quiz

• Gender Bias


  The differential treatment and/or representation of males and females based on stereotype and not real difference
• Androcentrism


  Theories which are centred on, or focused on males
• Gynocentrism


  Theories which are centred on, or focused on females
• Alpha bias (Gender Bias)


  Refers to theories that exaggerate the differences between male and female
• Beta bias (Gender Bias)


  Refers to theories that ignore or minimise sex differences. These theories often assume that the findings from males can apply equally to females
• Alpha bias example (Gender Bias)


  Freud argued that there are genuine psychological differences between men and women. This theory suggests that women are inferior as young girls suffer from "penis envy", and he viewed femininity as a failed form of masculinity.
• Beta bias example (Gender Bias)


  Biological research into fight-or-flight response has often been carried out with male animals. It was assumed that this would not be a problem as the fight-or-flight responses would be the same for both sexes.

  
  

  However, a beta bias can prompt more research: Taylor et al (2002) found that females adapt a "tend and befriend" response in stressful/dangerous situations: women are more likely to protect their offspring (tending) and form alliances with other women (befriend), rather than fight an adversary or flee.
• Afrocentrism example


  The result of beta bias in psychology research is that we end up with a view of human nature that is suppose to apply to men and women alike, but in fact, has a male androcentric view. For example, Asch's (1955) conforming studies.
• Strengths and Weakness of Gender Bias

  Weakness: Freud (negative view of women)

  Biological psychology (incorrect view of fight-or-flight)

  Strengths: Promotion of "equality" in research

  Feminist psychology
• Culture bias


  Culture bias is the tendency to judge people in terms of ones own cultural assumptions
• Alpha bias (Culture Bias)


  Occurs when a theory assumes that cultural groups are profoundly different
• Beta bias (Culture Bias)


  Occurs when real cultural differences are ignored or minimised and all people are assumed to be the same, resulting in universal research designs and conclusions
• Ethnocentrism


  Means seeing the world only from ones own cultural perspective, and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct
• Cultural relativism


  Insists that behaviour can be properly understood only if cultural context is taken into consideration
• Ethnocentrism (example)

  Ainsworth's strange situation is an example of ethnocentric research. The strange situation was developed to asses attachment types, and many researchers assume that the strange situation has the same meaning for the infants of other cultures, as it does for American children. The strange situation doesn't work for all cultures because all cultures have different parenting practices. Cultura
• Cultural relativism (example)


  The meaning of intelligence is different in every culture. For example, Sternberg (1985) pointed out that coordination skills that may be essential to life in a preliterate society (e.g. those motor skills required for shooting a bow and arrow) may be mostly irrelevant to intelligent behaviour for most people in a literate and "more developed" society. Therefore the only way to understand intelligence id to take the cultural context into account
• Strength of Culture Bias (burger paragraph)

  One way to deal with cultural bias is to recognise when it occurs. Smith and Bond found, in their 1998 survey of European textbooks on social psychology, that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European and only 2% any where else. This suggests that psychological research is severely unrepresentative and can be greatly improved by simply selecting different cultural groups to study. Therefore, just by appreciating and understanding cultural bias can help psychologists to avoid and overcome the issue.
• Weakness to culture bias (burger paragraph)

  One issue is that culturally biased research can have significant real-world effects by, for example, amplifying and validating damaging stereotypes. The US army used an IQ test before WW1 which was culturally biased toward the dominant white majority. Unsurprisingly, the test showed that African Americans were at the bottom of the IQ scale. This matters because this has a negative effect on the attitudes of Americans toward this group of people, which highlights the negative impact that culturally biased research can have upon D
• Determinism


  Determinism is the view that free will is an Illusion, and that our behaviour is governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control. Consequently, our behaviour is viewed as predictable.
• Hard determinism


  Is the view that forces outside our control (e.g. biology or past experiences) shape our behaviour. Hard determinism is seen as incompatible with free will.
• Soft determinism


  Is the view behaviour is constrained by the environment or biological makeup, but only to a certain extent and that there is an element of free will in all behaviour.
• Biological determinism


  Refers to the idea that all human behaviour is innate and determined by our genes
• Environmental determinism


  Is the view that behaviour is caused by forces outside the individual. Therefore, behaviour is caused by previous experience learned through classical and operant conditioning.
• Psychi determinism


  Claims that human behaviour is the result of childhood experiences and innate drives (ID, Ego, superego) as in Freud model of psychological development
• Biological determinism (example)

  Year one - Psychopathology - The biological approach suggests that OCD is partly genetic. Nestadt et al (2000) found that people with first degree relatives who suffer from OCD are five times likely to suffer from OCD at some point in their lives.
• environmental determinism (example)

  Year one - Psychopathology - The behaviourist approach suggests that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning and therefore, to some extent , environmentally determined.
• Free will


  Free will is the idea that we can play an active role and have choice in how we behave. The assumptions is that individuals are free to choose their behaviour and are self determined
• Free will (example)

  Year 2 - Approaches in psychology - Humanist psychologists argue against the determinism view, claiming that humans have self- determination and free will and that behaviour is not the result of any single case.
• Evidence against determinism (burger paragraph)

  Humanist psychologists would argue against the idea of determinism, claiming that humans have self-determinism and free will. Furthermore, there is evidence to support this claim. Identical twin studies typically find an 80% similarity in intelligence scores and a 40% similarity in the likelihood of depression. However, as identical twins share 100% of their genes, these results suggest that 20% is caused by another (environmental) factors. This demonstrates that biological determinism is unable to explain any particular behaviour, in this case, depression and intelligence. The same evidence indicates that no behaviour is completely environmentally determined. If identical twins only show an 80% likeliness of intelligence, it is therefore, assumed that only 20% is caused by the environment, highlighting a limitation with biological and environmental determinism.
• Determinism provides an "excuse" (burger paragraph)


  Many psychologists, theorists or legal experts do not favour a deterministic point of view. If behaviour is determined by outside factors, that provides a potential excuse for criminal acts. For example, in 1981 Stephan Mobley argued that he was "born to kill" after killing a pizza shop manger, because his family had a disposition towards violence and aggressive behaviour. This argument was rejected by an American court. Therefore, a hard determinism position may be undesirable as it provides an excuse, allowing people to mitigate their own liability and could lead to vexing legal issues regarding the nature of responsibility.
• Nature


  Nature is the view that behaviour is the product of innate biological or genetic factors
• Heredity (Genetic inheritance)


  is the process in which traits are passed down form one generation to the next
• Nurture


  Nurture is the view that behaviour is the product of environmental factors
• Environment


  The environment is seen as everything outside the body which can include people, events and the psychical world
• Interactionist approach


  Is the view that both nature and nurture work together to shape human behaviour
• Nature (Example)

  Bowlby proposed that children come into the world biologically programmed to form attachment because this will help them survive. This suggests attachment behaviours are naturally selected and passed on as a result of genetic inheritance (heredity mechanism)
• Nurture (Example)

  Behavioural psychologists explain attachment in terms of classical conditioning where food (UCS) is associated with the matter (NS) and through many repeated pairings, the matter becomes CS who elicits a CR in the child. Therefore, the child forms an attachment based on the pleasure experienced as a result of being fed
• Interactionist approach (Example)


  The genetic disorder PKU (phenylketanuria) is caused by the inheritance of two recessive genes. People with PKU are unable to break down amino acids phenylalanine which builds up in the blood and brain causing mental retardation. However if a child with PKU is placed on a low protein diet for the first 12 years, they avoid the potential life long disorder.
• A03: Interactionist approach (burger paragraph)


  Research suggests that the nature-nurture debate has become a meaningless distinction and there is a growing body of research that highlights the importance of an interactionist approach. Research examining neural plasticity in the topic bio-psychology suggests that life experiences (nurture) shape our biology (nature). For example, Magurie et al (2000) investigated the hippocampi volume of London taxi drivers brains she found that the region of the brain was larger in taxi drivers in comparison to non taxi drivers. Consequently, Maguire concluded that driving a taxi (nurture) activity had an affect on the size of the hippocampi (nature), demonstrating the importance of an interactionist approach and presenting evidence the nurture can affect nature.
• A03: Interactionist approach - Nestadt


  While twin studies are often used to provide support for the nature argument, nearly all twin studies also highlight the need for an interactionist approach. Nestadt et al (2010) examined previous twin studies in relation to OCD. Nestadt found an average concordance rate of 68% in MZ twins and a 31% concordance rate in DZ twins, highlighting a significant genetic component. These results do provide evidence of a strong genetic component, as the concordance rate for MZ (68%) twin is significantly higher than the DZ twins (31%), which suggests that behaviour is partly distributed to natue because MZ twins share 100% relatedness. However, the results also highlight the role of nature as the role is not 100% again highlighting the importance of taking an interactionist approach.