Issues and Debates

• Nature - behaviour is seen as a product of innate factors
• Hereditary


  Process by which traits are passed from parents to offspring, usually referring to genetic inheritance
• Nurture - behaviour is the product of environmental influences
• Factors influencing behaviour

  • Nature
  • Environment
• Interactionist Approach


  The idea that nature and nurture influence each other
• Nature


  Refers to innate biological influences, including characteristics determined by genes
• Nurture


  Environmental influences acquired through interactions with the world
• Strength of the nature-nurture debate is the development of the diathesis-stress model
• Limitation of the nature vs nurture debate is that it has become meaningless
• Research by Maguire suggests that the hippocampus of London taxi drivers was larger compared to non-taxi drivers
• Reductionist approach involves breaking down behaviors into simplified components
• Holistic approach suggests understanding the whole experience to fully understand complex phenomena
• A holistic approach suggests that we need to understand the whole experience to fully understand complex phenomena and behaviours
• Levels of reductionist explanations

  • Lowest level: biological explanations
  • Middle level: psychological explanations of behaviour
  • Highest level: cultural and social explanations of how social groups affect behaviour
• Examples by reduction

  • Biological reduction - reduces complex behavior to biological factors
  • Environmental reduction - reduces behavior to simple environmental factors
  • Experimental reduction during complex behaviors to isolated variables is useful for conducting research
• One issue with environmental reductionism is that experiments might not apply to human behavior
• The behavioral approach was developed because of experiments on animals, but such explanations may not be appropriate for complex human behaviors
• Idiographic


  Focuses on the individual and recognition of uniqueness, subjectivity, and conscious experiences. Uses qualitative methods of investigation.
• Nomothetic


  Attempts to establish laws and generalisations about people. Uses quantitative methods of investigation.
• Types of nomothetic approaches

  • Classifying people into groups
  • Establishing principles
  • Group averages
• Classifying people into groups


  • Such as DSM for classifying people with psychological disorders
• Establishing principles


  • Such as Eysenck's personality inventory which allows for comparisons between people
• Group averages


  • Quantitative data is statistically analysed to create predictions about people
• Idiographic approach


  Provides a more complete, holistic understanding of the individual
• Nomothetic approach


  Although predictions can be made about groups, they may not apply to individuals
• The idiographic approach is relatively time-consuming when it comes to data collection
• The nomothetic approach is more efficient when it comes to data collection as data can be more easily generalised
• Gender bias


  Leads to different treatment of males and females, based on stereotypes and perceived differences
• beta bias

  Theories have traditionally grounded or minimised differences. Those theories assume that assumptions for males can apply equally to females
• Issues of gender bias often go unchallenged, for example, Darwin's established theory of sexual selection
• One way to counter androcentrism

  1. Take a feminist perspective

  2. Attempt to restore the influence in psychological theories and research
• Feminist psychology accepts that there are biological differences between males and females
• Research by Eagly (1978)

  • Claims that females are less effective leaders than males
  • Training was developed for women to improve their leadership
• A further limitation is that research that challenges gender biases may not be published
• Forumowicz et al (2018) found that research related to gender bias is less funded and published in prestigious journals
• Cultural bias


  A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the 'lens' of one's own culture
• Universality


  The underlying characteristics of human beings that are capable of being applied to all, despite differences in experience and upbringing
• When reviewing 100s of studies in leading psychological journals, Henrich et al (2010) found that 96% of participants came from industrialized nations
• WEIRD


  Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democracies
• Ethnocentrism


  When a person judges other cultures by the standards and values of their own culture