08 Issues & debates Flashcards

Question

Evaluate reductionism (AO3)

Answer 1

**Strengths** - Scientists are drawn towards reductionist explanations as a method of research - Reducing complex behaviour to isolated variables allow researchers to study the different factors that affect human behaviour - In a controlled manner and establishing a casual relationship - This would not be possible if researchers attempted to study all of the factors that affect behaviour as it would be too complex to interpret - *however results of highly controlled lab studies are questionable e.g. loftus and palmer dissproved by yuille and cutshall* **Disadvantages** - low level explanations result in overlooking factors that contribute to our behaviour - e.g. behaviourist approach for phobias - Wolfe found a woman that had a phobia of insects and attempted to treat her with systematic desensitiation to no avail - He investigated and found out that her husband's nickname was one named after an insect and their marriage was unstable - Hence why, the woman was showing no signs of improvement - A more holistic approach is appropriate as in this case and many other cases, low-level explanations are insufficient for explaining the complexity of human behaviour

Answer 2

**Strengths** - Zimbardo's research into conformity: found that social roles cannot be understood by solely studying an individual - Factors such as role allocation as a prisoner or guard and previous experiences affect behaviour - one guard claimed he based his behaviour off a movie character suggesting the influence of other cognitive factors on his behaviour - holistic approach helps gain a greater understanding when looking at the effect of a situation on behaviour **Disadvantages:** - Do not lend themselves to rigorous scientific testing - becomes vague and complex with several different factors and circumstances being considered - Humanistic takes holistic view; difficult to test; criticised for being a loose set of concepts (cannot test for self-actualisation)

Answer 3

An approach which focuses on the individual and emphasises unique personal experience of human nature

Answer 4

An approach which is concerned with establishing general laws based on studies which large groups of people and using quantitative data analysis

Answer 5

- method of investigating behaviour that focuses on individuals rather than groups and emphasises the unique nature of subjective human experiences through CASE STUDIES - Qualitiative methods often used - Freud's case studies of little Hans, Anna O and The Rat Man - each psychological disorder was derived from their unique childhood experiences - Little Hans later used to form foundation of Oedipus complex and stages of psychosexual development - Cannot be used to generalise but form foundations for new theories

Answer 6

**STRENGTHS:** - Complete global account of individual provides a lot of detailed, rich qualitative data that can shed light on theories by supporting laws and principles or challenging them; HM brain damage and memory contributes to our general knowledge of normal memory functioning; led to further research on memory and localisation - KF exposed limitation in existing memory model; able to recall visual information much better than verbal which indicated that we have different types of STM not just one **WEAKNESSES:** - Case studies and qualitative methods are very time-consuming just to create limited and unrepresesentative case studies that cannot be generalised but only used to form foundations of theories - unable to produce laws or predictions about human behaviour; limits usefulness for practical knowledge about diagnosing and treatments; unscientific nature and difficult to generalise

Answer 7

- seeks to formulate general rules of behaviour by focusing on large groups of people and utilising quantitative data analysis to allow generalisations to be made - associated with the scientific method (labs and controlled observations) - Biological psychologists take nomothetic approahc as they pinpoint the biological factors responsible for the disorder and use biological therapies to treat all patients

Answer 8

STRENGTHS: - Scientific; experimental methods; quantitative data; controlled measures; predicting behaviour - controlled measures allows for replication so you can assess for reliability - Useful in treatments and diagnoses: pinpoint lack of serotonin and high levels of dopamine as a cause of OCD; drug therapies based on this finding (SSRIs) to improve the lives of people suffering with this WEAKNESSES: - problem with generalisation: anti-depressants don't work for everyone, CBT (idiographic) might be more effective as they understand and explain the disorder from the patient's pov - loses sight of whole person as it focuses on quantitative numerical data e.g. Milgram's study states 65% would shock a stranger to 450 V if an authority figure told them to but it doesn't explain why - there could be different circumstances in each individual which caused them to obey

Answer 9

Gender bias is where psychological research presents a view which does not justifiably represent the experiences of men or women

Answer 10

Alpha bias is where there is a misrepresentation in behaviour because researchers overexaggerate or emphasise the differences between men and women For example, Freud stated that because girls don't experience the same oedipal complex as boys, they don't identify with the same-sex parent as much and thus develop weaker superegos.

Answer 11

Beta bias is where there is misrepresentation for behaviour because researchers minimise or ignore the differences between men and women. This typically occurs where findings with men are generalised to women too For example, the fight or flight response.Early research was only done on male animals as they had fewer hormonal changes and they were they assumed this would be a universal response to a threatening situation. However, Taylor et al (2000) found that women tend-and-befriend and fight-or-flight is inhibited in women.

Answer 12

Androcentrism is being centred on or dominated by males or the male viewpoint This leads to at best female behaviour being misunderstood, or at worst pathologised (seen as a sign of mental illness).

Answer 13

Believing that some behaviours are the same for both genders

Answer 14

**POINT 1** - One limitation of psychological research is that gender bias **often goes unchallenged** - Darwin's theory of natural selection highlights that women are especially **selective** with their partner - Recent **DNA evidence** challenged this and found that women can be equally competitive as men when needed - Highlights importance of **continually challenging** earlier research and reduce gender bias to ensure that a valid picture of women is represented in contemporary research **POINT 2:** - Contemporary psychologists are looking for ways to reduce gender bias by developing theories that emphasise the **importance of women** - Cornell et al (2013) noted that women are better at learning as they are more **organised and attentive** - This type of research helps challenge gender stereotypes which helps reduce gender bias **POINT 3** - Adopting a **feminist approach** can reduce gender bias as it aims to restore the imbalance between genders in psychological research and theories - They accept **biological differences** - Eagly (1978) actually claims that female are **less effective leaders** than males. However, the purpose of Eagly’s claim is to help researchers **develop training programmes** aimed at reducing the lack of female leaders in the real-world. **POINT 4** - Important to remember that gender bias can go against both women and men as sometimes alpha biased studies heighten the qualities of women over men. - e.g. Chodorow viewed women as more caring than men - Women are more likely to get diagnosed with depressed than men - Either women are more likely to develop it or diagnostic system is biased towards finding depression amongst women - Notion that men should 'pull themselves together' highlights issue with diagnostic system

Answer 15

The tendency to judge people based on one's own cultural expectations

Answer 16

Seeing the world only from one cultural perspective and believing that is both normal and correct. This can also take the stance that their culture is superior to others E.g. Ainsworth states that children who did not show moderate separation protest were insecurely attached - thus german mothers were seen as cold and rejecting but in their culture they are raising their children to be independent

Answer 17

Cultural relativism is the notion that behaviours can only be fully understood in the norms and values of the culture/society in which the behaviour occurred

Answer 18

A universal theory can be applied to all people regardless of culture

Answer 19

Culture can be described as a set of beliefs, values and patterns of behaviour shared by a group of people. Historically, psychological research has been dominated by white, American, middle-class males however findings are generalised to the majority, ignoring cultural differences

Answer 20

This is where a theory assumes the differences between cultural groups are profoundly different beyond what is reasonable. E.g. distinction between individualist and collectivist cultures

Answer 21

Where real cultural differences are ignored or minimised and findings are generalised to all when that is not the case e.g. Ainsworth Strange Situation - a secure attachment is described as the child not being too clingy - idea of secure varies between cultures

Answer 22

**POINT 1** - One way to reduce cultural bias is to identify when it occurs - In 1998 survey of European textbooks on social psychology, that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European, and only 2% from the rest of the world. - Psychological research is severely under-representative and can be improved by selecting different cultural groups to study **POINT 2** - Culturally biased research can have damaging effects on the representation of certain groups - US Army used an IQ test before WW1 biased towards the white majority and this resulted in African-Americans at the bottom of this scale - This had negative effect on the attitudes towards this group **POINT 3** - Contemporary psychologist are much more open-minded and well-travelled than before and have increased understanding on a personal and professional level - International psychology conferences increase the exchange of ideas from various cultural viewpoints and promote the appreciation of cultural relativism **POINT 4** - Heightened awareness of cultural diversity has led to developments of new indigenous psychologies - Afrocentrism a movement which suggests that because all black people have their roots in Africa, theories about them must recognise the African context of behaviours and attitudes - Led to emergence of theories that are relevant to not only people in Africa but also those far removed from their African origins

Answer 23

Ethical implications are the impacts that psychological research may have on certain people especially participants - includes influence of research in public policy or how certain groups in society are percieved

Answer 24

- Milgram's obedience research and attitudes to people of different nationalities - He attempted to prove the 'Germans are different' hypothesis and stated that if Americans were order by an authority figure to shock another individual, they would not do it - Milgram was making assumptions about the Germans as being obedient due to their authoritarian personalities - this has ethical implications since other nation-alities might frown upon the Germans and see them as ‘bad’. - Bowlby's research into attachment - he found that mothers or maternal figures have to be present during thier child's critical period - Otherwise child suffers with maternal deprivation and becomes an affectionless psychopath - This puts pressure on mothers to stay at home and avoid going to work

Answer 25

**ADV 1** - Practical implication of consideration of ethical implications is that research is conducted in a more sensitive manner - This protects the health and dignity of the participants as well as the reputation of psychology - Experiments like Milgrams and Zimbardos would not be carried out today unless they were carefully controlled and protected the participants from physical and psychological harm **ADV 2** - By understanding ethical implications a cost-benefit analysis can be used to determine whether the research is worth carrying out - If benefits outweigh the costs and the research has no negative impact on society it should be carried out **DIS 1** - Difficult to judge what the effects on the researcher, participants and society are - Not objective decisions - potential bias - Problematic to carry out research in certain areas e.g. research into daycares finds that its linked to increased aggression levels **DIS 2** - Ethical guidelines set for research permission are too strict - There are areas where carrying out research would be very beneficial but cannot be carried out as it is problematic for the participants or researcher - Difficult to reach a balance

Answer 26

Socially sensitive research is research where the topic area or group being studied could potentially have implications for society or certain groups in society.

Answer 27

1. **Implications** – the wider effects of such research should be carefully considered as some studies may be seen as giving **‘scientific’ credence** to prejudice and **discrimination**, such as studies examining the racial basis of intelligence. However, the implications of research may be difficult to predict at the outset 2. **Uses/public policy** – what is the research likely to be used for? And what would happen if it was used for the wrong purpose? This is related to the idea that findings may be adopted by the government for political ends or to **shape public policy.** 3. **The validity of the research** – some findings that were presented as **objective** and value-free in the past have actually turned out to be highly suspect, and in some cases, **fraudulent**. However, many modern researchers – who may tackle socially sensitive areas of research – are much more up-front about their own **biases and preconceptions**, and include comment on the **reflexive nature** of their work in their publications.

Answer 28

**ADV 1** - Psychologists should conduct socially sensitive research because many groups in society have suffered the consequences of being excluded from research, or being misrepresented - Our understanding of human behaviour has been lessened by misinterpretations and failure to represent certain groups within research - This has ethical implications because these people miss out on the benefits of psychological research. **ADV 2** - It has been suggested that socially sensitive research should be avoided all together to prevent the potential negative consequences for certain groups of people. - leaves Psychologists with only unimportant issues to examine. - Siber and Stanley’s view is that avoiding controversial topics is also avoiding responsibility. - - Therefore Psychologists have a duty to conduct research.

Answer 29

- There are always some social consequences from psychological research, but with socially sensitive research there is always the **increased potential** for a more **indirect impact** on the group that the participant represents (e.g. addicts, women, the elderly etc.). - It is not sufficient to simply safeguard the interests of individual participants. - We need to protect the representation of the groups represented by the participants in society as they can hae real life implications

08 Issues & debates Flashcards

(53 cards)