Issues and Debates

At an extreme alpha bias is essentialism. View gender differences as inevitable and fixed. Essentialist positions are often politically motivated and can lead to double standards. E.g. evolutionary theories suggest that men are 'programmed' to impregnate as many women as possible, and women are 'programmed' to look after their offspring. Therefore, if a man is unfaithful he is just being natural. 

Beta bias may demean a group.  E.g. viewing PMT as a medical pathology gives a 'justification' to belittle emotional behaviour by women. 

Alpha biased research can maintain a discriminatory practice. Evolutionary theories suggest it is less in male interest to be nurturing towards children, men that then choose caring professions e.g. paediatric nursing are viewed as 'odd'. 

There are fewer senior female researchers in psychology which may influence the research questions that are asked, ignoring female concerns. There is also a publication bias towards studies that find a difference resulting in an alpha bias in theories. Researchers should have reflexivity so there are aware of their own biases. A file drawer problem could be resolved by creating a research register and insisting on publication. 

Freud's Psychosexual Stages of development

• Freud's psychosexual stages of development are inherently gender-biased. All his theories are androcentric. E.g. 'penis envy' - with women being defined psychologically by the fact they aren't men. 
• An implication of Freud's ideas is that they reinforce negative traditional stereotypes. 
• Gender bias may provide a scientific justification to deny women opportunities in the workplace or wider society. 

Schizophrenia and DSM

• The DSM diagnostic criteria may diagnose one gender more frequently than the other. 
• When Loring and Powell gave 300 US psychiatrists cases to diagnose the male psychiatrists were 36% less likely to give a patient a diagnosis of Sz if they presented as female. This gender bias did not appear to be evident in female psychiatrists. 
• This evidence shows that diagnosis was influenced not only by the gender of the participant but also of the clinician. 
• Gender bias can cause a difference in the diagnosis of mental health conditions. 

In 1992 64% of the world's psychology researchers were American.

Psychology sometimes claims to have discovered something about everyone when in reality it only applies to the groups of people who were studied. Many studies that have been carried out in Western culture have been applied across the world. E.g. Social influence studies of conformity and obedience were originally conducted in the US and revealed different results when replicated elsewhere. Culture bias is when a behaviour is judged only from the standpoint of one culture and any difference is seen as abnormal. 

Previously when psychologists have been investigating culture they have really been talking about an individualist-collectivist divide. Individualist cultures are Western countries that value personal freedom and independence. Collectivist cultures, e.g. China and India, place importance on interdependence. Some have suggested that in an age of interconnectedness that such a facile separation may not occur. Takano and Osaka (1999) found that 14 out of 15 studies that compared the US and Japan found no evidence of an individualistic-collectivist divide. This could suggest that cultural bias is less of an issue now than it once was. 

Ainsworth's Strange Situation (Attachment) Limitation

• Devised by Mary Ainsworth to observe attachment security in children. Not appropriate for assessing children from non-western countries as the original study only used white American middle-class participants. This means that the generalising of the findings could also be questioned. 
• The cultural differences in child-rearing styles make results liable to misinterpretation, particularly in German and Japanese samples. 
• This is a weakness for the study and a clear demonstration of culture bias existing in psychological research. 

Psychic determinism is when behaviour is the result of an unconscious conflict from childhood. E.g. Freud thought that free will was an illusion because he felt that the causes of our behaviour is unconscious and still predictable. Freud believed that childhood experiences shaped our future. 

Soft determinism assumes an original cause of the behaviour but accepts flexibility for humans to have some control over their own actions. E.g. Bandura's mediating factors allow for the motivation of the observer to imitate the action; he did not assume all behaviour seen would always be imitated. 

Free will has face validity because it makes cognitive sense as our everyday experience 'gives the impression' that we are constantly exercising free will through the choices we make on any given day. 

A hard determinist stance in that individual choice is not the cause of behaviour is not consistent with the way in which our legal system operates. In the court of law, offenders are held morally accountable for their actions. Determinism is also unfalsifiable as it is impossible to prove wrong that causes of behaviour will always exist. This suggests that determinism may not be as scientific as it first appeared. 

SLT - External determinism - Support

• External determinism sees behaviour being caused by influences outside of the individual. 
• Bandura (1961) showed that children become aggressive through observation and imitation of their violent parents. This supports the idea of behaviour being pre-determined by your environment or genetics. However, this is inconsistent with society's ideas of responsibility that forms the basis of our moral obligations and legal system. 

Humanism - Free will - Limitation 

• Free will says a person is responsible for their own actions
• Maslow and Rogers argue that freedom is necessary if we are to function as fully formed human beings. 
• Mental illnesses appear to undermine the concept of free will. As e.g. individuals with OCD are then choosing to lose control of their thoughts and people with depression choose to live with negative emotions. 
• An implication of this could be that those with mental health issues should not receive funding or support as they are choosing to live with these conditions. 

Nativism - All human characteristics are innate. Empiricism - The mind is a blank slate. 

Levels of environment - Environment can operate at varying levels, each of which has a different impact on the individual. E.g. the most direct level may be the prenatal environment in which they developed. The least direct level may be the culture they live in or were raised in. 

Nature creates nurture - Constructivism

Bowlby and Ainsworth implied that responding with sensitive care to a child's social releases meant that a child was more likely to become securely attached. Belsky and Rovine suggested the Temperament Hypothesis, which proposed some children are easier to look after and this causes parents to want to respond to their needs, which in turn increases their chances of being securely attached. Thus, the child's nature (temperament) created their nurture (care from parents). 

The diathesis-stress model states that an individual can have the genetic potential for a disorder but live free of it until triggered by an environmental stressor that tips their overall risk over the edge, e.g. Meehl's model for Sz. 

Classical conditioning - nurture - strength 

• Classical conditioning is learning through association. Pavlov's experiment with dogs, who salivated in response to a bell. If a bell was repeatedly sounded when the dogs were fed they learned to associate the sound with the presentation of food and would even salivate when the bell was rung even if there was no food. 
• This emphasises the importance of learning from the environment. An implication may be that teachers should ensure that students experience a positive emotional experience while learning otherwise at an extreme a pupil could develop a phobia for school. 

Biological approach - nature - strength and limitation

• The biological approach believes behaviour to be caused by genetics. The biological approach uses twin studies and adoption studies with clear predictions that can be tested. Explanations can then be scientifically tested and supported by evidence. 
• A severe nativist stance can be controversial as research can support inequalities between social groups, e.g. Jenson found that the IQ of black Americans was sig. lower than white Americans and went on to incorrectly argue that genetic factors were responsible. 

Reductionism = breaking behaviour into parts. Holism = Can only study human behaviour if studied as a whole. Biological reductionism = explaining behaviour on the basis of genetic or biochemical explanations. E.g. Schizophrenia caused by an excess of dopamine or depression caused by a lack of serotonin. 

In using the computer analogy, cognitive psychologists reduce the rich experience of humanity to being like a machine, e.g. multi-store model. This is machine reductionism. This is very useful for studying humans scientifically because we can isolate each component of the 'machine' and study just that, e.g. capacity. However in doing that we do not account for certain factors that are core to human experience, e.g. the motivation involved in learning, making it only a partial explanation. 

Pro holism - There are aspects of behaviour that can only emerge within a group context. E.g. the effects of conformity to social roles and the de-individualisation of the prisoners and guards in the Stanford Prison experiment could not be understood by studying the participants as individuals. It was the interaction between people that was important. This shows that holistic explanations provide a more complete understanding of behaviour than reductionist approaches. 

Biological reductionism - strength and limitation

• Biological reductionism is scientific as it allows complex behaviours to be broken down. This is a reductionist stance. Biological reductionism has led to the development of biological therapies.
• E.g., SSRIs are more effective than placebos at treating the symptoms of OCD and reduce symptoms for three months after treatment (Soomro et al. 2008).
• This is a strength for the reductionist stance as it provides scientific credibility.
• An implication of this stance is that it can lead to the root of the problem not being solved. E.g. Ritalin reduces the symptoms for ADHD but does not address the condition which gave rise to the ADHD.
• This is a limitation of the reductionist stance as there is a lack of validity, with the explanations given only forming a small part of the picture of a condition.

The nomothetic approach attempts to establish laws and generalisations about people.

• Regarded as scientific as it uses precise measurements and controlled methods which allow replication and generalisation.
• Has also helped psychology as a whole become more scientific by developing laws that can be empirically tested.
• However, extensive use of controlled laboratory experiments creates a lack of generalisation to everyday life. 

The idiographic approach focuses on the individual and recognition of uniqueness - suggests everyone is unique and therefore everyone should be studied in an individual way.

• This provides a more complete or global understanding of the individual.
• However, it is often regarded as non-scientific as subjective experiences cannot be empirically tested. 

Idiographic limitation

• An example of the idiographic approach is from the psychodynamic approach with Freud’s case study of Little Hans who was a 5-year-old boy with a phobia of horses. Freud suggested Hans resolved his Oedipus complex by fantasising that he was married to his mother. This supports the idiographic stance as it is the detailed study of one person. A criticism of this study and the idiographic approach is that Freud’s concepts (e.g. Oedipus complex) was developed from the detailed study of a single case. An implication of this is that idiographic conclusions tend to rely on the subjective interpretation of the researcher and then is also open to bias.

• An example of the nomothetic approach is from attachment with Bowlby’s evolutionary theory of attachment. Bowlby's suggested that children come into the world with a biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others. Using IQ tests and interviews, Bowlby's research was scientific, and this is a strength of the nomothetic approach. The implication of that is that it gives the discipline of psychology a greater scientific credibility.

Ethical implications = Psychological research has an impact on the lives of those studied and other similar groups. Socially sensitive research = Some areas are more controversial than others. However, this does not mean that such research should not be conducted. Aronson (1999) believes that psychologists have a 'social responsibility' to conduct such research. 

Sieber and Stanley (1988) identified four aspects in the scientific research process that raise ethical implications in socially sensitive research:

• •       the implications of the research question
• •       the methodology used
• •       the institutional context (later uses)
• •       interpretation and application of findings (later uses)
• •       Sieber and Stanley (1988) warn that how research questions are phrased and investigated may influence the ways findings are interpreted

•       For example, research into ‘alternative relationships’ has been guilty of a heterosexual bias in that homosexual relationships have been judged against heterosexual norms.  Assessments of the ‘worth’ of such research are typically subjective and the real impact of the research can only ever be known once it has been made public

Strength - Sandra Scarr (1988) argues that studies of underrepresented groups and issues may promote a greater sensitivity and understanding. E.g. Research into the reliability of eyewitness testimony has reduced the risk of miscarriages of justice in our legal system. The implications of this is that socially sensitive research can play a valuable role in society and can benefit society.

Limitation 

Burt was a leading psychologist who was influential in the establishment of the 11+ in the UK. This was a test to decide if children could attend grammar school based on their natural intelligence. Burt’s view was that intelligence was genetic. Discrepancies in the data showed he made much of the data up and invented two research assistants. His research was publicly discredited but the 11+ remained for many years. The implications of this has impacted thousands of children's life opportunities.

Bowlby’s 1950s WHO report – stay at home mothering

 Bowlby’s 1950s WHO report suggested that babies need the constant care of their mother for healthy psychological development. This led to ‘stay at home’ mothering. Later evidence has shown that good substitute care in nurseries or by the father, does not have a detrimental effect on social development. As an example, this means that the mother can happily return to work after having a child, remaining economically active. The later outcome of psychological research had a benefit for mothers as they were no longer socially criticised for not being stay at home mothers and able to continue their career.

effectiveness of different therapies

Studies often compare the effectiveness of different therapies. If research shows that people with depression are less likely to suffer a relapse after having CBT then even though it may be more expensive than drug therapy, in the long term it may be more economically sound to offer CBT as people would have less time off work.