Psychology paper 3

• Universality


  Conclusions drawn can be applied anywhere universally, to everyone, anywhere regardless of time/culture
• Gender bias and cultural bias threaten the lament of universality in psychology
• Alpha bias


  Psychological theories that exaggerate/overestimate differences between sexes, presenting differences as real and enduring, fixed and inevitable - devalue women
• Beta bias


  Psychological theories that minimises/underestimates differences between sexes, often includes females not being included as part of the research process; findings are assumed to be the same for females
• Androcentricism


  'Male-centered', when 'normal' behaviour is judged from a male standard and any behaviour that differs from this is judged as abnormal/deficit in comparison
• Many feminist commentators have objected to the diagnostic criteria PMS - it stereotypes and trivialises female experience</b>
• Critics claim PMS is a social construction, medicalises female emotions, eg anger, by explaining them in terms of hormones - male anger is often seen as normal
• Limitations of gender bias


  • May create misleading assumptions about female behaviour, fail to challenge negative stereotypes, validate discriminatory practices, provide scientific 'justifications' to deny women opportunities in workplaces, wider society + set any domain in which men are the standard as normalcy
• It becomes normal for women to feel abnormal
• Sexism within research process


  • Lack of women in senior research levels - concerns not reflected in higher up positions, male researchers are more likely to have their research published, studies observing gender differences between men + women are more likely to appear in journal articles than not, laboratory experiment may further disadvantage women - female ps are placed in an inequitable relationship with a usually male researcher who has the power to label them as unreasonable, irrational and unable to complete tasks
• Psychology may be guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism - creates bias
• Freud's theory


  Suggested males are more morally developed due to identification with the same sex parent; results in higher levels of anxiety, girls are not subjected to the same pressure to identify as boys, therefore moral reasoning is less developed
• Freud saw femininity as an expression of failed masculinity; central concept of penis envy means women are defined by the fact that they do not have a penis
• Freud explained female vanity as a defence mechanism - women make up for their sexual inferiority by focusing on their charms
• Feminist psychology


  • Women should be studied within real life contexts, and participate in research rather than being the objects of the study, diversity should be examined, rather than compared, and there should be a greater emphasis on collaborative research that collect qualitative data
• Cultural bias


  Tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena from one cultural lens
• Universality and bias - oftentimes psychological studies are culture-bound; not always universal in nature
• Mainstream psychology may often ignore culture as an influence on human behaviour; assumes findings from studies from western cultures can be applied all over the world
• Ethnocentrism


  Judging other cultures by the standards and values of one's own culture, belief in the superiority of one culture over another, leading to prejudice or discrimination
• Cultural variations by van ijzendoorn + kroonenberg shown very different results, led to misinterpretation of child rearing practices in other countries - eg German mothers were perceived as cold and rejecting, even though their culture has an emphasis on child independence
• Cultural relativism


  Berry 1969 - etic approach looks at behaviour from outside of a culture, and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal, emic approach looks at behaviour inside certain cultures, and attempts to describe those behaviours within that culture
• Ainsworth's research eg of imposed etic - assuming the US' model of classifying attachment was the norm, it imposed our own cultural beliefs everywhere else
• Berry suggested lots of research is often emic in approach; specific to one particular culture but assumed to be the same everywhere else (universality eg)
• Psychologists must be more mindful of cultural relativism of studies
• Individualism and collectivism


  Distinction between individualist cultures (US) that value personal freedom, individualism and collectivist cultures (China) that place emphasis on interdependence + the needs of a group of people rather than an individual
• Critics suggested in this age of globalisation and interconnectedness, simplistic distinctions between cultures no longer apply
• Takano + osaka 1999 - found 14/15 studies comparing USA and Japan found no evidence of a traditional distinction between individualism and collectivism - therefore cultural bias may be less important now
• Ekman 1989 - suggests basic facial expressions for emotions are the same all over human/animal world
• Some features of human attachment, eg interactional synchrony, are universal
• Unfamiliarity with research tradition


  • Knowledge in scientific testing in studies may not extend to cultures that do not have the same historical experience of research, when conducting an experiment, it is presumed most people have some level of how psychological procedures work, however some cultures may genuinely have no idea of this, eg on an island
• Operationalisation of variables


  • May be problems with operationalisation of variables, eg behavioural expression may differ in indigenous populations compared to other cultures, invasion of personal space in China is seen as normal, whereas in the west is seen as threatening or confrontational
• Free will


  Notion that all human behaviour is self determining by choice, not biology
• Determinism


  Behaviour is caused by internal/external factors
• Types of determinism


  • Hard determinism/fatalism - suggests human free will is not possible as all behaviour is caused by internal/external factors outside of our control
  • Soft determinism - suggests all events have a cause, but behaviour is determined by conscious choices in the absence of coercion
  • Biological determinism - behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, neural, evolutionary influences) outside of our control
  • Environmental determinism - behaviour is caused by features of the environment (eg rewards/punishments) that we cannot control
  • Psychic determinism - behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts we can't control
• For determinism - Consistent with aims of science - suggests human behaviour is determined by rules, value of such research - the prediction and control of human behaviour has led to the development of treatments, therapies and behavioural interventions beneficial to many; eg psychotherapy drugs in SZ management
• Against determinism - Hard determinism stance that individual choices are not the cause of behaviour is not consistent with the way our legal system operates, in a court of law, offenders are held morally accountable for their actions, despite scientific credentials, determinism is unfalsifiable; based on the idea causes of behaviour will always exist, even though these causes haven't been found
• For free will - Face validity - everyday experiences - we are constantly exercising free will, research suggests people have an ILOC; high degree of influence over events and their own behaviour
• Against free will - Neurological studies of decision making - revealed evidence against free will, Libet 1985 and Chun Siong Soon 2008 - brain activity determining the outcome of simple choices may predate our knowledge making a choice in the first place
• Nature


  Early nativists, Descartes 17th cent, argued human characteristics are innate - biological in nature
• Nurture


  Empiricists - Locke 17th cent argued the mind is a blank slate at birth; learning and experiences write - later dev behaviourist approach