Detailed essay plans covering all topics in Issues and Debates (AQA A-Level Psychology)
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Issues and Debates
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The Complete Companion for AQA, Psychology A Level
This document covers every possible essay that may come up for Issues and Debates (AQA A-Level Psychology). They are simplified and easy to learn yet still have lots of detail to ensure you achieve the highest grade possible. There are abbreviations throughout that you should understand as a psycho...
Discuss explanations of a nicotine addiction (16 marks)
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Essay Plans
Issues & Debates
Paper 3 - Section A
,Gender bias
Discuss gender bias in psychology. Refer to examples of alpha / beta bias (16)
Discuss how gender bias has been presented in psychology (16)
Why is gender bias a problem for psychology as a discipline? Discuss with reference
to two topics yous have studies (16)
(some essays will ask to discuss were some will ask for just the negatives)
ALWAYS USE EXAMPLES
Para 1 → Outline: gender bias / androcentrism / Alpha / Beta (AO1)
● Gender bias → the differential treatment or representation of men and women
based on stereotypes rather than real differences
● Androcentrism → the acknowledgement research is centred or focused on men,
often to the neglect or exclusion of women, can result in alpha / beta bias
● Universality → the aim is to develop theories that apply to all people, that may
include real differences
● Alpha → differences between M/F are exaggerated, devalues one gender as a result
● E.g Freud’s view of women being incomplete men / femininity as failed masculinity
● Beta → theories ignore / minimise differences in M/F, what’s true for men is for women
● E.g Assuming findings from male studies (Asch / Zimbardo) can be applied to women
● E.g Biopsychology - research into ForF response, found women tend and befriend
Evaluation: implications of biassed research (AO3)
● Gender biassed research creates misleading assumptions about female behaviour
● They allow discriminatory views / practices to take place
● Results have a damaging effects on women / makes them feel inferior
● May become depressed as feel looked down upon due to biological differences
● Gender bias can affect how women go about their day
● E.g research providing scientific justification for why employers can deny women
● opportunities in workplaces
● Suggests gender bias research has real life implications
Evaluation: bias in research methods (AO3)
● Psychological theories show gender bias as methods used are biassed
● Feminists argue lab experiments disadvantage women
● Findings in controlled labs tell us little about experience of women outside the lab
● E.g meta analysis by Eagly & Johnson showed leadership styles for women were
judged more similar to men in a real life setting than in a lab setting
● Also Rosenthal found that male experimenters are more pleasant to female
● Subsequently they perform better / male participants appear to perform less well
● Also fewer women are appointed at senior research positions means that female
concerns are less likely to be reflected in the experimental questions.
● Suggests issues with how data is collected that creates a false picture of differences
,Evaluation: assumptions need to be challenged (AO3)
● Gender bias remains unchallenged in many theories
● Darwin’s theory of sexual selection portrays women as choosy / males as the ones
who compete to be chosen - women are coy / males as aggressive as
● However, this view has been challenged as it’s been found women are equally
competitive when needed
● DNA evidence supports the idea it’s a good adaptive strategy for females to mate
with more than one man, this puts females in competition with other females
Evaluation: feminist psychology (AO3)
● FP agree there are biologically based sex differences but socially determined
stereotypes are far greater contributions to perceived differences
● A way to redress the balance is to show evidence women may be ‘inferior’ to
provide them with greater support
● Eagly claimed women might be less effective leaders than men
● This knowledge should be used to develop suitable training to help women
● Shows how FP seeks to understand behaviour in terms of social processes and thus
find a way to greater equality
Evaluation: avoiding beta bias (AO3)
● Equal treatment for M/F (beta bias) has + / - consequences for women e.g equal pay
● Arguing for equality in M/F may draw attention away from women's needs
● In society where a group has power, neutral actions end up benefiting the powerful
● E.g equal mat/paternity leave undervalues biological demands on a woman
(pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding) - thus disadvantaging a woman
● Suggest we should avoid beta bias so significant differences are accounted for
How to reduce culture bias
● Don’t generalise findings to cultures not represented in the findings
● Use researchers native to the culture being investigated
● Carry out cross-cultural research
● Don’t assume universal norms
, Culture bias
Discuss culture bias in psychology (16)
Para 1 → Outline: culture bias (AO1)
● Universality → theories apply to all regardless of culture (many studies ignore this)
● Culture bias → inherent prejudice towards Western culture
● Ethnocentrism → judging a culture by the standards / values of one's own culture
● Cultural relativism → can only study norms / values of a culture in its cultural context
● Imposed etic → imposing your cultural values on another group e.g strange situation
● Etic → Studying behaviour across many cultures to find universal human behaviours
● Emic → Studying cultures in isolation by identifying culture specific behaviours
Para 2 → Evaluation: evident in most studies - why is this a problem (AO3)
● Most influential studies in psychology are culturally biassed e.g social influence
● E.g Asch / Milgram's studies were conducted with US p’s only (most white / MC)
● Replicates of these studies in different countries = different results
● Suggest our understanding should only be applied to certain cultures
● There is a big difference in individualist and collectivist cultures
● We can’t say we’ve found a ‘universal’ behaviour if we’ve not looked cross culturally
Para 3 → Evaluation: bias in RM - consequences of this (AO3)
● Smith and Bond surveyed a European textbook and found 66% of studies were
American, 32% European and 2% from elsewhere
● Sears found 82% of studies used undergrad p’s and 51% were psychology students
● Studies conclude findings that may not be valid within context of all cultures
● A danger of culturally biassed research is it helps reinforce stereotypes
● E.g the US army IQ test used American idea but was tested on everyone
● It showed European immigrants / Africans fell below White Americans on IQ
● The consequence was enforcing stereotypes on certain ethnic groups and their IQ
Para 4 → Evaluation: can we overcome cultural bias - worldwide community (AO3)
● Acknowledgement of cultural bias is essential
● Increased dialogue / conferences / travel has increased cultural understanding
● Creates a worldwide psychological community / helps reduce cultural bias
● More awareness of psychologists / exchange of ideas around the world - may help
reduce ethnocentrism
● Eg David Buss in his study of relationships was able to study 37 cultures
● However we all come from a cultural perspective - so we can never entirely avoid
being ethnocentric (seeing things from our own cultural point of view)
Para 5 → Evaluation: issues with cultural relativism (AO3)
● Psychologists are interested in universals
● If everything can only be understood in its own cultural context, comparisons and
universals will be impossible to find
● Interactional synchrony is viewed as a universal, Van Ijzendoorn found that ‘secure’
attachment type was in the majority across all cultures
● Ekman's understanding of facial emotions was also universally recognisable
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