Issues and Debates

Issues and Debates

1. Gender bias - human characteristic applied to all

   • Alpha bias - overestimation of the difference between the sexes
     • e.g. Wilson's sociobiological theory of relationships - men to impregnate, women get less kids - betermines promiscuity as male
   • Beta bias - underestimation of differences between the sexes
     • e.g. fight or flight, Taylor - women tend and befriend
     • Consequence: androcentrism
       • normal behaviour findings from males sees women behaviour as pathologised
         • e.g. PMS patholigses women's emotions
   • AO3: promotes sexism in workplace
   • AO3: fails to challenge stereotypes
   • AO3: women more likely to have depression, harmful RLA

2. Culture Bias

   • findings mainly on white American men
     • e.g. Asch's line study 123 white American males, findings else were were seen abnormal
   • Ethocentrism - one culture being superior
     • Ainsworth based on American culture
       • Deemed an inapprorpriate measure of attachment
         • Imposed Etic
           • Etic -
             • Outside cultures used for universality
               • Psychology does this
           • Generalised one cultures findings
           • Emic
             • realising unique behaviours of cultures
   • Afro Carribean men more likely to get SZ diagnosis
     • may be due to culture bound symptoms
       • Individualism an d Collectivism have unclear distimction

3. Free Will vs Determinism

   • The choice to make own decisions, self determingng
   • All behaviour is determined
     • Environmental - outside
     • Biological - internal, made of genes
     • Soft Determinist - free will with exceptions
     • Behaviourism determined through conditioning and reinforcement, Skinner - free will is illusion
     • Psychodynamic - experiences determined life
     • Cognitive - behaviour limited by schema

4. Nature vs Nurture

   • Innate, hereditary, based from 0-1
   • Environment, from before birth, context dependent
   • Impossible to answer, interactional
     • The interactionist approach says both should be together
       • Attachment, caregiver interactions and temperaments
       • Diathesis Stress- experience and disposition
       • Epigenetics - enironmental factors chaniging nature e.g diet
   • Niche builiding - aggression built from predispositon
   • Twins raised together may not be same
   • Less determinst with interactionism

5. Holism and reductionism

   • Body as whole
   • Body as structures
   • Levels of explanation socio-cultural, psychological, physical, physiological, neurochemical
   • Biological - all behaviours have level of explanation, seen in OCD med
   • AO3: Group specific behaviours e.g. conformity
   • AO3:Holism untestable
   • AO3: Reductionism too simple
   • Scientific basis

6. Idiographic and Nomothetic Approach

   • describe individuals
     • independent experiences and norms
       • Humanistic
         • Psychodynamic
   • General law of behaviour
     • Reductionist and determinist
       • Biological
       • Cognitive
   • Idiography: qualitative Nomothetic: sicentific
     • Idiography: restricted Nomothetic: loss of person

7. Socially Sensitive research

   • Need to be valuable and safe
     • Need to be ethical by BPS
   • Ethical implications also in group of people studied
     • Milgram's study was not consented but got debrief
     • Bowlby's findings and research
       • Encourages stay at home Mums
       • Sieber and Stanley; Research question, methodology used, institutional context, interpretation of findings
   • Cyril Burt's IQ findings that influenced 11+ were falsified