Social Sensitivity - AO3

• Conducting socially sensitive research

  Can lead to issues of discrimination
• Some psychologists would argue against conducting socially sensitive research
• Intelligence in American IQ tests

  • White Americans performed better than eye immigrants and African Americans
  • This led to the belief that white people were intellectually superior
  • Immigration restrictions and discrimination
  • Over 64,000 people were forcibly sterilised under the eugenics legislation in USA
  • At least 2000 black women were involuntarily sterilised without knowing
• The IQ test was culturally biased and favoured white Americans, so it shouldn't be used to make judgments about other cultures
• Bowlby's research on maternal deprivation

  Had negative ethical implications by influencing social policy
• Maternal deprivation theory


  Blames the mother for the negative consequences, which can make women feel inadequate, guilty, and pressured to fulfill the maternal role
• Bowlby's research has been criticised for biased reporting to support his own theory
• Conducting socially sensitive research into family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia has led to practical applications, such as family therapy to reduce expressed emotion and prevent relapse
• Not all socially sensitive research is controversial, and some are desirable and beneficial to society, such as research on child eye-witness testimony
• Socially sensitive research on child eye-witness testimony has resulted in a good working relationship between psychologists and the legal profession to improve the accuracy and validity of children's eye-witnesses