issues and debates

• universality


  any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing
• alpha bias


  the attempt to exaggerate the differences between the two genders
• beta bias


  the attempt to downplay the differences between the two genders
• Wilson's sociobiological theory (1975)


  Sexual promiscuity in males is genetically predetermined. In females, the same behaviour goes against their nature
• androcentrism


  male centred; when normal behaviour is judged according to a male standard
• Brescoll and Uhlman


  male anger is seen as a rational response to external pressures
• Dambrin and Lambert


  Studied the lack of women in executive positions in accountance firms. Included a reflection on how their gender-related experiences influenced their reading of events
• Carol Tavris


  When men are set as the standard for normalcy, it becomes 'normal' for women to feel 'abnormal'
• Mackoby and Jacklin (1974)


  Girls have better verbal ability and boys have better spatial ability
• Joel (2015)


  found none of the gender differences that Mackoby and Jacklin listed when they conducted brain scans
• cultural bias


  the tendency to interpret all phenomena through the lens of ones own culture
• Joseph Henrick


  68% of research participants came from the United States. 96% from industrialised nations. 80% were undergraduates studying psychology
• WEIRD


  Westernised Educated People from Industrialised, Rich Democracies
• Takano and Osaka


  14/15 studies comparing US and Japan found no evidence of individualism or collectivism. The distinction was lazy and simplistic
• Stephen Jay Gould


  Psychologists gave IQ tests to WW1 army recruits. The items on the test were ethnocentric. This only fueled racist discourse to justify prejudice.
• Ekman


  basic facial expressions are the same all over the human and animal world
• benjamin libet


  brain activity makes a decision up to 10 seconds before the participants did
• rhee and waldman


  looked at adoption studies, found that genetic influence accounted for 41% variance in aggression
• plomin


  'niche picking' - people choose their nurture as a result of their nature. therefore nurture and nature are so intertwined that it is difficult to look for separate evidence of each
• walden two


  book by Skinner exploring 'utopian' ideal where humans are shaped towards their potential through social control
• zimbardo


  example of behaviour which could only be studied at a higher level (supporting holism)
• sieber and stanley (ao1)

  the way research questions are phrased can affect how findings are interpreted
• kitzinger and coyle


  research into 'alternative relationships' was guilty of heterosexual bias
• sandra scarr


  studies of under-represented groups can give insight and provide understandign
• apa


  approves 95% of non-sensitive proposals and only 50% of sensitive proposals