Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Issues and debates; - Coggle Diagram
Issues and debates;
Free will vs determinsim;
Free will - the notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces.
Determinism - The view that an individual's behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external rather than an individuals will to do something.
Hard determinism - Implies that free will is not possible as our behaviour is always caused by internal and external events beyond our control.
Soft determinism - All events, including human behaviour, have causes, but behaviour can also be determined by our conscious choices in the absence of coercion. In contrast with hard determinism.
Biological determinism - The belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control.
Psychic determinism - The belied that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control.
Environmental determinism - The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward and punishment) that we cannot control.
Determinism strength - more scientific;
Determinism is consistent with the aims of science.
The notion that human behaviour is orderly and obeys laws, places psychology equally with sciences such as biology.
By assuming all behaviour can be predicted one major of determinisms is the impact on treatments and therapies.
It can be argued that the wider applications of deterministic theories to the benefit of huge populations of people is a strong argument in the approaches favour.
Determinism weakness - ramifications in law;
If we assume individual choice is not the cause of behaviour then the legal system unravels.
The legal system is based on offenders being held morally accountable for their actions.
Example;
Andrea Yates drowned her 5 children in a bath tub in 2001. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity due to post-partem psychosis after giving birth to her 2nd child.
Her church told her not to take drugs to treat the psychosis. Her husband kept asking for children. She began thinking her children were the devil.
Free will strength - mental health;
Assuming we have free will has huge health benefits.
Suggests that even if we do not have free will it does have a positive impact on our mind if we believe that we can exercise.
Research suggests that people with an internal locus of control tend to be more mentally healthy.
Roberts et al (2000) demonstrated that adolescents with a strong belief in fatalism were at a significantly greater risk of depression.
Free will weakness - falsified?;
Neuroimaging studies suggest that we may not even have free will for the most basic of actions.
Research found that the brain activity that determine the outcome of simple choices may predate our knowledge of having made such a choice.
This suggests our brain predetermines our behaviour before we are even consciously aware of it.
Example;
Chun Siong Soon et al (2008) found that activity related to whether we press a button with our left or right hand occurs in the brain 10 seconds before participants reported being consciously aware of making such a decision.
Culture bias;
A tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the lens of one's own culture.
Alpha bias - Theories that assume there are real and enduring differences between culture and groups.
Beta bias - Theories that ignore or minimise cultural differences.
Ethnocentrism - The term used to describe the belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic and cultural group. Our own cultural perspective is taken as a standard by which we measure other cultures.
Culture - The beliefs and customs that a group of people share, such as child-rearing processes.
Cultural relativism - Behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates.
1 - preventing cultural bias;
Indigenous psychologies;
The development of different group theories in different countries.
This leads to the development of theories relevant to the life and culture of people from the specific culture.
Afrocentrism;
A movement whose central proposition is that all black people have their roots in africa.
As a result any psychological theory should be African centred and express African values.
This movement disputes the view that European values are universally appropriate.
At worst, devaluing non-European people.
At best being irrelevant to the life and culture of African individuals.
Representative samples;
Culture bias can be dealt with by using studies with samples from different cultural groups.
Smith and Bond (1998) - surveyed research in one European textbook on social psychology and found the following;
American studies = 66%
European studies = 32%
Rest of world studies = 2%
Sears (1986) - reported that 82% of research studies used undergraduates as their participants. With 51% of the participants being psychology students.
Henrich et al (2010) - found that 67% of participants were American psychology students which meant in their sample a randomly selected American student was 4000 times more likely to be a participant in a research study than a random non-westerner.
2 - Time and real world development;
The worldwide psychology community;
Researchers in psychology travel far more than 50 years ago.
The benefit of this is that they have an increased understanding of other cultures at a personal and professional level.
Academics now hold international conferences where researchers from many different countries and cultures can discuss and exchange ideas.
3 - Negative ramifications of cultural bias;
Stereotypes;
A real danger of culturally biased research is that it helps to create or reinforce stereotypes.
US Army IQ test;
Used just before WW1.
The test showed that European immigrants were slightly less intelligent than white Americans.
African Americans were at the bottom of the scale.
As a result, certain jobs were withheld from demographics due to the false stereotype created.
Nature vs nurture debate;
Nature; nativists argue that human characteristics are innate (heredity).
Heritability coefficient; numerical figure 0 to 1.0 indicating the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis. 1 = entirly genetically determined.
Nurture; Impact of the environment.
Levels of the environment;
Pre-natal terms, the mother's physical and psychological state during pregnancy.
Post-natal experiences, such as the social conditions the child grows up in and the cultural and historical context they are a part of.
Relative importance of heredity and environment;
Nature and nurture are so closely intertwined that it makes little sense to separate them.
The interactionist approach - We see how attachment patterns between an infant and its parents are often the result of a 'two-way street' in which the child's innate temperament will influence the way its parents respond to it - and their responses will in turn affect the child's behaviour (Belsky and Rovine 1987). Thus nature creates nurture: heredity and environment interact.
Epigenetics - refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code. It happens throughout life and is caused by interaction with the environment.
Aspects of our life leave epigenetic marks on our DNA, which tell our bodies what genes to use or ignore, this can in turn go on and influence the genetic codes of our children. This therefore introduces a third element into the debate; the life experiences of previous generations.
Evaluation;
Implications of nativism and empiricism;
Nativists suggest that 'anatomy is destiny' in that our inherited genetic makeup determines our characteristic and behaviour, whilst the environment has little input. This extreme determinist stance has lead to controversy.
In contrast, empiricists would suggest that any behaviour can be changed by altering environmental conditions. Behaviour shaping has had practical application in therapy. Desirable behaviours are selectively reinforced and undesirable behaviours are punished or ignored.
Shared and unshared environments;
Judy Dunn and Robert Plomin (1990) suggested that individual differences mean that siblings may experience life events differently. This would explain the finding that even MZ twins reared together do not show perfect concordance rates which supports the view that heredity and the environment cannot be meaningfully separated.
Constructivism;
The notion that genes and environment interact is elaborated by constructivism. People create their own 'nurture' by actively selecting environments that are appropriate for their 'nurture'. Thus, a naturally aggressive child is likely to feel more comfortable around children who show similar behaviours and will 'choose' their environment accordingly. This environment then affects their development.
Robert Plomin (1994) refers to this as niche-picking and niche-building further evidence that it is impossible and illogical to try to separate nature and nurture influences on the child's behaviour.
Gender bias;
Alpha bias; Exaggerates or overestimates differences between the sexes.
Example;
Sociobiological theory
Beta bias; Ignores or minimises differences between the sexes. When an all male sample is used and then the results are applied to all genders.
Example; Fight or flight response, sample was all male and then applied to everyone, whereas it has been found that women often tend and befriend.
Androcentrism; Possible consequence of beta bias. If our understanding of 'normal' is based on all male samples then any other behaviour will be seen as 'abnormal' yet studies show that men and women have many different behaviours, leading to womens behaviour being often misunderstood.
Evaluation;
Implications of gender bias - Gender-biased research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour, fail to challenge negative stereotypes and validate discriminatory practices.
Sexism within the research process - There is a lack of women appointed at senior research levels meaning that female concerns may not be reflected in the research questions asked.
Reflexivity - Researchers are starting to recognise the effect their own values and assumptions have on the nature of their work.
Reductionism vs Holism;
Holism - Attempts to understanding human behaviour can only be done through by analysing the person or the behaviour as a whole rather than its constituent parts.
Social context - Holism looks at the social context of behaviour being important, such as the family, culture as well as biological factors.
Interactionist - holism can be viewed as interactionist as it suggests all factors have an equal importance in explaining behaviour.
Consider the whole person's experiences; Cognitive, emotional, spiritual, developmental, social, cultural, environmental, economic. Deal with the person holistically.
Case for holism;
Often there are aspects of social behaviour that only emerge within a group context and cannot be understood at the level of the individual group members.
The effects of conformity to social roles and the de-individuation of the prisoners and guards in the Stanford prison experiment could not be understood by studying the participants as individuals, it was the interaction that was important.
Case against holism;
Holistic explanation tend not to lend themselves to rigorous scientific testing and can be become vague and speculative as they become more complex.
Higher level explanations which combine many different perspectives present researchers with a practical dilemma in that it is difficult to identify which factor is most influential in causing conditions like depression which has ramifications on treatment.
As a result, lower level reductionist explanations may have greater real-world applications in finding solutions.
Reductionism - Analysing behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts. It is based around the scientific principle of parsimony. All behaviour should be explained using the most basic (lowest levels) principles.
Biological reductionism - explains behaviour purely from a biological approach such as genetics, biochemistry or the structure of the brain.
Environmental environment - simplifies behaviour into a response to a stimulus. For example, the behaviour of a child is based on their observation of a parent only.
Consider major systems involved; Biological serotonin system, behaviourist learned behaviours, stimulus, response. Treat symptoms according to involvement of each system.
Case for reductionism;
The reductionsit approach allows us to establish cause and effect through operationalised variables which focus on unitary parts of human biology, cognition or past experiences.
As a result drug therapy, flooding and other therapies have arisen from reductionist approaches to explaining psychological phenomena.
This gives psychologists greater credibility against natural sciences such as biology, physics and chemistry.
Case against reductionsim;
Reductionist approaches are often criticised for being oversimplified when explaining complex phenomena which reduces validity.
For example, explaining depression through genetics alone does not account for environmental factors such as bereavement which can explain the onset of depression.
As a result, the reductionist approach can only ever account for a part of an explanation.
Idiographic and Nomothetic approach;
Idiographic approach - 'idios' means personal or private. An approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour. This approach doesn't normally make comparisons. An example of an idiographic approach would be the humanistic approach and the psychodynamic approach.
Observations.
Qualitative data when not compared.
Natural experiment - no control and focuses on the individual.
Unstructured interview.
Strengths;
Detailed analysis of a single individual.
May result in the production of hypotheses that can be tested further.
Weaknesses;
Subjective - based on opinions so can't compare harder to check for reliability.
Global account of the idiographic approach;
The idiographic approach uses in depth qualitative methods to investigate human behaviour.
This provides a complete global account of the individual.
This could be used to compliment the nomothetic approach by giving further details as to why general laws exist or challenging such laws.
Example;
The case of HM helped to generate a hypothesis that the STM and LTM are separate stores. These case studies also reveal important insights about normal functioning which can contribute to our overall understanding.
Generalisations are difficult with the idiographic approach;
Experimental methods associated with the idiographic approach, such as case studies, tend to be the least scientific.
Conclusions often rely upon subjective interpretations of the researcher and are as such open to bias.
This reduces an reliability of the findings as different researchers could conclude differently.
Example;
Freud's Oedipus complex is based upon one case study on a young boy (Little Hans) whose father was a supporter of Freud's theories. As a result any conclusions are open to bias.
Nomothetic approach - 'nomos' meaning law. An approach that attempts to study human behaviour through the developments of general principles and universal laws. This approach tends to make comparisons. It is generally though of as more scientific. An example of a nomothetic approach would be the behavioural or biological approach.
Laboratory experiment.
Quasi experiment.
Observations - observe behaviour categories.
Qualitative data when compared.
Natural experiment - no control and focuses on group behaviour.
Field experiment - there is control over IV.
Quantitative data - numerical data that can be compared.
Structured interviews.
Strengths;
Scientific.
Samples can be large so can be generalised to the target population.
Standardised as controlled.
Replicable so reliable and generalisable.
Operationalised so valid.
Weakness;
Behaviour will be less natural so less generalisable (ecological validity).
Standardised nomothetic approach;
Experimental methods associated with the nomothetic approach tend to be more scientific - mirroring methods used by natural sciences.
Testing is done under standardised conditions using data sets that provide; group averages, statistical analysis, prediction and control.
This process has helped to establish norms of 'typical' behaviour giving psychology greater scientific credibility.
Example;
Average IQ scores were established as 100 through nomothetic approaches.
The nomothetic approach is too limited;
The nomothetic approach has been accused of losing the 'whole' person within psychology.
As a result in the search for general trends and laws the approach overlooks the richness of the human experience so can be accused of not being valid in explaining human behaviour.
Example;
Knowing that there is a 1% lifetime risk of developing schizophrenia tells us little about what is life like for someone who is experiencing the disorder.
In lab studies participants are treated as a series of scores rather than individual people and their subjective experiences eg; scoring low on a memory test because they have been kept up all night by a non-sleeping baby.
Ethical implications and socially sensitive research;
Socially sensitive research (SSR) is a term that refers to any psychological research that has ethical implications that go beyond the research situation and affect people or groups in the wider society.
1 - The research questions, does the question damage a group of people or is it bias?
The way in which research questions are phrased and investigated may influence the way in which findings are interpreted. This could impart an implicit bias. Researchers should frame questions with an open mind and be open to having their preconceptions challenged.
Kitzinger and Coyle (1995) noted how research into so-called 'alternative relationships' was a form of heterosexual bias where homosexual relationships were compared adversely against the former.
2 - Treatment of participants, is data kept confidential, are they harmed?
3 - The institutional context, who funds the research? How do they benefit?
It has been argued that studies of underrepresented groups and issues may promote greater sensitivity and understanding of these. This can help reduce prejudice and encourage acceptance.
Research into eye witness testimony has reduced the risk of miscarriages of justice within the legal system.
4 - Interpretation and use of findings, could the finding damage groups?
Socially sensitive research has been used by the Government and other institutions to shape social policy. These findings are often used without full consideration of the impact on society. Nudge Unit.
In the 1950s research into the persuasive effects of subliminal messages was used by marketing companies to advertise their products eg; coca cola and popcorn sales increased when images were flashed up on cinema screens too quickly for audiences to be aware.