable and desired
• Universality - where a theory is thought to apply to all people in the same way, despite any differences between genders
• Alpha Bias Example - Freud - women are morally inferior to men because of the process of identification (girls do not identify with their mothers as strongly as boys with their fathers) - girls identify passively and boys actively. girls will internalise weaker morals

  He exaggerated the differences between men and women (morality)
• Beta bias example: This occurs when female participants aren’t included as part of the research process and then findings are assumed to be applicable to both sexes equally.For example,the fight or flight response.Early research into this was based exclusively on male animals and was assumed to be an universal response to a threatening situation. Recently, Shelley et al(2000) have suggested that female biology has evolved to inhibit flight or fight response,shifting attention onto caring for offspring
• Androcentrism - problem because it can create misleading assumptions about female behaviour and potentially have negative implications for females

  For example, research has shown many autistic girls and women go undiagnosed due to gender bias (bc it was thought to affect mainly men as studies have recruited male-only ppts)
• LIMITATION GENDER BIAS: Implications of gender bias- gender biased research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour,fail to challenge negative stereotypes and validate discriminatory practices.It may provide a scientific ‘justification’ to deny women opportunities in a workplace or wider society.This has damaging effects on the lives and prospects of women.
• STRENGHT GENDER BIAS: + Avoiding a beta bias = Beta bias has allowed women greater access to educational and occupational opportunities. However Hare, Mustin and Marecek pointed out that arguing for equality draws attention away from women’s special needs, for example equal parenting ignores the biological demands of pregnancy, childbirth and the special needs of women. Therefore, this suggests that some elements of beta bias may actually disadvantage women.
• LIMITATION GENDER BIAS: — Assumptions need to be challenged = Gender bias remains unchallenged in many theories. Darwin’s theory of sexual selection portrays women as choosy and males as the ones who compete to be chosen, arguing that women are coy and males as aggressive as they are in competition with other males. However, this view has been challenged as it has been found that women are equally competitive when needed. DNA evidence supports the idea that it is a good adaptive strategy for females to mate with more than one man and this puts females in competition with other females
• LIMITATION GENDER BIAS: — The laboratory experiment may also be an example of institutionalised sexism within psychology = Male researchers have the authority to deem women as “unreasonable, irrational and unable to complete complex tasks” (Nicolson, 1995). Eagly and Johnson noted that studies in real settings found women and men were judged as more similar in styles of leadership than in lab settings, hence having higher ecological validity.
• culture - The rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people.
• cultural bias - The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgements.
• Cultural relativism – The view that behaviour, morals, standards and values cannot be judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate.
• Alpha bias (culture) — Cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias, where the assumption of real differences lead psychologists to overlook universals.

  An example is the distinction that is often made between individualistic and collectivist cultures. We would expect individualistic cultures to be less conformist as they are less orientated towards group norms and value the needs of the group over the individual.
• Beta bias (culture) example - . An example is IQ tests. Psychologists use IQ tests to study intelligence in many different cultures as they assume that their view of intelligence applies equally to all cultures. However this may not always be the case. Western societies see intelligence as something within the individual whereas in a collectivist culture intelligence is a functional relationship depending on shared information between the individual and society. The result is that non-western people may appear less intelligent.
• Ethnocentrism – An example of alpha bias and leads to beta bias. Seeing things from the point of view of ourselves and our social group. Evaluating other groups of people using the standards and customs of one’s own culture. In its extreme form, ethnocentrism can lead to prejudice and discrimination against ‘lesser’ cultures.
• Example of Ethnocentrism: Ainsworth’s Strange Situation is an example of cultural relativism due to suggesting that a secure attachment was only characterised by moderate separation and stranger anxiety. Therefore, German mothers, whose children showed little separation and stranger anxiety (thus being insecure-avoidant according to Ainsworth’s system), were deemed as cold and rejecting.
• Limitation culture bias:

  — Bias in research methods: Smith and Bond surveyed research in one European textbook on social psychology and found that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European and 2% from the rest of the world. A considerable amount of psychology is based on middle class academic young adults who are males. This suggests that there is almost an institutionalised cultural bias in psychology, as students would be learning about ‘universal’ behaviours that were demonstrated only in certain cultures.
• Limitation culture bias:

  — Consequences of cultural bias: The US army IQ test showed that European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IQ. This data has a profound effect on attitudes held by Americans towards certain groups of people, leading to stereotyping and discrimination.
• Limitation culture bias: Not all behaviours are affected by cultural bias: Although there may be differences in rates of obedience (Milgram) and conformity (Asch) between collectivist and individualist/Western cultures, universal behaviours still exist. e.g. Ekman et al. demonstrated that facial expressions of anger, guilt + disgust were universally recognised across all cultures. Interactional synchrony + reciprocity are universal features of infant-caregiver interactions. Therefore, this suggests that to fully understand behaviour, we must look at both universal and culture-bound examples.
• Determinism — The belief that behaviour is controlled by external or internal factors acting upon the individual and beyond their control. There are 3 types of determinism: biological, environmental and psychic.
• Biological determinism — The view that behaviour is always caused by internal biological forces beyond our control, such as the influence of genes. For example, research on intelligence has identified particular genes in those with high intelligence, such as the IGF2R gene (Hill et al,1999). Also, genes which affect brain structure and neurotransmitter production (i.e. serotonin and dopamine) may also determine our behaviour e.g. the CDH-13 and MAOA gene being candidate genes for criminality.
• Environmental determinism — The belief that behaviour is caused by previous experience through classical and operant conditioning. i.e. phobias are a result of conditioning, as demonstrated by Watson’s study on Little Albert and Skinner’s Box (operant conditioning determining the behaviour of lab rats). These are external forces, over which we have no control.
• Psychic determination — Freud’s theory of personality suggests that adult behaviour is determined by a mix of innate drives and early experience. These result in unconscious conflicts over which we have no control. For example, Freud’s psychosexual stages of development suggests that each stage is characterised by a conflict which, if unresolved, leads to fixation in adulthood e.g. anal expulsive personalities being the result of fixation at the anal stage.
• Free will — Each individual has the power to make choices about their behaviour, without being determined by internal or external forces beyond their control. A common feature of the humanistic approach.
• Hard determinism — The view that all behaviour can be predicted, according to the action of internal and external forces beyond our control, and so there can be no free will. For example, behaviourism suggests that all behaviour is the product of classical and operant conditioning, the biological approach sees behaviour as the product of genes and neurochemistry, whilst social learning theory suggests that behaviour is the product of vicarious reinforcement and mediational processes.
• Soft determinism — A version of determinism that allows for some element of free will and suggests that all events, including human behaviour, has a cause. For example, the cognitive approach suggests that individuals can reason and make decisions within the limits of their cognitive system.
• Limitation determinism - 100% genetic determinism is unlikely to be found for any behaviour. = Studies that compare monozygotic twins have found 80% similarity for intelligence and 40% for depression. This suggests that genes do not entirely determine behaviour and supports an interactionist standpoint. The fact that concordance rates for MZ twins are often higher than for siblings, despite both sharing 50% of genes, may be due to MZ twins being more likely to share the same environment.
• limitation determinism — Determinism simplifies human behaviour. = This may be appropriate for non-humans but human behaviour is less rigid and influenced by many factors i.e. cognitive factors which can override biological impulses. For example, aggression cannot be simplified to the action of the endocrine system and adrenaline. There are cognitive factors and accompanying emotions which are just as, or more important, than the biological aspects.
• limitation determinism: approach may be used for people to try + justify behaviours if they have committed a crime. = Undesirable as it excuses their behaviour. Therefore, a hard deterministic stance is not in line with the principles of the judicial system, which sees individuals as taking moral responsibility for their actions. D. has also led to treatment methods for mental disorders, like depression thru the control of serotonin by using SSRIs and SNRIs. However, this biological deterministic approach doesn't allow the use of treatments not based on biological mechanisms (CBT)
• FREE WILL - The Humanistic Approach — Humanistic psychologists argue that self-determinism is a necessary part of human behaviour. Rogers (1959) claimed that as long as an individual remains controlled by other people or other things they cannot take responsibility for their own behaviour and therefore cannot change it. Only when an individual takes self responsibility is personal growth or ‘self-actualisation’ possible. By taking such a stance, humanism has been praised as a positive approach, essentially seeing people as good and free to ‘better themselves’.
• FREE WILL: Moral responsibility — The basis is that an individual is in charge of their own actions. The law states that children and those who are mentally ill do not have this responsibility but other than this, there is an assumption that normal adult behaviour is self determined. Therefore, humans are accountable for their behaviour regardless of innate factors or early experience.
• Limitation free will:

  — Illusion of free will — A person may choose to do something but these choices are determined by previous reinforcement contingencies, as suggested by the behaviourist approach. This is a hard deterministic stance. — Challenge to the idea of free will
• Limitation of free will: — Benjamin Libet et al (1983) recorded activity in motor areas of the brain before the person had a conscious awareness to move their finger. Chun Soon et al (2008) found activity in the prefrontal cortex up to 10 seconds before a person was aware of their decision to act. This suggests that the motor activity preceding movement occurred before the conscious decision was made, and so implies that all behaviour is pre-determined by up to 10 seconds. + Free will has good face validity
• strength of free will:

  + Free will has good face validity — In everyday scenarios, we appear to be making our own decisions. Therefore, the idea of free will has good face validity because we appear to have free will in our day to day lives.
• strength free will: + Free will has high internal validity — Robert et al. found that adolescents with an internal locus of control (an individual’s idea of what controls events in their lives) are less likely to develop depression and are more likely to have better mental health, compared to those with an external locus of control. These differences in LOC and mental health states supports the idea that free will can be used to help us determine what controls our life events, and so we make such conscious decisions.
• Environment — Everything that is outside our body, including people, events and the physical world. Any influence on behaviour which is non-genetic.