Issues and debates

• Gender bias


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

  A tendency to exaggerate differences between men and women, suggesting that there are real and enduring differences between the two sexes
• Examples of Alpha Bias


  • Psychodynamic explanations for offending behaviour
  • Wilson's sociobiological theory of relationship formation
  • Historically, since the 1980s, schizophrenia has been diagnosed more frequently in men compared to women
• Androcentrism


  The consequence of beta bias and occurs when all behaviour is compared according to a 'male' standard, often to the neglect or exclusion of women
• Example of Androcentrism


  • PMS has been criticised by some as being a social construction, which trivialises female emotion, particularly anger. On the other hand, male anger is seen as a logical response to external pressures
• Beta bias


  A tendency to ignore or minimise differences between men and women. Such theories tend to ignore questions about the lives of women, or insights derived from studies of men will apply equally well to women
• Examples of Beta Bias


  • Early research conducted into the fight or flight response exclusively used male lab mice
  • Kohlberg's levels of moral reasoning theory was developed on the basis of studying groups of American males
• Universality


  The aim to develop theories that apply to all people, which may include real differences. This describes any underlying characteristic of human behaviour which can be applied to all individuals, regardless of their differences
• Culture


  The rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people
• Cultural bias


  The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgements
• Cultural relativism


  The view that behaviour, morals, standards and values cannot be judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate
• Example of Cultural Relativism


  • Milgram's study into obedience was originally conducted using 40 male American participants, but then also replicated using Spanish students and Australian students
• Alpha bias (in cultural relativism)


  Cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias, where the assumption of real differences lead psychologists to overlook universals
• Beta bias (in cultural relativism)


  Cultural relativism is often discussed in the context of defining mental disorder. Behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be more frequent in another
• Alpha and Beta Bias in Cross-Cultural Research

  • Alpha bias - The assumption that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups

  Beta bias - Theories that minimise or ignore cultural differences, assuming that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same theories for different cultural groups
• Ethnocentrism


  Seeing things from the point of view of ourselves and our social group. Evaluating other groups of people using the standards and customs of one's own culture
• Example of Ethnocentrism


  • Ainsworth's Strange Situation is an example of cultural relativism due to suggesting that a secure attachment was only characterised by moderate separation and stranger anxiety
• The emic-etic distinction


  Emic approach emphasises the distinction of uniqueness in every culture, while the "etic" approach seeks universal aspects of behaviour
• Determinism


  The belief that behaviour is controlled by external or internal factors acting upon the individual and beyond their control
• Biological determinism


  The view that behaviour is always caused by internal biological forces beyond our control, such as the influence of genes
• Environmental determinism


  The belief that behaviour is caused by previous experience through classical and operant conditioning
• Psychic determination


  Freud's theory of personality suggests that adult behaviour is determined by a mix of innate drives and early experience, resulting in unconscious conflicts over which we have no control
• Free will


  Each individual has the power to make choices about their behaviour, without being determined by internal or external forces beyond their control
• Hard determinism


  The view that all behaviour can be predicted, according to the action of internal and external forces beyond our control, and so there can be no free will
• Psychosexual stages of development

  Each stage is characterised by a conflict which, if unresolved, leads to fixation in adulthood
• Soft determinism


  A version of determinism that allows for some element of free will and suggests that all events, including human behaviour, has a cause
• Scientific research


  • Based on the belief that all events have a cause
  • An independent variable is manipulated to have an effect on the dependent variable
  • Repeating the research under controlled conditions and performing statistical tests to establish a 'cause and effect' relationship between two variables
  • Increases the scientific credibility of Psychology, through enabling the prediction and control of behaviour
• 100% genetic determinism is unlikely to be found for any behaviour
• Studies that compare monozygotic twins have found 80% similarity for intelligence and 40% for depression, suggesting that genes do not entirely determine behaviour and supports an interactionist standpoint
• The fact that concordance rates for MZ twins are often higher than for siblings, despite both sharing 50% of genes, may be due to MZ twins being more likely to share the same environment
• Determinism simplifies human behaviour, which may be appropriate for non-humans but human behaviour is less rigid and influenced by many factors i.e. cognitive factors which can override biological impulses
• A determinist position may be used for people to try and justify behaviours if they have committed a crime, which would be undesirable as it excuses their behaviour
• Determinism has led to treatment methods for mental disorders, such as depression through the control of serotonin by using SSRIs and SNRIs, but this biological deterministic approach does not allow the use of other treatments which are not based on biological mechanisms, such as CBT
• Humanistic approach


  Argues that self-determinism is a necessary part of human behaviour, and that only when an individual takes self responsibility is personal growth or 'self-actualisation' possible
• Moral responsibility


  The basis is that an individual is in charge of their own actions, and so humans are accountable for their behaviour regardless of innate factors or early experience
• A person may choose to do something but these choices are determined by previous reinforcement contingencies, as suggested by the behaviourist approach, which is a hard deterministic stance
• Studies have found brain activity preceding a person's conscious awareness of their decision to act, suggesting that all behaviour is pre-determined
• The idea of free will has good face validity because we appear to have free will in our day to day lives
• Differences in locus of control and mental health states supports the idea that free will can be used to help us determine what controls our life events, and so we make such conscious decisions
• Environment


  Everything that is outside our body, including people, events and the physical world. Any influence on behaviour which is non-genetic.