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Issues and Debates - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Influencing of public policy (Bowlby)
      - The way certain social groups are treated or the perception of certain groups of people
  - - - The methodology used
        
        The researcher needs to consider the treatment of the ppt's and their right to confidentiality and anonymity
        
        If someone admits to a crime, or having unprotected sex if they are HIV positive, should the researcher maintain confidentiality
      - The research question
        
        The researcher must consider their research question carefully
        
        Asking questions like 'are there racial dfiferences in IQ' or 'is intelligence inherited' may be damaging to members of a particular group
      - Institutional context
        
        The researcher should be mindful of how the data is going to be used and consider who is funding the research
        
        If the research is funded by a private institution or organisation, why are they funding the research and how do they intend to use the findings?
      - Interpretation and application of findings
        
        The researcher needs to consider how their findings might be interpreted and applied in the real world
        
        Could the findings be used by the government for political means to develop public policy?
  - - - Goddard (1917) gave IQ tests to immigrant when they landedd on US soil and claimed that Russians, Jews, Hungarians and Italians were feeble minded and the Bell curve was published by psychologists in 1994, still claiming IQ and race are linked
      - Could have disastrous consequences at a societal level creating a self-fulfilling prophecy)
    - - The fact that SSR has been used to prop up discriminatory practices in the past is an argument against its widespread adoption
      - Because of Goddards research, a number of US states enacted legislation that led to compulsory sterilisation of many citizens on the grounds that scientists had discovered they were feeble-minded
    - - Research into 'alternative relationships' has been guilty of a hetero bias in that homo relationships are judged against hetero norms
      - Suggests that investigators must approach their research with an open mind and be prepared to have their preconceptions challenged to avoid misrepresenting minority groups
      - Sieber and Stanley (1988) warn that how questions are phrased and investigated may influence the way findings are interpreted
    - - Unfortunately, SSR will always carry a certain risk
      - Assessments of worth of such research are typically subjective and the real impact can only be known after publication
      - Some consequences involving vulnerable groups might be difficult to anticipate
    - - SSR can benefit society as a whole (research into unreliability of EWT has reduced risk of miscarriages of justice)
      - Suggests that SSR may play a valuable role in society
      - Scarr (1988) argues that studies of underrepresented groups and issues may promote greater understanding to help reduce prejudice and encourage acceptance
- - - - Only studied Americans and yet was assumed universal, but research says otherwise
      - Smith and Bond meta-analysis, vast difference between conformity in individualistic and collectivist cultures with collectivist more likely (ASCH)
      - Higher obedience in Germany, lower in Australia
    - - Ideal is secure, characterised by specific traits
      - Completely bias
      - Imposed etic - tried to impose bias onto other cultures
  - - - Due to technology, may be decreasing
      - only 1/15 studies comparing Japan and USA found the distinction
- - - - In 2014, researchers gave lab mice electric shocks every time they were exposed to a chemical in the scent of perfume
      - Their children went on to demonstrate the same fear, without prior conditioning or exposure
- - - - Examples (AO3)
        
        Freud with offending behaviour
        
        Assumes all women will be criminals or are immoral compared to men
        
        Sexual selection
        
        Issues include assuming that men will always cheat while women purely stay loyal, which isn't the truth
        
        Can excuse disloyalty within relationships and maltreatment
        
        Ultimate vs proximate
        
        Attachment, role of mother vs father
      - The tendency to maximise the difference between the sexes leading to a misrepresentation of behaviour
    - - Examples
        
        Fight or flight response
        
        Tend and befriend
        
        Oxytocin is inhibited in women and they seek to protect their young and befriend other women to increases chances of protection
        
        Research support, meta-analysis sig.more likely to seek social support
        
        Asch's studies
      - The tendency to minimise the difference between the sexes leading to a misrepresentation of behaviour
- - - - Soft determinism
        
        The idea that forces outside of a person's control have shaped their behaviour to an extent but that the individual also has some degree of control or choice
        
        Cognitive approach
      - Biological determinism
        
        Behaviour is a result of genetics, neurotransmitters, brain abnormality, evolutionary processes etc. some sort of biological mechanism which the individual has no control over
        
        MAOA gene, biological approach
      - Hard determinism
        
        Most severe type of determinism, in that the individual has absolutely no control over their behaviour due to forces outside of their control
        
        Behaviourism, Biological approach, Social learning theory
      - Environmental determinism
        
        Behaviour is a result of mechanisms in the individual's environment which they cannot control
        
        Behaviourism
      - Psychic determinism
        
        Behaviour is the result of unconscious conflicts which we are unaware of and cannot control
        
        Freud, psychosexual stages
- - - - Different ways of viewing the same phenomena
      - Begin at the highest leevl and progressively reduce down to the bottom
      - Levels
        
        Highest - cultural and social explanations
        
        Middle - psychological explanations
        
        Lower - biological explanations
    - - The idea that our behaviour is caused by simple biological mechanisms
      - An essential element of science
      - Drug treatments
    - - The idea that all behaviour is learnt through stimulus-response mechanisms
      - Watson and Rayner - Little Albert
  - - - Raises psychology's status
      - Reductionism lends itself to the features of science and allows us to establish causal explanations
    - - The 2007 case of the man who had his sentence reduced from murder to manslaughter
      - If the judge/jury made their decision purely on biological reductionism (warrior gene), this would have serious consequences for the criminal justice system
    - - Without applying a reductionist approach, we wouldn't be able to isolate the causes of mental illnesses and develop treatments
      - We have been able to develop drug treatments for schizophrenia and depression and also conduct genetic testing or pre-natal checks on foetus development to determine life-threatening or complex conditions
    - - Person-centred counselling, developed from the holistic approach, enjoys international success and has helped millions of people
      - A huge meta-analysis in 2008 by Elliott and Friere found that PCC was more effective than medication in treating mental illness
    - - It would be pointless to study the individuals in Zimbardo's study because the interest lies in the effects of group behaviour and the outcomes that occurred
      - Reductionism wouldn't elicit any valuable information in this cause, only a holistic approach works
      - The effects of conformity and deindividuation cannot be understood using a reductionist approach
- - - - Examples
        
        Humanistic approach
        
        Psychodynamic approach - Freud used case studies and an idiographic approach to studying and yet attempted to apply his findings nomothetically
      - Strengths
        
        Can uncover causes for behaviour not identified using nomothetic methods
        
        Develop a holistic understanding of individual
        
        Gain detailed and informative descriptions of behaviour
        
        Can provide hypotheses for future scientific study
      - Limitations
        
        Cannot generalise to wider population
        
        Methods are subjective, flexible and unstandardised so replication, prediction and control of behaviour is difficult
    - - Shouldn't generalise to others as we are all unique
      - Behaviour must be understood in terms of subjective experience - what it means to the individual (phenomenology)
      - Should study the individual and not groups
      - Only the individual can explain what a behaviour means - a detached observer's explanation is worthless
      - Focuses on the subjective experience of the individual (idios - private or personal)
      - Data is qualitative
  - - - Strengths
        
        Can generalise to the wider population - population validity
        
        Scientific - objective, measurable and can be verified so replication, prediction and control of behaviour is easy
      - Limitations
        
        Generalised laws and principles may not apply to an individual
        
        Understanding is often superficial and meaning can be lost
      - Examples
        
        Biological approach
        
        Neural explanations for criminal behaviour
        
        Lombroso
    - - Involves developing a law and applying it universally to whole populations (nomos - law)
      - Find an appropriate sample and choose an appropriate method of sampling making sure it is big and diverse enough
      - Choose an appropriate scientific method to test the hypothesis
      - Collect a large amount of quantitative data and use descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to make sense of it
      - Identify an issue you want to study and generate hypothesis
      - Accept and reject your hypotheses
      - Discuss your research and perhaps propose a theory based on the results