Issues & Debates

• Gender bias


  The tendency to treat one gender in a different way from others, and does not represent the experience of a gender
• Universality


  An underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all
• Psychologists hold beliefs and values that have been influenced by social and historical contexts. These views may be biassed towards a more subjective view that doesn't reflect objectivity
• Alpha bias


  Psychological research that focuses and exaggerates differences between men and women. Most often they devalue the experiences of women
• Beta bias


  Psychological research that focuses on similarities between men and women. This minimises and ignores differences
• Other research suggests that emotional care is solely provided by mothers, but fathers are able to do this too
• Androcentrism


  Male-centred. Behaviour is judged to a male standard, meaning female behaviour is often judged to be abnormal
• Gender differences are often presented as fixed and enduring
• It is possible the researchers were just using stereotypes. This suggests we should be wary of accepting research findings
• This does not mean psychologists should avoid researching gender differences
• Gender bias promotes sexism. Women are likely to be underrepresented in university and science. Most undergraduates are women, but lecturers are more likely to be men. Research may disadvantage participants who are women because male researchers may expect women to be irrational and unable to complete tasks. Methods of psychology may produce gender-biassed research
• Research challenging gender bias may not be published. Formanowicz: analysed 1000 articles relating to gender bias over 8 years. Gender bias research is funded less and less likely to be published by prestigious journals. This means fewer people will be aware or apply it within their work. This is still true even compared to other biases. This suggests that gender bias is not taken as seriously as other forms
• Culture bias


  A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the lens of one's own culture, ignoring the effects of cultural differences
• WEIRD


  Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democracies - the group of people usually studied
• Ethnocentrism


  Judging other cultures by the standards and beliefs of one's own culture. It is the belief in the superiority of one's own culture which may lead to prejudice and discrimination of other cultures
• Cultural relativism


  The idea that norms and values can only be meaningful and understood within specific contexts
• Etic


  Looks at behaviour from the outside of a culture to describe behaviour as universal
• Emic


  Functions inside a culture and describes behaviours specific to that culture
• Recognising that psychology has been guilty of an imposed etic approach is a way to avoid bias in research
• It has been said that individualistic cultures rely on independence, and collectivist cultures rely on society and the needs of the group. However, 14 out of 15 studies that compared Japan and the US found no evidence of this distinction, and suggests that this approach is lazy and simplistic. Therefore, cultural bias may be less of an issue in recent research
• Cultural psychology


  The study of how people are shaped by their cultural experience. This is an emerging field and incorporates work from researchers in sociology and political sciences. They strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking an emic approach and conducting research inside a culture, alongside local researchers
• Cross-cultural research


  Focuses on 2 cultures instead of larger scale studies. This suggests that modern psychologists are mindful of the dangers of cultural bias and take steps to avoid it
• Involves an individualistic way of thinking which provides a better understanding of human nature
• Free will


  The notion that humans can make choices and their behaviour is not determined by any biological or external forces. An example is the humanistic approach which suggests we are in control of our thoughts and emotions
• Determinism


  The view that an individual's behaviour is shaped by internal or external forces
• Hard determinism


  All behaviour is caused by something and it should be possible to identify and describe these causes. Free will is an illusion. This is referred to as fatalism
• Soft determinism


  The view that behaviour may be predictable but there is also room for personal choice from a limited range of possibilities
• Biological determinism


  The belief that human behaviour is caused by biological influences such as genes, hormones or evolution. Psychologists would recognise the influence of the environment on biological structures
• Environmental determinism


  The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment such as conditioning and reinforcement. Skinner described free will as an illusion and behaviour is a sum of reinforcement
• Psychic determinism


  Behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts. Freud also believed that free will is an illusion, but recognised the influence of biological drives and instincts. He saw behaviour as repressed in childhood, and a slip of the tongue is influenced by the unconscious
• The basic principle of science is that every event has a cause and that it can be explained using general laws. Knowledge of causes is important as they allow scientists to predict and control events in the future. Lab experiments enable researchers to demonstrate causal relationships
• Practical value


  Thinking we can exercise free will can improve our mental health. Roberts: looked at adolescents who had a strong belief in fatalism - that their lives were controlled by events out of their control. These adolescents were significantly at a greater risk of developing depression. People who exhibit an external LOC are less likely to be optimistic. This shows that free will has a positive impact on the mind and behaviour
• However, just because the action comes before the conscious decision to act, doesn't mean that there was no decision - it just took time to reach consciousness. Our conscious awareness is simply a read-out of our unconscious decision-making. This suggests that evidence is not appropriate to challenge free will
• In the legal court, offenders are held responsible for their actions, as suggested by free will. In the real-world, determinist arguments do not work
• Determinism helped psychology to be established as a science. Hard determinism has helped to produce therapies and behavioural interventions
• Nature-nurture debate


  The extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics. However, it's not really a debate because any characteristic arises from a combination of both
• Diathesis-stress model


  Behaviour is caused by a biological or environmental vulnerability and is only expressed when coupled with a stressor
• Epigenetics


  A change in genetic activity without changing the genes themselves. This happens due to interaction with the environment. Aspects of our lifestyle such as smoking leaves marks on our DNA which switch genes on and off. Smoking has a lifelong influence even after you stop because of the way genes are expressed. These changes may continue through the DNA of children and future generations
• Nature


  Refers to inherited influences
• Nurture


  The influence of experience and the environment. Empricicts argued that the mind is a blank slate which is then shaped by the environment. This became an important feature of the behaviourist approach. Different levels of the environment also affect development eg. physical, psychological and social influences