AQA A level psychology year 2 issues and debates revision notes
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Issues and Debates
Hochschule
AQA
- Year 2 issues and debates
- All material is covered in these notes
- AO1 in an extensive amount with A03
- Evaluations are all in PEEL format
- All possible 16 markers are covered
Gender and culture in Psychology: Gender bias
- Universality is any characteristic of human beings that can be applied to everyone despite differences of
experience and upbringing (gender bias and culture bias threaten universality)
- Gender bias is a tendency to treat genders differently
- A view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or women
- Gender bias can come in two forms: alpha bias and beta bias (due to androcentrism)
- Androcentrism is when behaviour is judged according to a male standard
- Womens judgement may be considered a misunderstanding or plagiarised
- Alpha bias exaggerates differences in research between men and women
- Freuds believed that when a boy identifies with their father the castration anxiety is resolved however
when a girl identifies with their mother they have a weaker superego
- Beta bias minimises or ignores differences in research between men and women
- This occurs when we assume findings equally apply to both men and women
- Earlier research used male animals due to female animals having changes in hormones
- This lead to the assumption that men and women respond the same in flight or fight response
- Recently Taylor et al (2000) found a difference in response (tend and befriend)
Evaluation:
- P: One limitation of gender bias is that not all differences will be biological.
- E: Jacklin (1974) concluded girls have superior verbal ability whereas boys have better spatial ability.
They suggested that these differences are 'hardwired' into the brain before birth.
- E: Joel et al. (2015) used brain scanning and found no differences in brain structure or processing.
- L: This suggests that findings are not biological but better explained from social stereotypes.
- P: On the other this can lead to psychologists not studying gender differences in the brain.
- E: Research suggests stereotypes that women are better at multitasking may have some biological truth.
- E: This could be due to better connections between the right and left hemisphere than in a man's brain.
- L: This suggests that there are biological differences for men and women in their behaviour.
- P: Another strength is that research into gender bias has led to less sexism in research processes.
- E: Murphy et al (2014) found that lecturers in psychology departments are more likely to be men.
- E: This means when recruit researchers or those to teach psychology women may also be given the
chance which can lead to research becoming representative reducing effects of androcentrism.
- L: This means findings can become more representative and be generalised - external validity.
- P: A further limitation is that research challenging gender biases may not be published.
- E: Formanowicz et al (2018) analysed 1000 articles relating to gender bias published over eight years.
- E: Research on gender bias is funded and published less often and by less prestigious journals.
- L: This suggests gender bias in research may not be taken as seriously as other forms of bias.
, Gender and culture in psychology: Cultural bias
- Cultural bias is making interpretations from the lens of one's own culture leading them to ignore any
effects of cultural differences on behaviour
- Behaviour classed as weird such as eating insects - in other cultures insects can be seen as a delicacy
- Ethnocentrism can lead to culture bias
- Ethnocentrism is judging other cultures by the standards and values of one's own culture - may lead to
prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures
- Ainsworth and Bell suggested that good attachment would be shown by moderate stranger and
separation anxiety. Japanese children are rarely separated from mothers so higher levels of anxiety
- Cultural relativism is the idea that norms, values, ethics and moral standards should be understood
without imposing external judgement - do this by using an etic and emic approach
- The etic approach assesses behaviours which are universal - can be seen across all cultures
- Using questionnaire on various cultures to assess sleep or some other variable
- Emic approach considers different behaviours that are specific and unique to one culture
- Assessing one particular culture and their routine on sleep
Evaluation:
- P: One limitation is that many of the most influential studies in psychology are culturally-biased.
- E: Both Asch's and Milgram's original studies were conducted exclusively with US participants (most of
which were white, middle-class students).
- E: Replications of these studies in different countries produced different results. Bond and Smith (1996)
found significantly higher rates of conformity than the original studies in the US.
- L: This suggests our understanding of topics such as social influence can only be applied to IC.
- P: On the other hand, media globalisation means individualist-collectivist distinction may no longer apply.
- E: Individualist countries value individualism and independence whilst collectivist countries value society
and the needs of the group.
- E: Takano and Osaka (1999) found that 14 out of 15 studies that compared the US and Japan found no
evidence of individualism or collectivism and suggested the difference as lazy and simplistic.
- L: This suggests that cultural bias in research may be less of an issue in more recent research.
- P: One strength is the emergence of cultural psychology.
- E: This includes work from researchers in other disciplines such as sociology and political science.
- E: Cultural psychologists strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking an emic approach and
conducting research from inside a culture.
- L: This suggests modern psychologists are mindful of dangers of cultural bias - taking steps to avoid it.
- P: One limitation of cultural bias in psychology is it has led to prejudice against certain people.
- E: Psychologists used the opportunity of WWI to use their first IQ tests on army recruits. Many of the
items on the test were ethnocentric (knows names of US president)
- E: It was found that African-Americans received lowest scores. The poor performance led to ethnic
minorities seen as 'mentally unfit' and 'feeble-minded' in comparison to white majority - denied
educational and professional opportunities as a result.
- L: This illustrates how cultural bias justifies prejudice and discrimination towards certain cultures and
ethnic groups.
, Free will and determinism:
- Free will is the notion that humans can make choices and their behaviour or thoughts are not determined
by biological or external forces ie self determining - humanistic approach
- It does not deny that there are biological and environmental factors which can influence behaviour it
simply implies we can reject these forces
- Determinism is the view that an individual's behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external
forces rather than an individual's will to do something - soft and hard determinism
- Biological approach suggests internal forces and behaviourist suggests that there are external forces
- Hard determinism is the view that all behaviour is caused by something (internal or external factors) so
free will is an illusion (fatalism)
- Soft determinism is the view that behaviour may be predictable (caused by internal/external factors) but
there is also room for personal choice - restricted free will
- Biological determinism is the belief that behaviour is caused by biological influences that we cannot
control such as genes and hormones - how the ANS affects our stress response
- Environmental determinism is the belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment that we
cannot control such as reward and punishment - reinforcement/conditioning shaped behaviour
- Psychic determinism is the belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that
we cannot control - due to repression in childhood
Evaluation:
- P: One strength of free will is its real world application.
- E: Roberts et al. (2000) looked at teenagers who had a strong belief in fatalism - that their lives were
'decided' by external factors outside of their control.
- E: The study found that these adolescents were at significantly greater risk of developing depression.
This
shows that the belief we have free choice in our everyday lives improves mental health.
- L: This suggests the belief itself can allow us to have a positive impact on mind and behaviour.
- P: One strength of determinism is that there are brain scans to support it, unlike free will.
- E: Libet et al. (1983) instructed participants to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while he
measured brain activity. The researcher also asked them when they felt the conscious will to move.
- E: It was found the unconscious brain activity leading up to the conscious decision came around
half a second before the participant felt they had decided to move.
- L: This shows that there are internal forces which determine the most basic free will we have.
- P: On the other hand the findings simply show that the brain is involved in decision-making.
- E: The unconscious brain activity is aware of the decision we are about to make. This may not mean the
decision has to be carried out but instead suggests there is a temporal gap between the unconscious
decision-making process where we are aware of it.
- E: It may even be that we can carry out some actions without being consciously aware of them.
- L: This suggests the evidence is not appropriate and we may have free will after all.
- P: One limitation of determinism is it conflicts with the way the legal system works.
- E: Hard determinists believe that an individual's action is not solely determined by their own decisions
but rather internal and external forces that influence them.
- E: In a court of law offenders are responsible for their actions. The main principle of our legal system is
the defendant exercised their free will in committing the crime.
- L: This suggests that, in the real world, determinist arguments do not work.
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