issues and debates

• FREUD [THEORY OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT; ALPHA BIAS FAVOURING MALES]

  girls/women are morally inferior to boys/men 
• TAYLOR ET AL [EXAMPLE OF BETA BIAS]

  females had a tend and befriend caused by oxytocin which is more present in women + reuduces fight/flight response [biological research has generally favoured using male animals as female behaviour is affected by regular hormonal changes due to ovulation + oxytocin reduces stress]
• BOWLBY [EXAMPLE OF BETA BIAS]

  emotional care is soley by mother
• MARY AINSWORTH [EXAMPLE ENTHROCENTRISM]

  inappropriate measure of attatchment type for non US children + led to misinterpretation of child rearing practices in other countries; deviated from americas norms
• BERRY [PERSPECTIVE OF CULTUTRAL BIAS]

  ethic [look at behaviour from outside a given culture + identifies behaviour that is universal] vs emic [functions within certain cultures + identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture]
• EKMAN [SUPPORT CULTURAL RELATIVISM + UNIVERSAL]

  basic facial expressions for emotions are seen all over human and animals, and some features of human attachment are universal and full understanding requires study of both universal and variation among individualist group
• SKINNER [ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH] 

  free will is an ‘illusion’ + our experience of choice is the sum of total reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon its throughout our lives we might think we are acting independently but our actions have been shaped by our environment
• FREUD [PSYCHIC DETERMINISM] 

  free will is also an illusion but placed emphasis on biological drives + instincts underpinning psychological responses [determined + directed by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood i.e ‘slip of tounge’]
• ROBERT ET AL  [SUPPORT FREE WILL]

  adolescents with strong belief in fatalism (outside their control) were at higher risk of depression (free will may have positive impact on mental health)
• SOON ET AL [AGAINST FREE WILL; DETERMINISTIC] 

  brain activity related to decision to press button occurs up to 10 secs before consciously aware (even most basic experiences of free will are determined by our brain even before we are aware)
• LERNER [NURTURE] 

   has identified different levels of the environment
• BELSKEY + ROVINE [INTERACTIONIST APPROACH]

  child’s innate temperament influences how the parent will behave towards them + parents response in turn affects child’s behaviour 
• TIENARI ET AL [DIATHESIS STRESS MODEL]

  studied a group of finnish adoptees + found most likely to develop schizophrenia had biological relatives with istory of the disorder (vulnerability) + had relationships with their adoptive families defined as ‘dysfunctional’ (the trigger)
• DIAS + RESSLER [EPIGENETICS] 

  gave male lab mice electric shock every time they were exposed to the smell of acetophenone [behaviourist would suggest they gain a fear as soon as smell was presented] but found that the rats kids also feared the smell + grandchildren (even though hadn’t been exposed to the smell)
• DUNN + PLOMIN [AGAINST NATURE]

  individual differences may suggest siblings experience life events differently + then explains findings between MZ twins reared together dont show perfect concordance rates 
• PLOMIN [SUPPORT NURTURE] 

  people create their own nurture by actively selecting environments appropriate for their own nature [constructivism] + he calls it ‘niche picking’ + ‘niche building’ 
• GESTALT PSYCHOLOGISTS [HOLISM] 

   ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’
• ROGER + MASLOW [EXAMPLE IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH]

  only interested in ‘individual/self’ razther that producing general laws of behaviour 
• FREUD [EXAMPLE IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH] 

  use of case study method but had assumed he identified universal laws of behaviour + personality development (langauge of nomothetic approach)
• SKINNER [EXAMPLE NOMOTHETIC APPROACH] 

  animal studies conducted on large population of animals) + generated general laws for learning
• FREUD [AGAINST IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH] 

  little hans caste study (+ delivered oedipus complex = general law) ; meaningful generalisations cannot be made without further examples as no adequate baseline to compare to + case study = subjective interpretation 
• ARONSON [ETHICAL ISSUES] 

  some forms are socially sensitive but psychologists shouldn’t shy away as undoubted importance psychologists may have a social responsibility to carry it out 
• SIEBER + STANLEY [ETHICAL ISSUES; SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH] 

  number of concerns researchers should be concerned with when carrying out socially sensitive research; implications , uses/public policy, validity of research + warn how research questions are phrased + investigated may influence ways findings are interpreted (+ research with an open mind)
• BURT [EXAMPLE OF ETHICAL ISSUE; IMPLICATIONS TO UK SCHOOL CHILDREN 11+] 

  research into intelligence was genetic based on twin study research (but he made most of this data up + invented 2 researcher assistants)
• SCARR [SUPPORT ETHICAL ISSUES IN SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH] 

  studies of underrepresented groups + issues may promote greater understanding to help reduce prejudice 
• SIEBER + STANLEY [STRENGTH OF ETHICAL ISSUES]

  understanding how ethical issues are phrased and investigated may influence the ways findings are interpreted KITZINGER + COYLE; research into ‘alternative relationships’ has been guilty of hetrosexual bias (homosexual relationships were judged against heterosexual norms) + investigators must approach their research with an open mind
• WORRELL + REMER [GENDER BIAS]

  feminist psychologists suggest how to avoid

  • studies with meaningful real life contexts
  • study diversity in groups of women rather than comparisons to men participate instead of being objects in study
• NOBLES [CULTURAL BIAS]

  argues that western psychology has been a tool of oppression and dominance

  cultural bias has also made it difficult for psychologists to separate the behavior they have observed from the context in which they observed it
• JOEL [AGAINST GENDER BIAS]

  found no such gender differences in brain scans
• SMITH + BOND [CULTURAL BIAS]

  1988 study in european text books on social psychology and found that 66% were american, 32% european + 2% from the rest of the world (link to unrepresentativeness - limitation of cultural bias)
• MAGUIRE [AGAINST NATURE + NURTURE]

  studied london taxi drivers and found that driving a taxi (nurture) had changes on the volume of the posterior hippocampus (nature) compared to non taxi drivers - illogical to seperate the 2 as they act with one another