issues + debates

• Implicit Bias


  • Formed when we pantiquar qualities and things
  • Unconscious psychological processes that make quick decisions
  • Underlies racism, sexism, ableism / social prejudices
• Androcentrism


  Behaviours seen via a make perspective - female behaviour viewed as abnormal / deviant
• Gynocentrism


  Behaviours seen via a female perspective - male behaviour viewed as abnormal / deviant
• Gender Bias is a threat to the universality of findings in psychology - 64% of the world's psychologists in 1992 were men
• Alpha Bias


  Exaggerates differences between men and women and devalues women
• Beta Bias


  Ignoring the differences between men and women, often doesn't include females in research, but the theory is still applied to them
• Ignoring differences between the genders leads to sexism / discrimination and misleading results / assumptions
• Ignoring differences between the genders has an impact on diagnosis of ADHD and autism in young girls
• Universality


  When a concept can be applied to all humans in the same way - majority of research is not universal, only face symmetry and attraction
• Freud, Milgram, Asch, Zimbardo were all men
• Cultural Bias


  Psychological research has ignored cultures outside of the USA - generally based on white, middle class Americans
• 64% of studies in 1992 were WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic
• Culture


  The ideas, behaviours, attitudes and ideas that exist within a group of people, passed through generations
• Cultural Bias occurs when other cultures are ignored and one's own culture is seen as normal, often based on western standards
• Ethnocentrism


  A bias where one's own culture is seen as superior and the norms and behaviours of another culture will be seen as abnormal
• Attachment (strange situation) is an example of cultural bias
• Link between cultural bias and schizophrenia
• Cultural Relativism - Etic


  When the norms of one culture (that is being studied) are imposed onto another, being judged on another country's standards
• Cultural Relativism - Emic


  Looks at behaviours that are specific to cultures, research can only be universal when it has come from emic studies
• The majority of studies are with imposed etic
• There needs to be a greater focus on emic studies
• Societal impacts: gender bias in psychological research can lead to racial prejudices and stereotypes within society
• Acknowledging a lack of cultural relativism can lead to increased validity of future studies, including more data, leading to the emergence of cultural psychology and behaviour
• Smith and Bond (1988) found that European textbooks on social psychology contained 667 American Studies, 32% European and 2% from the rest of the world - research is under representative
• Free Will


  The belief that we have freedom of choice and therefore behave in a way that we want to
• Free Will

  Behaviour is NOT influenced by past experiences / behaviours
• Implications of Free Will

  • Individuals are fully responsible for their actions (criminal justice system)
  • Blames patients for their mental health conditions
• Free Will

  Link to humanistic approach
• Hard Determinism


  Free will is an illusion and not possible, humans are governed by forces we have no control over at all
• Hard Determinism


  • Biological
  • Psychic
• Soft Determinism


  Acknowledges some aspects of free will, we are partly controlled, however our behaviour can be influenced by role models (family and friends)
• Determinism

  Predicts behaviour under scientific conditions, cause and effect, has led to the development of treatment
• Soft determinism is the best approach
• Extreme determinism (ongoing) leads to eugenics - Goddard (1917)
• Sterilisation under eugenic legislation, ignores responsibility (Criminal justice system), psychic determinism can't be proved right (unfalsifiable)
• Free Will


  • Emphasises the responsibility of the individual for their behaviour which increases face validity
  • Roberts et al (2000) - high internal locus of control = good mental health
• Free Will: behaviour can't be objectively predicted or measured (features of a science), blames mentally ill patients, Libert (1983) neuroimaging suggests that brain activity predicts a choice before we make it
• Determinants of Behaviour


  • Biological (hard determinism, genes / hormones, concordance for conditions/illnesses, personality types)
  • Environmental (soft determinism, experiences rewards (Pavlov + Skinner, association/consequence, Bandura (SLT))
  • Psychic (hard determinism, unconscious feelings / conflicts, complexes, psychosexual stages, childhood experiences, id/ego / superego)
• Nativist approach


  Our character and predisposition are completely determined by our biological heredity/biochemistry - we have no control over our behaviour
• Nativist approach


  • Twin studies
  • Evolutionary processes
  • Survival of the fittest
  • Bowlby (attachment is innate)
  • Heritability coefficient