issues and debates

• alpha bias

  this research exaggerates the differences between the sexes. it states these differences are real and fixed. these differences typically devalue females more than males
• beta bias 

  this research reduces the differences between the sexes. usually occurs when females are not included in research samples and it is assumed that the findings from males apply equally to females 
• androcentrism

  beta bias can lead to androcentrism. if male behaviour is accepted as the definition of 'normal' behaviour then any deviation from that will be seen as 'abnormal' or 'inferior' by comparison 
• A03 gender bias (negative stereotypes)

  • gender bias research can create misleading assumptions about female behaviour and fail to challenge negative stereotypes
  • for example, the statistic that women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression as men may be skewed by hormonal functions which affect mood
  • this statistic may lead to doctors (mostly men) to give diagnoses fufilling the incorrect expectation that women are more at risk of depression
  • such research provides scientific justification to deny women opportunities within the workplace / wider society
• A03 gender bias (lack of senior female psychologists)

  • at a senior research level, women are in the minority so their concerns may not be reflected in the research
  • male researchers are more likely to have their work published and stduies find significant gender differences are more likely to be published that those that do not
  • also, lab experiments may diadvanatge women as female pps are usually paired with male researchers who have the power to label them as unreasonable or irrational
  • therefore, the psychology may be guility of institutional sexism that create a bias in the theory / research
• A03 gender bias (inaccurate research attacking women's education)

  • essentialist psychology suggests that gender differences reported by psychologists are inevitable and fixed in nature
  • in 1930s, scientific research revealed how intellectual activity, such as attending uni, would shrivel a woman's ovaries and harm her chances of giving birth (walkerdine 1990)
  • such essentialist accounts in psychology are often politically motivated arguments disguised as biological facts
• A03 gender bias (more qualititive methods should be used)

  • there are ways to reduce gender bias which appear in much psychological research
  • worrell (1992) suggests women should be studied in meanigful real- life contexts
  • she also suggested that diversity within groups of women should be studied more instead of looking at comparisions between women and men
  • in conclusion, methods which use qualitative data collection are much more beneficial in understanding gender differences rather than quantitative methods
• cultural differences vs cultural bias

  we would expect basic cultural differences to vary in behaviour from society to society, as different norms and values influence the way people think and behave. the argument is that psychological research can ignore or misinterpret differences between cultures and impose an understanding based on study of one culture alone to other cultures 
• statistics of american psychologists 

  in 1992, 64% of the 56000 worlds psychologists were American 94% of published studies are estimated to be conducted in North America
• Milgrim and replications that highlight cultural differences 

  • USA - 65% delivered fatal electric shocks of 450V four times (Milgrim)
  • Australia - 28% delivered fatal electric shocks of 450V four times (Kilham)
  • Germany - 85% delivered fatal electric shocks of 450V four times (Mantell)
• universality and bias

  mainstream psychology has generally ignored culture as an important influence on human behaviour + by doing so has mistakenly assumed that findings carried out in Western cultures can be straightforwardly applied all over the world
• ethnocentrism

  • belief in the superioirity of one's own cultural group
  • any behaviour which do not conform to your culture (western) must be deficient + unsophsticated
  • e.g. strange situation -> led to misunderstanding of child rearing practises in other countries as they deviate from American norms 
• cultural relativism 

  theories that beliefs, customs and morality exist in relation to the particular culture from which they originate + are not absolute
• EMIC

  • where behaviours are examined + interpreted by researchers within the culture
  • ainsworh's development of strange situation was EMIC in the US
• ETHIC

  • where behaviours are examined across different cultures + interpreted by researchers outside the cultures
  • Ainsworth study on Ugandan mothers
• A03 cultural bias (universal norms) 

  • cultural research has made the distrinction between collectivist + individualist cultures
  • individual cultures are thought to value personal freedom and independence. collectivist cultures place more emphasis on interdependence and the needs of the group
  • critics have argued that in the age of globalisation distinction between cultures no longer applies. Takano + Osaka found 15 studies that compare the USA + Japan found no evidence of the traditional distinction between the 2 
  • this suggests that cultural bias is less of an issue than it once was
• A03 cultural bias (no such this as universal human behaviour)

  • it should not be assumed that all psychology is culturally relative + there is no such thing as universal human behaviour
  • Ekman suggests that basic facial expressions for emotions are all the same all over the human world
  • critiques of Ainsworth's strange situation not obscure the fact that some features of human attachment such as imitation + interactional synchrony are universal
  • this suggests a comprehesive understanding of human behaviour would require the study of both universals and variation among individuals / groups
• A03 cultural bias (issue with operationalised variables)

  • one issue with conducted research in different cultures is that the variables may not be operationalised the same way in all cultures
  • for instance, the expression of emotions such as 'aggression' are viewed more negatively within an indigenous population than they would in the west
  • in china, the invasion of personal space is seen as nomal whereas the west would find this threatening
  • issues like this may affect interactions between researcher + pps or between western + non-western in cross-cultural studies
• A03 cultural bias (challenges our western thinking)

  • one of the benefits of conducting cross-cultural research is that it challenge our typically western way of thinking + viewing the world
  • seeing certain concepts we take for granted would promote a greater sensitivity to individual differences + cultural relativism in the future
  • this not only counters the charge of 'scientific racism' that has been made against some theories in the past
  • the conclusion psychologists draw are likely to have more validity if they include recognition of the role of culture in bringing them about
• free will

  as human beings, we are self-determining and free to choose out thoughts and actions. a belief in free will does not deny that there may be biological and environmental forces that exert some influence on our behaviour, but implies that we are able to reject these forces and control our own destiny
• hard determinism

  • fatalism
  • suggests all behaviour has a cause and shoul be possible to identify + describe these causes
  • compatible with the aims of science, everything we think or do is controlled by external factors
• soft determinism

  • suggests there is some room for manoeuvre in that people have conscious mental control over the way they behave
  • although science can explain determining forces which act upon us, we still have the freedom to make rational choices + are responsible for such choices 
• what are the 3 types of determinism

  • biology
  • environment
  • psyche
• biological determinism

  • many physiological processes not under concious control (flight/fight)
  • many behaviours + mental illnesses have a genetic basis (sz)
• environmental determinism

  • behaviourists suggest behaviour is a result of conditioning
  • choice does not exist but is just a summation of all reinforcement contingencies (weigh up costs and rewards)
• psyche determinism

  • behaviour determined by unconcious conflicts repressed in childhood
  • there are no accidents + even a simple slip of tongue represents underlying unconcious thought (Freudian slip)
• A03 free will vs determinism (for determinism)

  • determinism is consistent with the aims of science
  • the assumption behaviour is ordely + obeys laws places psychology on equal footing with other sciences
  • research into the prediction and control of human behaviour has led to the development of treatments, therapies and behavioural interventions that have benefitted many e.g. psychotherapeutic drugs treatment in controlling + managing sz
  • the experience of mental disorders challenges the notion of free will.as no one woul chose to have sz. in terms of mental illness, behaviour appears determined
• A03 free will vs determinism (against determinism)

  • while hard determinism dictates individual choice is not the cause of behaviour
  • in a court of law, offenders are held morally accountable for their actions
  • also, determinism as an approach is unfalsifiable. it is based on the idea that causes of behaviour will always exist even if they haven't yet been found
  • this is impossible to prove wrong so the deterministic approach to explaining human behaviour may not be as scientific as it first appears
• A03 free will vs determinism (for free will)

  • the notion of free will has face validity as engaging in everyday life shows we are constantly engaging in free will and making our own decisions
  • research suggests that people with an internal locus of control tend to be more mentally healthy
  • Robertson et al (2000) demonstrated that aolescents with a strong belief in fatalism were at a greater risk of developing depression
  • even if we do not have free will, the fact that we think we do can have a positive impact on psychological wellbeing and behaviour
• A03 free will vs determinism (against free will)

  • neurological studies into decision making have challenged the notion of free will
  • studies by Libert (1985) and Chun Siong Soon et al demonstrated that the brain activity that determines the outcome of simple choices may predate our knowledge of having made a choice
  • the researcher found that the activity related to whether to press the button with the left or right had occurs in the brain 10 seconds after the pps reports being conciously aware of making a decision
  • this shows that basic thoughts are determined by our brain before we are aware
• nature

  • derived from Nativist theory (biological approach) 
  • suggests psychological characteristics are as inherited as physical characteristics (intelligence + personality determined by biology through genes
• nurture

  • derived from empiricist theory (behaviourist approach) that knowledge derived from learning behaviour as a result of our environment (socialisation)
• interactionist between nature vs nurture

  heredity and the environment influence each other e.g genetic vulnerability genetically can only become an issue if triggered from an environmental stressor
• diathesis-stress model nature vs nurture

  interactionist approach genes create a vulnerability to a trait/behaviour/illness which is required but it can only be activated by an environmental stressor
• levels of the environment

  Pre-natal level -> mother's physical and psychological well-being influences the child 

  Environment child grows up in -> impact of parents and family in terms of political, social, historical and cultural contexts
• epigenetics

  refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code. It is a process that occurs throughout our lives and caused by interaction with the environment
• Dias and Ressler (2014)

  Procedure - paired sweet smell with electric shocks creating a negative association in male lab mice

  Findings - this negative association was passed onto the offspring despite never experiencing the smell before or meeting their father
• A03 nature vs nurture (danger of accepting a wholly nativist or empiricist view)

  • nativists suggest 'anatomy is destiny' and environment has little input on our traits or behaviours
  • this is highly deterministic leading to controversy such as the race/intelligence debate used to justify social inequality and oppression
  • alternatively, empiricts suggest behaviour can be shaped simply by altering environmental conditions
  • this could lead to advocate a model of society where citezens are controlled using reinforcement and punishment
• A03 nature vs nurture (shared and unshared environments)

  • one problem of research in this area is that hereditary and the environment can never truly be seperated
  • siblings and twins within the same family don't share identical upbringings and experience life events
  • a life event such as divorce will be experienced differently by 2 siblings depending on factors like age and temperament
  • this explains why even MZs reared together don't show perfect concordance rates
• A03 nature vs nurture (constructivism)

  • people create their own environment by selecting those which suit their nature
  • a naturally more aggressive child is more likely to feel comfortable around children who exhibit similar behaviours
  • consequently, this environment is likely to have an effect on their development
  • again showing nature and nurture cannot be meanigfully separated