Issues and debates REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What does psychologists seek but what may still occur?

Psychologists seek universality in their work but bias can't be avoided

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Define gender bias

Psychological theory and research may not accurately represent the all experience and behaviour of men and women

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Define and explain alpha bias

Exaggerate the unpreventable differences between sexes so, increase value of women; in comparison to men, the women may be devalued.

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Define and explain beta bias

Don't exaggerate differences between sexes by not including women in research process; assume that findings from male research can be generalised to women

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Which researcher and research title is an example of alpha bias?

Wilson researched human sexual attraction through survival efficiency

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Explain Wilson's research into human sexual attraction through survival efficiency.

Males aim to impregnate many females to preserve their genes by passing to next generation but women can only preserve their genes by not sleeping with many males but by ensuring their offspring survives and reproduce

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Define sexual promiscuity and explain whether it's natural for males/females and why

Sexual promiscuity= not discrimating when choosing mate. This is naturally selected for males to impregnate many women to pass their genes but not for females so they can preserve female genes by ensuring offspring survives &reproduce and pass genes

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List 2 biological process is an example of beta bias.

1. Fight or flight 2. Tend and befriend

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Explain why fight or flight is an example of beta bias?

Early research into fight/flight based on males as female hormones fluctuated so, fight/flight response for threat generalised to females too.

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Who discovered the tend and befriend response, explain how they discovered it and what this response is?

Taylor et al. said female biology evolved to stop fight or flight and do tend and befriend by tending offspring by forming defense network with other females by befriending them

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What hormone controls fight or flight and what hormone controls tend and befriend?

Fight/flight controlled by adrenaline and Tend and befriend controlled by oxytocin

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Define androcentrism

Consequence of beta bias because findings from study of male samples only and if female behaviour is different to male ones from findings= females seen as abnormal/illness

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Give and explain an example of androcentrism

Male anger as a response to external pressure seen as rational but females it's irrational and medicalised as pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) by explaining it in hormonal terms

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Describe and explain the difference between alpha and beta bias

Alpha bias exaggerates the unavoidable difference between the sexes. Beta bias does not exaggerate the differences and generalise findings to both sexes.

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What is the name of Wilson's research finding's theory and how can you you remember this?

Sociobiological theory of relation formation REMEMBER: socio because it's to do with males and females of society but also biological as to do with genes being passed down and natural selection

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Explain the consequence of beta bias

Androcentrism= Findings from study of all male sample then generalise to women but when a female behaviour is different, it is seen as abnormal and pathologised as illness

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Define and explain cultural bias

Findings from studies only apply to the cultural groups that were studied and so, researchers wrongly assume that findings from Western cultures can be generalised universally. Behaviours that differ from norms in study's culture, is seen as abnormal

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Define and explain enthnocentrism

Belief in superiority of your own culture and results in the view that other behaviours are deficient

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Why does ethnocentrism see behaviours and norms of other cultures as deficient?

Behaviours and norms of different cultures (e.g. Non-Western) that don't conform to the norms of a certain culture (e.g.Western) will be seen as abnormal to that culture (Western)

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Define cultural relativism and explain what respecting cultural relativism can lead to and why?

Appreciating that behaviour varies between cultures so, respecting and taking this into account will help to avoid cultural bias as you know that you may not be able to generalise all your findings to all cultures.

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Define emic and etic approaches

Emic approach looks at behaviour outside culture so, identify behaviours universally whereas, Emic approach looks at inside a culture and identify behaviours specific (relative) to a culture

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Who proposed the emic and etic approaches and state how you could remember the definitions of emic and etic?

Berry proposed emic anf etic. You can remember them by eTic is ouTside so, has to identify all behaviours universally therefore, leaves emic is inside a culture so identifies all behaviours to specific culture only as it's looking inside 1 culture

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What type of Berry's approach is illustrated by Ainsworth's research?

.

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Why is Ainsworth's research an imposed etic approach and not emic?

.

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Define free will

Humans are free to choose own thoughts and actions and reject biological and environmental factors that influence behaviour

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What approach is the view of free will and WHY?

.

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Define determinism

Behaviours and thoughts can be determined and influenced by internal (biological and psychic) and external (environmental) factors

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List the 4 types of determinism

1. Soft 2. Hard 3. Biological 4. Environmental 5. Psychic

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Define and explain hard determinism and its view on free will and how can you remember this?

All actions have an identifiable cause that exists without conflict (compatible) and the aims of science assumes all actions are influenced by uncontrollable internal or external forces therefore, free will is an illusion hence the name 'hard'

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Define and explain soft determinism and its view on free will and how can you remember this?

All actions has a cause that can be consciously controlled so, James said that soft determinism still has little free will hence the name 'soft'

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What exists in determinism?

A continuum

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Define biological determinism and state what type of psychological approach this is

Control behaviour by physiological, hormonal and genetic processes so, this is a biological approach

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Explain the biological processes that biologically determine actions, behaviour and thoughts

Physiological processes such as the autonomic nervous system influence anxiety. Genetic factors may determine behaviours and characteristics such as mental disorders (OCD) Hormones such as testosterone have role in aggressive behaviour

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Define and explain environmental determinism, state who discussed this and what type of approach this is

Skinner said we may think we are acting independently but behaviours are conditioned and controlled by external factors such as socialisation agents like parents and environment events and free will is an illusion so, this is a behaviourist approach

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Define and explain psychic determinism

Behaviour controlled by unconscious fears and desires from past traumatic events and experiences

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Which 2 psychologists can you talk about when discussing psychic determinism and explain why?

Skinner and Freud thought free will=illusion but Skinner said conditioning=behaviour; Freud said unconscious unresolved childhood conflicts+ biological drives =behaviour+other psychological responses

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Explain the basic principle of science and its use to scientists and use to psychologists

Basic principle= every event has cause that can be explain by general laws and these causes can help scientists to predict and control future events; psychologists can start the conditions in lab experiments and remove EVs to show causal effect

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Explain what early nativists that support nature argued

Descartes and other early nativists argued that human characteristics are innate as a result of heredity

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What is the usual heritability coefficient of IQ and as it's not 1.0 (100%) what does it suggest?

Heritability coefficient of IQ= 0.5 proposed by Plomin and as it's not 1.0(100%) it suggests that IQ is affected by genetics AND environmental factors

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Explain what Empiricists argued to support nurture and what approach this is

Empiricists like Locke argued that mind is a blank slate at birth and experience +learning pre-natal and post-natal writes on it= behaviours are shaped (Behaviourist approach)

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Which empiricist identified the environmental levels and explain the levels?

Lerner identified that learning and experience (environmental factors) can be defined in pre-natal terms(mother'd physical and psychological state in pregnancy) and defined generally via postnatal experience (social condition child grows in)

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Why is it hard to answer nature vs. nurture debates?

Hard to answer nature vs. nurture because environmental factors affect the child's life as soon as it's conceived or earlier.

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What does the nature vs. nurture debate focus on now and list the 3 examples of showing this?

Nature vs. nurture focuses on how each factor contributes/interacts to influence behaviour via interactionism: 1. Interactionism in attachment 2. Interactionism in mental illness 3. Interactionism: epigenetics

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Describe and explain interactionism in attachment

Sees infant-caregiver bond as 2 way (child wants love from parent= they should give some back to parent). 1.Child's innate temperament(nature) affect how parent behaves to them. 2.Parent's response affect child's behaviour (repeat behaviour or not?)

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Describe and explain interactionism in mental illness

Diathesis-stress model suggests biological vulnerability(diathesis) is expressed when coupled with environmental trigger(stressor)= mental disorder.

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Describe who's study supports the interactionism in mental illness:diathesis stress model

Tienari et al. studies group of Finnish adoptees and found those most likely to develop schizophrenia had biological relatives with schizophrenia (vulnerability/diathesis) and thier adoptive families that were dysfunctional (trigger/stresser)

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Define epigenetics

Change in genetic activity without changing genetic code

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Describe and explain interactionism as epigenetic and what has it introduced to the nature vs. nurture debate?

Lifestyles and events in our lives leave epigenetic marks on DNA that tell body which genes to ignore/use also, may affect children's genetic code so, epigenetics introduces a third element to debate, the life experience of old generation

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How can you remember that Lerner is an Empiricist that identified the 2 levels of environmental factors?

Empiricists use behaviourist approach that suggest you're born with blank slate, where experience and learning writes on it so, Learning shapes behaviour and Lerner came up with environmental(Learning and experience) factors that affect behaviour

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How has twin studies tried to separate nature and nurture?

Tells us if a high concordance rate is due to genetics (shared genes) or environmental factors (shared upbringing)

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Define Holism

People and behaviour should be studied as a whole system

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Define reductionism

Break down behaviour/ concept into smaller parts and lowest simple principle levels, based on parsimony principle

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Explain what Gestalt psychologists claimed

Breaking up behaviour and experience is inappropriate as they can be understood by analysing the person/behaviour as a whole

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Which other psychologists share the holistic view of Gestalt psychologists and how?

Humanistic psychologists see therapy being successful when all aspects of a person is brought together

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What does the parsimony principle state?

All phenomena should be explained using basic,lowest level and simplest principles

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What do the reductionist levels of explanation suggest and list the levels?

The levels of explanation suggests that there are many ways of viewing the same phenomena; level Y can be more reductionist than level X 1. Socio-cultural level 2. Psychological 3. Physical 4. Physiological 5.Neurochemical

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Explain the 5 reductionist levels of explanation of OCD

1.Socio-cultural involves rare/irrational behaviour in society 2. Psychological=experiencing obsessive thoughts 3. Physical= Sequence of hand washing 4. Physiologica= hypersensitivity of basal ganglia(structure in brain) 5.Neurochemical=Low serotonin

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Explain how can psychology be replaced according to reductionists?

Hierarchy of science (reductionism) with more precise and micro science at the bottom(e.g. physics, biology, chemistry) and more general macro science at top (psychology and sociology) replace psychology with the MICRO science levels

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Explain biological reductionism

Biological organisms are made of physiological structures and processes so, behaviour is biological but explain via neurochemistry, neurophysiology and evolutionary genetic influences

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Where has biological reductionism's assumption of behaviour being biological but explain through neurochemistry?

Explaining and treating mental illnesses

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Explain environmental reductionism

Behaviourist approach foundation=environmental reductionism, complex learning broken into simple stimulus response links=key analysis at physical level as behaviourists not concerned with cognitive stuff (Mind=blank+irrelevant) in physiological+neuro

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Explain idiographic and its aim and how can you remember the definition of idiographic approach?

Idiographic approach aims to describe the nature of an individual by stuyding them as unique entities with their own experience and values; there is not comparison to larger groups/norms [REMEMBER: Idiographic is Individually studying people]

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What psychological methods is idiographic approach associated with and how does this method in psychology reflect the main aim of the idiographic approach?

Studies that give qualitative data (e.g. case studies, unstructured interviews and self-report measures) reflect the main aim of idiographic approach, which is to describe human experience and look into people's unique way of viewing the world

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Explain nomothetic, its aims, what it provides and what its uses are

Nomothetic approach aims to produce general laws of behaviour that provides a baseline to compare, classify and measure people by comparing people to larger groups therefore, behaviour can be predicted and controlled

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Why does nomothetic approach compare people to larger groups/norms?

To establish how people are similar/different

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What method in psychology, is nomothetic approach associated with?

Reliable and scientific methods that involve large groups of people (e.g. questionnaires and psychological tests)

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When do ethical issues arise?

Conflict between psychology' need for valid results and preserving rights and dignity of participants= ethical issues

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Explain why are wider ethical implications hard to predict?

Even though researchers can control their methods and how participants treated, they have less influence on how their findings are presented in media, how their work impacts public policies and how their work affects the perception of social groups

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Define socially sensitive research

Research with social consequences directly to participants/ to social groups represented by ppts. 1. Genetic basis of criminality research 2. Research that tackle socially sensitive banned topics (like race/ sexuality) will attract public attention

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Should researchers avoid socially sensitive research or should they conduct these research and why?

Researchers should conduct these research because of the importance also, the researchers may feel they have a social responsibility to conduct the research

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Who identified the concerns for socially sensitive research, list and explain the concerns?

Sieber and Stanley. 1.Implications of prejudice+ discrimination of studies, (hard to predict at start of study) 2. Uses/public policy- Findings may be used for wrong purpose by government) for political ends/shape public policy 3. Invalid(expired)

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Who established 11+, explain his view, why was he publicly discredited and what happened to the 11+ test and other related public policy?

Burt viewed that IQ was genetic, based on twin study with heritability coefficient +0.77 (normal=0.50); conflict+variation in his data= made up data, invented 2 assistants= publicly discredited; 11+ and other public policy remains

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