Issues and debates

• What is socially sensitive research

  This is research that evokes controversy within the local community or strong emotions from participant.
• Examples of socially sensitive research

  • Bowlby”s monotropy
  • Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation
  • milgrams
• What is alpha bias 


  Research that exaggerates the difference between the genders
• What is beta bias 


  Research that minimises or ignores the difference between the sexes
• What is androcentric 


  Male centered research.

  involves taking male behaviour as the normal and female as deviant
• Alpha bias research 


  Ford argued that because girls do not suffer the same Oedipal conflict as boys, they do not identify with the mothers are strong as boys do with their fathers so develop weaker superegos. this devalues women by saying that they have an inferior sense of morality just because they don’t they castration as boys do.
• Beta bias research 


  Milgram tested obedience rates on men and found that 65% of them would give a 450 volt electric shock when being instructed to by an experimenter and then just assumed the results would be the same for women. However sheriden and king discovered in their study that 100% of females obeyed compared to only 45% of men.
• What is cultural bias

  The phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one’s own culture.
• What is imposed etic

  Where a construct from one culture is inappropriately applied to another
• What is ethnocentrism 


  Judging one culture by the standards and views of another. In the extreme it is one culture claiming to she superior and devaluing another
• What is cultural relativism 


  The view that behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is views in the context of the culture it originates
• Cultural bias - definitions of abnormality 


  What is considered normal in one culture may be abnormal in another (imposed etic)
• Cultural bias schizophrenia 


  Hearing voices can b characterised as a symptom of schizophrenia in one culture but in some cultures such as certain African cultures this is perfectly acceptable because they believe to have communication with their ancestors and therefore isnt considered a symotom of sz.
• Approaches to deal with cultural bias

  • Emic
  • etic
• What is Emic


  Focus on one culture in order to examine cultural specific behaviours
• What is free will

  Humans can make choices about how they behave. They are responsible for their own actions.
• Strength of free will - positive impact on mind and behaviour

  People with an internal locus of control who believe that they have a high degree of influence over events in their life and their own behaviour tend to be more mentally healthy. A study by Robert et al demonstrated that adolescence with a strong belief in fatalism were at a significantly greater risk of depression. this suggests that even if we do not have free will the belief that we do can have a positive impact on her mind and behaviour.
• Limitation of free will - may think we have free will when we don’t 


  One imitation of free will is it we may believe we have it when we actually don’t. for instance neurological research on decision-making suggest that brain activity determines the outcome of simple choices before we consciously become aware. Soon et al found the activity in the pre-frontal cortex occurred 10 seconds before a person was even aware of the decision to act. this shows that even almost basic experiences of free well are decided and determined by our brain before we even aware.
• What is determinism 


  This is the idea that behaviour is shaped by or controlled internal or external forces rather than an individuals will to do something
• What is hard determinism 


  All human behaviour has a cause. There is no free will
• What is soft determinism

  Behaviour is constrained by the environment and biological makeup but only it a certain extent. Behaviour can be determined by conscious choice.
• What is biological determinism 


  Behaviour is determined by biological factors that we cannot control
• What is environmental determinism 


  Behaviour is determined by the environmental factors outside if our control
• What is psychic determinism

  Behaviour is caused by unconscious biological urges out of our control
• Strength of determinism - places psychology on equal footing with other sciences

  One strength of determinism is it places psychology on an equal footing with the other sciences. prediction and control of behaviour has led to successful treatment programs such as for schizophrenia. For example thornley reviewed chlorpromazine trials and found the drug was associated with better overall function and reduced symptoms severity therefore by taking a deterministic perspective it gives value to psychology as a field of science.
• Limitation of determinism - unfalsifiable 


  Despite the fact that it seems scientific is unfalsifiable. it’s based on the idea that causes of behaviour always exist even though they may not yet be found therefore it may not be as scientific as we think.
• Limitation of determinsim - suggests a single cause for behaviour 


  determinism suggests a single cause of behaviour. However identical twin studies for schizophrenia found that MZ twins had a concordance rate of 48% compared to a concordance rate of 17% MZ twins. if biological determinism was the single cause for schizophrenia the concordance rate should be 100% they suggest that the environment must play a role. this means that there is no single factor that controls behaviour and is an argument against hard determinism
• Strength of free will - emphasises individual differences 


  One strength of free will is it emphasises individual differences. this fits societies view of personal responsibility where you can be held responsible for your own actions.The idea of self efficacy is also useful therapies because it makes him more effective.
• Limitation of free will - subjective 


  One weakness of free will is that it is subjective and some argue that it doesn’t even exist. this is impossible to scientifically test the concept. few people would agree that behaviour is always completely under the control of the individual
• Strength of determinism - scientific 


  One strength of determinism is a scientific it allows us to establish cause and effect which gives us plausible explanations of behaviour backed up by evidence.
• Limitation of determinism - reductionist 


  One weakness of determinism is it is a reductionist this is because it does not account for individual differences as it underestimate the uniqueness of you being the freedom to choose their own destiny. This suggest that criminals can we have accountable for their actions and therefore reduces individual responsibility.
• What is nature 


  This suggests that characteristics/behaviour is determined by hereditary factors
• What is nurture 


  This is the idea that environmental factors shape our behaviour
• Limitation of nature vs nurture - Difficult to separate the two 


  psychologists began to question whether human behaviour is due to hereditary factors or the environment. is not widely accepted that hereditary and the environment do not act independently. researchers are interested in investigating the interactionist approach which is the idea that nature and nurture work together to shape behaviour. interactionist approach could be expressed through the diathesis stress model when someone is genetically predisposed to a disorder which is then triggered by a stressor in the environment.
• What is holism 


  Emphasise the whole rather than the constituent parts
• Strength of holism - considers all factors

  One strength of holism is it considers all factors of components that can influence behaviour which means that it has ecological validit. This is because it views behaviour as a whole rather than examining its distinctive parts.
• Limitation is holistic approach - hypothetical 


  one limitation is that it is a hypothetical approach that isn’t based on empirical evidence and doesn’t lend itself well to rigourous testing it can be seen by some as a loose set of concepts.
• What Is reductionism 


  Analysing behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts. breaks down complex systems into small components
• Different types of reductionism

  • Biological reductionism
  • machine reductionism
  • environmental reductionism
• Strength of reductionism - allows researchers to look at complex 


  One strength of a reductionist approach is it allows researchers to look at complex things such as human behaviour and break them down into smaller parts. This makes it easier to establish a cause and effect.