Psychology paper 3

• Universality


  the aim to develop theories that apply to ALL people, regardless of differences in upbringing and experience
• Gender bias


  the differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences
• Alpha bias


  a tendency to exaggerate differences between men and women. The consequence is that theories devalue one gender in comparison to the other

  
  

  eg: sociological theory of relationship formation (Wilson)
• Beta bias


  a tendency to ignore/minimize differences between men and women

  
  

  eg: the fight or flight response
• Androcentrism


  centered or focused on men, often to the neglect or exclusion of women
• Cultural bias


  refers to a tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the 'lens' of one culture
• Ethnocentrism


  researcher assumes that their own culturally specific practices or ideas are 'natural' or 'right'

  
  

  eg: Ainsworth's Strange Situation
• Imposed etic


  culturally specific idea is wrongly forced on another culture

  
  

  eg: Ainsworth's Strange Situation
• Etic approaches


  seek to minimize differences between cultures- look for universal similarities

  
  

  eg: Berry- multicultural look at Asch's conformity study
• Emic approaches


  RARER TO FIND

  
  

  emphasize cultural differences- seek out the differences between cultures

  
  

  eg: Yap- culture bound syndrome

  25 CBS's included in appendix of DSM-4- mental illness is not a universally agreed concept
• Cultural relativism


  the idea that norms, values, ethics and moral standards can only be understood within specific social and cultural standards
• Free will


  the notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces
• Determinism


  the view that an individuals behavior is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individuals will to do something
• Hard determinism


  implies that freewill is not possible as our behavior is always controlled/caused by internal or external events beyond our control
• Soft determinism


  all events, including human behavior, have causes, but behavior can also be determined by our conscious choices in the absence of coercion.

  In contrast with hard determinism
• Biological determinism


  the belief that behavior is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control
• Environmental determinism


  the belief that behavior is caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward or punishment) that we cannot control
• Psychic determinism


  the belief that behavior is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control
• Nature-nurture debate


  concerned with the extent to which aspects of behavior are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics
• Origins of NATURE in the nature-nurture debate

  DESCARTES- argued that human characteristics- and even some aspects of knowledge- are innate and the result of heredity

  
  

  LOCKE- argued that the mind is a blank slate at birth upon which learning and experience writes- the result of the environment
• Origins of NURTURE in the nature-nurture debate

  LERNER identified different levels of the environment

  
  

  these may be defined in quite narrow pre-natal terms (eg: the mothers physical and psychological state during pregnancy) or more generally through post-natal experience (eg: social conditions child grows up in)
• The hereditability coefficient


  is used to assess heredity.It is a numerical scale ranging from 0 to 10- which indicates the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis
• Interactionist approach


  the idea that nature and nurture are linked to such an extent that it doesn't make sense to separate the two, so researchers instead study how they interact and influence each other
• Diathesis-stress model


  suggests psychopathology is caused by biological/ genetic vulnerability (diathesis) which is only expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental 'trigger' (the stressor)

  
  

  Tienari- found that in a group of Finnish adoptees those most likely to develop SZ had biological relatives with a history of the disorder (the vulnerability) and had relationships with their adoptive families that were defined as 'dynfunctional' (the stressor)
• Epigenetics


  refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code

  
  

  It is a process that happens throughout life and is caused by interaction with the environment

  
  

  Aspects of our lifestyle and the events we encounter- eg smoking,diet, pollution, war etc- leave 'epigenetic marks' on our DNA

  
  

  These may go on to influence genetic codes of future generations
• Holism


  an argument or theory which proposes that it only makes sense to study an individuals system rather than its constituent parts
• Reductionism


  the belief that human behavior is best explained by breaking it down into smaller constituent parts
• levels of explanation'


  suggests that there are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in psychology- some more reductionist than others
• Biological reductionism


  a form of reductionism which attempts to explain social and psychological phenomena at a lower biological level (in terms of actions of genes, hormones etc)
• Environmental reductionism


  the attempt to explain all behavior in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience
• Idiographic approach


  derived from the Greek 'idios' meaning 'private or personal'

  
  

  an approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behavior, than aiming to formulate general laws of behavior
• Psychological methods generally associated with the idiographic approach


  methods that produce qualitative data, such as case studies, unstructured interviews and other self report measures
• Examples of the idiographic approach in psychology


  humanistic psychology (Rogers and Maslow)

  
  

  psychodynamic approach (due to Freud's use of case study methods)
• Nomothetic approach


  derived from the Greek 'nomos' meaning 'law'

  
  

  attempts to study human behavior through the development of general principles and universal laws
• Psychological methods generally associated with the nomothetic approach


  methods that would be regarded as 'scientific' such as experiments
• Examples of the nomothetic approach in psychology

  tends to be a feature of those approaches that are reductionist, determinist and employ scientific methods of investigation

  (eg: behaviorist, cognitive and biological psychology)
• Ethical implications


  the impact that psychological research may have in terms of the rights of other people, especially participants

  
  

  This includes at a societal level, influencing public policy and/or the way in which public policy is regarded
• Ethical guidelines


  were set up to help protect those involved in psychological research
• Socially sensitive research


  Sieber and Stanley define it as:

  "studies in which there are potential consequences or implications, either directly for the participants in the research or for the class of individuals represented by the research"
• The ethical issues/concerns Sieber and Stanley said researchers should be mindful of when conducting socially sensitive research

  -implications: the wider effects of such research

  -uses/public policy: what is the research likely to be used for?/what would happen if it was used for the wrong purpose?

  -the validity of the research: some findings that were presented as objective and value free in the past have actually turned out to be highly suspect

  
  

  researchers must comment on the reflexive nature of their work