Issues + Debates Only

• Socially Sensitive Research


  Research in more controversial and socially sensitive areas like race, sexuality, gender, criminality. There are more consequences associated with the publication of the findings and normally large media coverage with it.
• Ethical Implications


  The consequences that research has if published. Publicising the findings can affect those that have taken part directly, or the groups that the research applies to. It can lead to scientific discrimination or racism, changes to public perception or to policy/ legislation, (these can be +/-).
• Factors researchers should be mindful of when conducting socially sensitive research (Sieber and Stanley)


  • The research question
  • The methodology used
  • Institutional context
  • Interpretation and application of findings
• Nature


  Early nativists, such as Darwin argued that all human characteristics are innate, and are the result of heredity.
• Nurture


  Early empiricists, such as John Lock argued that we are born as a blank slate, a tabula rasa. That every thought, action or emotional response that we possess are a result of environmental influences; these can be prenatally, through culture or the historical context that we are a part of.
• Idiographic


  Psychologists study individuals, rather than large groups of participants. People are studied as unique entities, each with their own subjective experiences, motivations and values. It is generally associated with methods that produce qualitative data such as case studies, unstructured interviews and self-report methods.
• Nomothetic


  Psychologists' study large groups of participants, in controlled environments, so that they can be used as a benchmark for others to be compared to. It is generally associated with methods that produce quantitative data such as experiments and correlations.
• Free Will


  Psychologists that adopt a freewill stance believe that we can play an active role and have choice in how we behave. The assumption is that individuals are self-determined: we accept that there may be external forces that could affect us, but we have the option to reject these influences because we are masters of our own destiny.
• Determinism


  Deterministic Psychologists believe that free will is an illusion. They state that our behaviour is governed by internal or external forces, though there are hard and soft versions to this.
• Reductionism


  The belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into smaller component parts.
• Holism


  The belief that human behaviour should be viewed as an integrated experience, that multiple factors constantly impact our behaviour and to break it up in anyway is inappropriate.
• Levels of Explanations


  • Social + Cultural Explanations
  • Psychological Explanation
  • Biological Explanation
• Alpha Bias


  Exaggerates the differences between men and women. Psychologists suggest that these differences are real, enduring and fixed.
• Beta Bias


  Minimises the differences between men and women. This typically happens when one sex is excluded from research and it is assumed that the findings apply equally to both sexes.
• Culture Bias


  The tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all behaviour through the lens of your own.
• Emic Approach


  The focus is one single culture. Any behaviours seen are only relevant and applied to that culture. This avoids culture bias. Cultural norms and values are seen as culture specific and no-one culture is superior to another culture = Cultural relativism
• Etic Approach


  Cross-cultural approach. Multiple cultures are studied in the hope that we can learn about the universality of behaviours. An observer inappropriately generalises observations from one culture to another = imposed etic.
• Factors Sieber + Stanley identified for conducting socially sensitive research

  • The research question
  • The methodology used
  • Institutional context
  • Interpretation and application of findings
• Research question


  Must be considered carefully. If written in a way that is leading, it could have negative consequences for the wider people studied.
• Methodology used


  This relates specifically to ethics. The treatment of participants in the study must be carefully considered and their confidentiality rights upheld
• Institutional context


  Who is funding the research? What are they aiming to gain from it? How will those results be used? Depending on the answers to these, we should consider the potential for harm against who is gaining.
• Interpretation and application of findings


  How they are applied to the real world? Can the findings be used to shape policy? Will this lead to the discrimination of a group?
• Evidence for nature

  Lorenz - Found that imprinting is innate in geese as it can’t be a learnt behaviour if they have all imprinted within 24 hours 
• Evidence for nurture

  Pavlov's dogs and Skinner's rat. Learning through reinforcement via classical + operant conditioning
• Where does the term idiographic come from?


  The term idiographic comes from the Greek word ‘idios’, which means own or private.
• Evidence for Idiographic

  Little Hans - psychodynamic approach. Oedipus complex. Interviews with him, father and dream analysis
• Where does the word nomothetic come from?

  Nomothetic comes from the Greek word ‘nomos’ which means law. 
• Evidence for nomothetic

  Ainsworth's Strange Situation - attachment types saying that secure attachment is the best type. 
• Evidence for free will

  Humanistic Psychologists claim that humans are essentially self-determining and have free will. People are affected by external or internal influences but have the ability to control our own development. This is known as a person-centred approach. 
• Hard Determinism (Fatalism) - The fatalists believe that all human behaviour and actions are completely determined by internal/external factors. Humans do not have any free will or ethical accountability for their behaviour. Consequently, all behaviour is viewed as predictable and so hard determinism is compatible with science as causal relationships can be determined (cause and effect).
• Evidence for Hard determinism

  Raine showed that the prefrontal cortex had 11% reduction in criminals so their murderous behaviour is outside of their control because their decision making skills are inhibited - they aren't accountable and cannot choose to act otherwise. 
• Soft determinism - William James, a philosopher, was one of the first to acknowledge that there are determining forces

  that do act upon us both externally and internally, but that we also have conscious control over the way we behave (freewill- ish). Whilst behaviour is predictable, it doesn’t make it inevitable.
• Evidence for soft determinism

  Around 30% of the population have the warrior gene. A mutation of this gene results in antisocial behaviour and aggression, however only 1% of the world's population are in prison. People can choose whether to act aggressively or control it.
• Biological Determinism - Human behaviour is innate and determined by physiological, neurological or genetic influences. Research into the human genome provides evidence to support the idea of biological determinism.
• Evidence for biological determinism

  COMT gene and SERT gene will cause you to have OCD
• Environmental determinism

  Skinner famously said freewill is an illusion. He argued that all behaviour is a result of environmental forces that are outside of the individual. Conditioning through association or rewards/ punishments, is the cause of behaviour and we have no independence. 
• Evidence for environmental determinism

  The only reason why a child forms an attachment is due to association. The love (CR) that a child feels for their primary caregiver is a direct result of mum (NS) being repeatedly associated with food (UCS). 
• Psychic determinism

  Freud argued that freewill is an illusion. He claimed that human behaviour is the result of childhood experiences and innate unconscious drives. He believed that there is no such thing as an accident; everything had roots in the unconscious. 
• Evidence for psychic determinism

  Criminal behaviour can stem from a weak superego. If a child does not have a same sex parent to identify with during the phallic stage, they will become unconsciously fixated, their moral compass will not develop and as a result act criminally. 
• Biological Reductionism

  Reduces all human behaviour down to biological factors