issues & debates

• why may psychologists be biased?

  they may hold beliefs and values which are influenced by the social and historical context within which they live, which may be biased towards a subjective view that doesn't reflect objective reality
• what is Alpha bias?

  research that focuses on differences between men and women, and therefore tends to present a view that exaggerates these differences
• what is beta bias?

  research that focuses on the similarities between men and women, and therefore tends to present a view that ignores or minimises differences
• what is an example of Alpha bias in research?

  Freud suggested that the phallic phase of development gave boys castration anxiety, which is resolved when the boy identifies with his father. A girl's identification with her mother is weaker, meaning her superego is weaker. Therefore girls are morally inferior.
• what is an example of Beta Bias in research?

  Biological research tends to favour men and male animals, as female behaviour is viewed to be affected by hormonal changes during ovulation. This ignores female behaviour, and assumes male behaviour can apply to everyone, leading to a misinterpretation of female behaviour
• why is psychology androcentric?

  most psychologists are male, so psychology has been a subject produced for men, by men, and about men. Women's behaviour has been misunderstood and pathologised , e.g. PMS medicalises women's emotions such as anger, where as this is seen as a rational response for men
• what are the evaluations for gender bias in psychology?

  -gender differences are presented as fixed and enduring, we should be wary of accepting findings as biological facts when they might be better explained as social stereotypes

  -it promotes sexism, women remain underrepresented in psychology so research may disadvantage female ps

  -research challenging gender bias may not be published, this research is less funded and less likely to be published in prestigious journals so less scholars are aware of it, and it's not taken as seriously as other biases
• why is most psychological research not considered to be universal (culture)?

  Henrich et al found that 68% of ps came from the US, 96% from industrialised nations, and 80% of ps were undergraduates studying psychology
• what is WEIRD?

  westernised, educated people from industrialised, rich democracies
• what is the problem with the standard of behaviour being set by WEIRD?

  behaviour of people from non-westernised, less educated, agricultural, and poorer cultures is inevitably seen as 'abnormal' and 'inferior'
• what is Ethnocentrism?

  judging other cultures by the standards and value of one's own culture, and sometimes a belief in the superiority of one's own cultural group
• what is an example of ethnocentrism in research?

  Ainsworth's strange situation was criticised for only reflecting the norms and values of western cultures, which led to a misinterpretation of child rearing practices in other countries
• what is an etic approach?

  An outsider's perspective or an objective analysis of a culture which then describes the behaviour as universal
• what is an emic approach?

  an insider's perspective of a culture which identifies and analyses a behaviour specific to that culture
• what research is an example of imposed etic?

  Ainsworth studied behaviour inside of one culture (America), and then applied the theory universally
• what should psychologists be wary of in their research?

  cultural relativism - the 'things' they discover may only make sense from the perspective of the culture within which they were discovered
• what are the evaluations for cultural bias in psychology?

  -many of the most influential studies are culturally biased

  -has led to prejudice against groups of people, IQ tests were used to inform racist discourse about the genetic inferiority of of particular cultural and ethnic groups, justifies prejudice and discrimination

  -emergence of cultural psychology, study of how people are shaped by their cultural experiences, modern psychologists are mindful of the dangers of culture bias and take steps to avoid it
• what is free will?

  The belief that Human's are self-determining and free to choose their own thoughts and action, however it doesn't deny that there may be biological or environmental influences, but we are able to reject them
• what is Determinism?

  The belief that an individual's behaviour is shaped by internal or external forces rather than an individual's will to do something
• what is hard determinism?

  The belief that all human behaviour has a cause e.g. it's dictated by external or internal forces
• what is soft determinism?

  The view that most behaviour may be predictable, but there's also room for personal choice from a limited range of possibilities
• what are the three main types of determinism?

  biological, environmental, and psychic
• what is biological determinism?

  the belief that behaviour is caused by biological influences we can't control e.g. the influence of genes on mental health
• what is environmental determinism?

  the belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment that we cant control. For example, Skinner argued that behaviour is due to conditioning.
• what is psychic determinism?

  The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that we cannot control e.g. Freud saw behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood
• what are the evaluations of the free will v determinism argument?

  -free will has practical value, common sense view is that we exercise free choice and this belief can improve our mental health

  -brain scans don't support free will, research found that brain activity spiked before ps consciously felt they'd decided to act

  -determinism contradicts the legal system
• what is the interactionist approach?

  view that behaviour rises from a combination from both nurture and nature factors
• what is the diathesis stress model?

  it suggests that behaviour is caused by a biological or environmental vulnerability, which is expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental trigger
• what are epigenetics?

  A change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves, which is caused by an interaction with the environment as aspects of our lifestyle or events we encounter leave "marks" in our DNA which switch genes on and off
• what is nature?

  refers inherited characteristics or heredity
• what is nurture?

  refers to the influence of experiences and the environment
• what is concordance?

  the degree to which two people are similar on a particular trait. This provides an estimate about the extent to which a trait is inherited
• what is heritability?

  the proportion of differences between individuals in a population with regards to a particular trait which is due to genetic variation
• what are the evaluations of the nature-nurture debate?

  -research support of twin studies, shows research can separate the influences of nature and nurture

  -support for epigenetics, WW2 caused low weight babies who were more likely to develop schizophrenia, shows previous generations can leave epigenetic "markers"

  -real world application, people with high genetic risk of OCD can receive advice about the likelihood of developing the disorder and how to prevent it
• what is holism?

  looking at a system as a whole instead of breaking it into smaller units e.g. Humanism focuses on the individual's experience and use of qualitative methods of investigation
• what is reductionism?

  analysing behaviour by breaking it down into it's constituent parts
• what are the levels of explanation?

  socio-cultural, psychological, physical, environmental/behavioural, physiological, neurochemical
• what is biological reductionism?

  attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level e.g. hormones and genes
• what is environmental reductionism?


  the attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience
• what are the evaluations of the holism & reductionism debate?

  -Holism lacks practical value as it'd difficult to know which factor is the most influential and should be treated

  -reductionism forms the basis of the scientific approach, operationalised values makes it possible to conduct and record observations

  -reductionism has less validity as it oversimplifies complex phenomena

  -some behaviours can only be understood at a higher level, some behaviour only emerges in group contexts e.g. conformity