Issues and debates

• Gender bias


  The differential treatment or representation of males and females based around stereotypes and not real differences
• Universality


  Psychologists would ideally want to apply their findings to the world regardless of differences like culture and gender etc. however preconceived ideas can affect the universality of psychologists' conclusions
• Alpha bias


  Gender differences being exaggerated to maximise the differences between genders
• Alpha bias


  • Freud's theory of psychosexual development, believed femininity was failed masculinity and that the 2 sexes could never be equal in position of worth
• Beta bias


  Attempt to downplay or minimise the differences between genders
• Beta bias


  • Fight or flight response which is documented as universal despite that the research was only carried out on male rats, Taylor 2000 suggests women are more likely to "tend and befriend"
• Androcentrism


  A consequence of beta bias, the idea that the behaviour of men is taken as the norm and women are atypical
• Androcentrism


  • Tabriz 1993 argues most cultures take male behaviour as the standard. Research ignores the differences of men and women due to women not being part of the research process and if a women's behaviour is not in line with research in the real world they are seen as atypical
• Biased research methods


  Institutional sexism, use of standardised procedures in research studies, dissemination of research results
• An implication of gender bias

  The issue of androcentrism, which applies studies of men onto women ignoring the different biological factors in men and women
• Androcentrism


  Causes the male behaviour to be the norm, and typical behaviour of women to be deemed as abnormal
• Gender bias can be avoided by studying women in a women only environment
• Sexism has a role in gender bias

  Due to a minority of women appointed at senior research level, the research questions within researcher are often from a male perspective and can lead to stereotypes about women
• Sexism in research


  • Gross 1995 claims research topics often reflect dominant stereotypes from the culture where they have been founded, particularly in the west were researchers are often white middle class males who don't represent the general population and will demonstrate their perspective on women
• Highlighting gender bias within research

  Psychologists can improve their procedures and reflect on the assumptions of women that their work holds
• Gender bias can be embraced to improve the methodology and sample of their research
• Avoiding gender bias


  • Sorrel and rember 1992 put towards a set criteria to avoid gender bias for example women being studied in real life contexts and diversity within groups of women rather than comparing women and men which can result in alpha bias
• Culture bias


  The tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the lens of one's own culture
• Ethnocentrism


  The belief in the superiorities of one's own ethnic and cultural group. Our own cultural perspective is taken as a standard by which we measure other cultures
• Ethnocentrism


  • Ainsworth's strange situation reflected on the norms of US culture
• Cultural relativism


  Behaviour which cannot be judged properly unless it's viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates
• Cultural relativism


  • Hearing voices is seen as normal in some cultures
• Etic constructs


  Analyses behaviour and focuses on the universality of human behaviour, universal factors that hold across cultures. Looking at behaviour from outside the culture
• Emic constructs


  Specific to a given culture and vary from one culture to another, they look at behaviour from the inside of the cultural system
• Berry 1969 suggested psychology takes an imposed etic approach as it argues that theories and concepts are universal despite research being conducted using emic constructs within a specific culture
• Cultural differences in depression

  • Cross cultural research in psychology shows there are variations in depressive experience, historical and cultural traditions frame depression differently. In some cultures depression may be experienced in somatic terms rather than with sadness of guilt. Imbalance in Asian cultures and problems of the heart in Middle Eastern cultures
• Cultural bias in Milgram's study

  • Milgram found 65% of American male participants administered 450v of electric shocks (the participants where deceived) and claimed high levels of obedience were due to the power of the social situation. However there may be many factors specific to America they may respect authority more
• The distinctions between different types of cultures are not as clear cut as today. Labelling an "individualist" culture compared to a "collectivists" culture which groups a diverse group of cultures together
• Increased cross cultural research

  Can decrease the stereotypes of different cultures which often come from western communities
• Cross cultural research


  • Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg 1988 conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies which used Ainsworth strange situation and displayed the differences of attachment between eastern cultures and western cultures. However only 8 countries where studied and most came from the USA which causes a disproportionality
• Cross cultural research can lead to open mindedness and limit cultural bias
• The idea of cultural relativism


  Can eradicate the concept of universality
• Ekman 1989 suggested basic facial expressions like happiness and disgust are similar across the world and humans and can be generalised, challenging the idea of universality being ignored in culture bias
• Meltzoff and Moore's caregiver infant interactions are biological responses of infants and are universal
• Free will


  The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces. It suggests we are self-determining but doesn't completely deny that we are not influenced by biology or external forces
• Humanistic approach


  Largely advocates free will, Rogers CCT based on the idea that we a free to change our lives by choosing to see our situations in a different way removing the barriers that we face in achieving personal growth and allows us to achieve self-actualisation
• The case for free will


  Every day experiences gives us the impression that we have free will giving the concept face validity. Research has suggested that those with a high internal locus of control tend also to be more mentally healthy
• The case against free will

  Neurological studies into decision making have discovered research evidence against the notion of free will. Libet 1995 study and Soon's et al 2008 study demonstrated that brain activity determines the outcome of a simple choice before participants report being consciously aware of making such decision
• Those that believe in a firm free will stance could suggest that it was our free will-based decision that triggered the brain activity, and that the delay is down to individual reaction times rather than a decision predating
• Interactionist approach


  May be the best compromise in the free will vs determinism debate. Approaches such as Social Learning Theory, focus mainly on the environmental influences on an individual, but also accept there is a cognitive element to the way we learn to behave