Issues and Debates

• What is alpha bias?

  Differences between men and women are exaggerated. Therfore, sterotypically male and female characteristics may be emphasised
• What is beta bias?

  Differences between men and women are minimized. Often occurs when findings obtained from men are applied to women without additional validation
• What is androcentrism?

  Taking male thinking/behaviour as normal, regarding female thinking/behaviour as deviant
• Positives of alpha bias?

  Led to some theorists to assert the worth and valuation of feminine qualities
• Positives of beta bias?

  • Makes people see men and women as the same, which has led to equal treatment in legal terms
• Negative consequences of alpha bias?

  • Focus on differences between gender leads to the impliation of similarity within genders
  • Can sustain prejudices and stereotypes
• Negative consequences of beta bias?

  • Draws attention away from differences in power between men and women
• Examples of alpha bias research?

  • Freud
  • Believed that there were real significant differences between mena nd women
• Examples of beta bias?

  • Research done by Asch
  • Milgram
  • Zimbardo
• What are 3 pieces of gender bias in the research process?

  • Institutional sexism
  • Use of standardized procedures in research studies
  • Dissemination of research results through academic journals
• What is universality?

  Any underlying characteristics of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences in experience and upbrining
• What is ethnocentrism?

  Judging other cultures by the standars of one owns culture
• What is emics?

  Emic construct is one that is applied only to one cultural group, so they vary from place to place
• Whaat is etics?

  An etic construct is a theoretical idea that is assumed to apply in all cultural groups
• What is an example of ethnocentric research?

  Yerkes mass IQ testing of American army recruits displayed cultural bias as it measured knowledge of US culture not intelligence
• What is cultural relativism?

  • The idea that norms and values can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts
• Example of culturally bias research?

  Ainsworths strange situation for attachment
• Determinism proposes that all behaviour has a cause and is thus predictable.
• Strengths of free will?

  • Emphasises the importance of the individual and studying individual differences
  • Fits societys view of personal responsibilit
• Limitations of free will?

  • Free will is subjective
  • Impossible to scientifically test the concept of free will
  • Few people would agree that behaviour is always completely under the control of the individual
• What are the three types of determinism?

  • Environmental determinsim
  • Biological determinism
  • Psychic determinism
• What is hard determinism?

  Sees free will as an illusion and believes that every event and action has a cause
• What is soft determinsm?

  Suggests people do have a choice, but that choice is constrained by external factors
• What are strengths of soft determinism?

  • Determinism is scientific and allows cause and effect relastionships to be found
• What are limitations of determinsm?

  • Reductionsit
  • Doesn't account for individual differences
• What approach is hard determinst?

  Behaviourist
• What approch is soft determinist?


  Psyychodynamic and SLT
• Whaet are the 5 major features of science?

  • Empiricism
  • Objectivity
  • Replicability
  • Control
  • theory construction
• Limitations (AO3) of nature

  • The problem of the transgenerational effect. Behavior that appears to be determined by nature (and therefore is used to support this nativist view) may, in fact, be determined by nurture! e.g., if a woman has a poor diet during her pregnancy, her unborn child will suffer.
• What approachs is a clear example of the nuture debate?

  Behaviourist approach and SLT
• Strengths (AO3) of nurture debate

  • Empirical evidence shows that behavior is learned and can be modified through conditioning.
• What is reductionism?

  • The idea that it can be reduced to simple parts
  • Claims behaviour is predictbale as it is determined by one facotr
• What is a holistic piece of evidence?

  Bartletts schema theory is a holistic view on how memory works
• What is strengths of reductionist research?

  • Allows detailed look at components affecting behaviour
  • Explains certain types of behaviours
  • Scientific and open to testing
• Weaknesses of reductionist approach?

  Over simplifies complex behaviours

  Doesnt take into account other factors affecting behaviour
• What is holism?

  Looks at the whole picture so is useful when studying individuals
• What is strengths of holistic research?

  • Looks at erverything that may impact on behaviour
  • considers more than one cause
• What is weaknesses of holistic research?

  • Non scientific
  • Doesnt explain mental illness adequately
  • Over complicates behaviours that may have a simple explanation
• What is the model called linking to the interactionist approach?

  Stress-diathesis model
• What is supporting evidence of the stress-diathesis model?

  Finnish adoption study

  Found group with schizo mothers had a 10% rate of schizo

  They also found that environment played a role in schizophrenia