Issues

• Universality and bias


  Psychologists are people who hold values and beliefs which may influence the social and historical context which they study in and live. This undermines psychology's claims to universality as conclusions drawn should be applicable to anyone anywhere though this is not the case.

  
  

  This can negatively affect those researched or those the research is applied to while also being subjective, making it pre-scientific
• 3 types of gender bias

  Alpha bias - Exaggerating the differences between the sexes which is mainly used to devalue women (SZ more diagnosed in men - Cotton et al - Women more likely to be able to function more)

  
  

  Beta bias - Ignores the differences between men and women, typically men only studied (Fight and flight - Taylor - Women tend and befriend)

  
  

  Androcentrism - The consequences of beta bias which allows "normal" behaviour to be judged and upheld by a male standard despite fundamental biological and psychological differences between men and women
• AO3 - Gender bias


  Challenging gender bias can result in more research being done - more equality

  
  

  Understanding gender bias allows psychologists to develop theories which emphasise importance or value of women (Cornwall et al - Women better at learning as more attentive and organised.) This allows the challenging of gender stereotypes, reducing gender bias

  
  

  Taking a feminist approach which attempts to restore the imbalance in psychological theories and research. Eagly - Women are less effective leaders but the purpose of this claim is to help the development of training programmes to increase female leaders

  
  

  Worrell - Number of research criteria to ensure non gender biased research such as exploring personal lives of women, consideration of women in their natural setting, studying of diverse samples to explore relevant variables

  
  

  The acceptance of differences but not suggesting which can be worse or better

  
  

  Alpha bias can positively affect women - More women diagnosed with depression
• Cultural bias


  Psychologists typically are from western countries. This means research and findings allow for behaviour to be judged from this standard, any cultural differences seen as abnormal or inferior

  
  

  Ethnocentrism - The belief that there is a superiority of one's own cultural group, undermining differences in cultures.

  
  

  Imposed etic - Berry - The assumption that a measure that works in one culture is applicable to another.

  Etic - Behaviour from outside, universal

  Emic - Behaviour from inside - specific

  
  

  Cultural relativism - The idea that a behaviour can only be properly understood and therefore have meaning in the specific context of the norms and values in which it occurs
• AO3 - Culture bias

  Previous distinctions between individualistic and collectivist cultures are out of date. Osaka - 14/15 studies comparing Japan and the US have no distinction

  
  

  Berry's concept is useful but some behaviour is universal - Fight or flight

  
  

  Has significant real world effects - US army suggesting African-American have less IQ than white majority which is justifying negative attitudes

  
  

  Smith & Bond - Psychological research is severely unrepresentative and this can be improved by selecting different cultural groups and recognise the bias

  
  

  Led to the development of indigenous psychologies - Drawing on particular experiences in different cultural contexts allowing for imposed emic. This has led to the emergence of theories which are more relevant to those of people from different backgrounds. A strength of cultural relativism
• Free will vs determinism

  Free will - Humans are self determining and are free to choose their own thoughts and actions

  Determinism - Free will has no place to explain behaviour as internal or external forces dictate our behaviour

  
  

  Hard determinism - Also called fatalism, all behaviour has a cause and it should be possible to find this cause.

  Soft determinism - As suggested by William James - ALL actions have causes however conscious thoughts can be overiden

  
  

  Biological determinism - Certain physiological systems are not under conscious control (the development of mental disorders)

  Environmental determinism - Skinner suggests free will is an illusion and choice is the sum of all reinforcement. We are not as independent as we think we are

  Psychic determinism - Freud suggests free will is an illusion with nothing being an accident as everything is a reflection of something in the unconscious
• Free will vs determinism - evaluation


  For free will: On an everyday basis, we have free will as we can do actions despite what people may think - Face validity

  Those with an internal LOC tend to be happier

  Roberts - The more fatalistic someone is, the more likely they are to be depressed.

  Used in court of law

  
  

  Against free will: There is neurological evidence against the idea of free will. Chun Siong Soon - Brain activity demonstrated that determines that outcome may predate our knowledge. Libet et al - found that the motor regions of the brain become active before a person registers conscious awareness of a decision

  
  

  For determinism: Consistent with the aims of science, helping psychology be seen as scientific - Allows for causal explanations which are objective to be identified which has its real life application in drug treatments

  
  

  Against determinism: Hard determinism goes against the legal system as legal system suggests individuals choice has allowed for the crime to be committed (mens rea). Hard determinism allows for offenders to not be held morally accountable. Lacks falsifiability.
• Nature - Nurture


  Nature - Descartes argues human characteristics are innate as a result of heredity. Heritability coefficient is used to ass heredity as it is a numerical value which indicates the extent to which a characteristic has genetic basis. This allows scientific measures of psychology

  
  

  Nurture - Often held by empiricists such as John locke - Argues mind is a blank slate which learning and experience writes.

  Lerner - Different levels of environment which can include quite narrow prenatal terms or more general postnatal experiences.

  
  

  More modernly - This debate has turned from one against each other to the acknowledgement of the combination.

  
  

  Heredity & environment - Nature and nurture are linked as they are hard to seperate (Twin studies)

  Diathesis stress model - Used to explain mental disorders such as OCD and SZ (Tiernari - SZ more likely to develop if genetically vulnerable and bad environment)

  Interactionism

  Epigenetics - The change of genetic activity without changing genetic code
• Nature & Nurture - Evaluation

  Empiricists suggest behaviour can be changed by the environmental conditions we are in such as in prisons and therapies. However, too strong of this belief can be bad for humans as it leads to the development of eugenics and beliefs held by those like Nazi's.

  
  

  Research attempting to reduce the influence of the environment is complicated by the fact that even those who are in the same home have not has the same upbringing. Dunn and plomin - individual differences mean different reactions which can be used to explain why monozygotic twins lack a concordance rate of 100%

  
  

  The idea of the interaction between genes and the environment is elaborated upon by constructivism as people may choose their own nurture which best suits their nature. Aggressive children being around other aggressive children.

  Plomin - Constructivism is niche picking and makes studying behaviour difficult as it makes it harder to differentiate the influences
• Holism vs Reductionism


  Holism - Gestalt psychologists suggest the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Any attempt to break down behaviour and experience is inappropriate as they can only be understood by analysing the behaviour or person as a whole.

  
  

  Reductionism - Based on principles of parsimony and Occam's razor which suggests explanation should not be multiplied beyond necessity - Objective and replicable. Therefore, all phenomena should be explained via the most basic principles.

  
  

  Levels of explanation:

  Socio/Cultural - The impact of social groups on our behaviour - Cultural norms affect behaviour - Domestic abuse

  Psychological - Cognitive, environmental or behavioural influences on our behaviour - Cognitive distortions such as minimalizations affecting criminal behaviour

  Biological - Includes any neurochemical, brain structure or genetic influences on behaviour - Jacobs XYY or Raine et al
• Holism vs Reductionism - Evaluation

  For Holism: Many studies how varied aspects of a situation revealing more about behaviour than just studying individuals alone. The interaction between individuals in the Stanford Prison experiment told us a lot about conformity to social roles

  
  

  Against Holism: These tend to not be very scientific as it is hard to study and therefore lack of falsifiability. To be most practically used in the real world, less may be best.

  
  

  For Reductionism: Forms the basics of scientific accounts as it can be used to operationalise variables and therefore create objective principles.

  
  

  Against reductionism: Accusations of oversimplifying complex phenomena which results in a loss of validity.

  Reductionist research often results in gender and culture bias and therefore less universally applicable
• Idiographic vs nomothetic approaches

  Idiographic approaches tries to describe the nature of the individual or group of individuals being studied as they are unique and have their own subjective experiences, motivations and values, all of which affect their behaviour and therefore it is not right to compare these groups with larger groups in society. Often associated with case studies and unstructured interviews as this offers more insight into the individual.

  
  

  Nomothetic approaches aim to produce general laws of human behaviour (paradigms) - Providing a benchmark of behaviour which people can be compared, classified and measured.

  Linked to more scientific measures of psychology.
• Idiographic vs Nomothetic approaches - evaluation

  For idiographic approach: Provides a complete and global accounts of behaviour which compliments' the nomothetic approach as a case study can lead to more research to greater understand something. (HM - memory)

  
  

  Against idiographic approach: Meaningful generalisations cannot be made without larger samples which can result in a large amount of biases

  
  

  For nomothetic approach: Very scientific as it increases the standardised conditions which provide a group average and allows psychologists to build a picture of what may be normal such as IQ - Used to identify abnormalities and provide support

  
  

  Against nomothetic approach: The focus on creating paradigms has been accused of losing the whole person and therefore can be associated with reductionist methods - losing validity
• Social sensitivity and ethical implications

  Ethical guidelines have been established to protect those involved in research yet the effects of the research onto wider society cannot be controlled.

  
  

  Social sensitivity - Sieber and Stanley - Potential consequences of the findings from a specific studying on the group being researched or those represented by the research

  
  

  Bowlby's research can be deemed socially sensitive as this had huge negative effects on women. The idea of maternal deprivation and affectionless psychopathy pushed women out of the workforce and back into the home, upholding patriarchal norms.
• Social sensitivity and ethical implications - evaluation

  There are benefits to socially sensitive research as Scarr argues studies of the underrepresented groups can promote sensitivity and understanding of these groups.

  
  

  Researchers must be mindful of their questions to avoid biases. Coyle - There is heterosexual biases which negatively impacts homosexual couples

  
  

  May be used to justify extreme forms of social control such as the compulsory sterilization of those deemed to be a "drain" on society in the 20's