ISSUES AND DEBATES

• REDUCTIONISM VS HOLISM?

  AO1:

  • reductionism: scientific, break down into simpler components
  • BIOLOGICAL (Soomro, Nestadt, OCD)
  • ENVIRONMENTAL (Watson + Rayner, Lang + Lazovik, Wolpe)
  • holism: whole individual, experience, social context
  • HUMANISTIC psychology (Maslow, Rogers)

  AO3:

  + (R) scientific, control, causation, (biological) drug therapy but oversimplify, superficial understanding, lacks ecological validity

  + (H) more reflective of human behaviour, higher ecological validity, complete understanding but establish contribution size, no rigorous testing/ reliable theory support, emergence as science
• FREE WILL VS DETERMINISM?

  AO1:

  • free will: self-determination, internal/ external pressures, humanistic, Maslow/ Rogers
  • determinism: no control over actions, different sources/ levels
  • HARD: all behaviour caused
  • SOFT: caused to an extent (operate within limits) - cognitive approach
  • BIOLOGICAL (MAOA-L)
  • ENVIRONMENTAL (phobias)
  • PSYCHIC (fixations)

  AO3:

  + (D) prediction, prevention, crime (MAOA) but legal system, responsibility, excuse

  + (F) RWA, positive outlook, Maslow, client-centred, relapse but no scientific research, no cause and effect, treatment (systematic desensitisation)
• NATURE VS NURTURE

  AO1:

  • nature: Nativists, innate, hereditary, predisposition/ pre-programmed (Bowlby, Brunner)
  • nurture: Empiricists, blank slate, experiences, conditioning (Pavlov, Skinner, Watson + Rayner)
  • interactionism: linked, psychodynamic (ID vs trauma)
  • passive (association between genotype and environment)
  • active (genotype influences environment actively selected)

  AO3:

  + (NAT) Nestadt, 68%, genetic influence but not 100%, diathesis-stress model/ same environment, similar for monozygotic

  + (NUR) Maguire, hippocampus but cause and effect, pre-existing differences
• IDIOGRAPHIC VS NOMOTHETIC?

  AO1:

  • idiographic: individual, unique, subjective experiences, qualitative (unstructured interviews/ case studies/ thematic analysis),
  • humanistic/ psychodynamic methods
  • nomothetic: general principles, universal laws, predict, control, scientific method, quantitative (experiments/ controlled observations/ correlations/ statistical tests),
  • behaviourist/ cognitive/ biological/ social learning theory/ psychodynamic theories

  AO3:

  + (N) scientific, replicable, cause and effect, SSRIs but individual differences, trauma, cognitions, OCD

  + (I) detailed, holistic, ecological validity, Little Hans but not generalisable, no laws, difficult to replicate or predict, psychodynamic, reputation
• GENDER BIAS?

  AO1:

  • alpha bias: exaggerates differences, devalue one gender
  • Bowlby's Monotropic Attachment theory
  • beta bias: minimises differences, overlook one gender
  • Milgram/ Asch
  • Taylor
  • pre-menstrual syndrome
  • androcentrism: impose male point of view
  • Freud

  AO3:

  -. Gavin (legal system) but research emphasising women's strengths and positive attributes

  -. Duehr + Bono (derailment)
• CULTURE BIAS?

  AO1:

  • cultural bias: prejudice/ ignore/ 5%, 65%, 70%
  • emic (insider) vs etic (outsider), imposing etic caused by ethnocentrism
  • Fafafini
  • cultural relativism

  AO3:

  -. bias in diagnosis, schizophrenia, Afro-Caribbean, UK/ USA, cultural relativism

  + Van IJZendoorn and Kroonenberg, cross-cultural but imposed, Ainsworth, stigmas
• ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS?

  AO1:

  • socially sensitive research
  • Sieber and Stanley (research question, methodology, institutional context, interpretation and analysis of findings)
  • prejudice, participants, funding, media, misuse

  AO3:

  -. Bowlby, father, self-fulfilling prophecies, worthless, sexism but useful, child EWT, reliable, timely, appropriate, accuracy, validity