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Issues and Debates revision notes
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Includes all topics in Issues and Debates from AQA A level Psychology revision guide. Both AO1 and AO3. All psychologists names are highlighted.
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Issue and debates revision:Gender bias – personal view of the behaviour of men and women
Alpha bias – exaggerated view, fixed and inevitable, devalue women in relation to men e.g.
Freud believed that women have a weaker superego then men. Bowlby suggested that mothers
are the primary caregivers in attachment.
Beta bias – minimised view, ignores or underestimates the differences between men and
women, often occurs when females are not used in research but apply the findings to both
genders e.g. fight, or flight was based on male animals and was applied to all.
Androcentrism – consequence for both alpha and beta bias, subjected to males and often leads
to female behaviour being misunderstood or pathologised e.g. premenstrual syndrome
medicalises female's emotions by explaining them as hormonal terms however with males
anger it is often seen as a rational response.
Evaluation -
A limitation is that some research provided are false as there is a social stereotype e.g.
Maccoby and Jacklin found that females have better verbal ability whilst males have better
spatial ability. They are hardwired before birth. However, Joel used brain scans and found no
difference between either gender. Therefore, we should be careful to see which research is true
as this is better explained as a social stereotype. However, Masura found that women's brain
may benefit from better connections between the right and left hemisphere than in a man’s
brain. This suggests that there may be some biological differences, but we have to be wary of
how it may affect behaviour.
A limitation is the there is sexism in institutions. For example, women are often
underrepresented in universities. This meant that more research was conducted on males
rather than females. This is because men expect women to be irrational and unable to
complete complex tasks which means that they will underperform. This means that institutions
lead to gender bias. However, modern researchers have recognised this and embraces this as a
crucial aspect to their research.
Another limitation is that challenging gender bias research may not be published. Magdalena
analysed more than 1000 articles relating to gender bias published over 8 years. She found that
they were published for less and were in less prestigious journals. She also found the same with
other types of biases. This suggests that gender bias is not taken as seriously as other biases.
Cultural bias:
Henrich et al coined the term WEIRD. Western, educated, Industrialised, rich, democrats.
, Ethnocentrism – superiority of their own culture. E.g. Ainsworth focused US culture, secure was
popular but in Japan it is popular to be insecurely attached. - Takashi
Cultural relativism to avoid cultural bias, psychologists do research in their own culture and only
apply it to their culture.
Etic approach – looks at behaviour outside a culture which is universal
Emic approach – looks at behaviour inside a culture which is specific to the culture
Ainsworth is an imposed etic
Evaluation:
Much research has cultural bias e.g. Asch and Milgram – white middle class US Americans,
Smith et al – higher conformity to individualistic cultured then collectivists. However, Takano
and Osaka found that 14/15 studies compared to US and Japan had no difference. Less of an
issue in more recent research.
Cultural psychology – research within a culture and applied within – modern psychologists are
mindful of the dangers of cultural bias and avoid taking steps to avoid it.
Labelling. Gould – During WW1 - IQ test comparing Americans scored high and Europe and
African American scored low in US Army test. Caused people to call those with lower IQ morally
inferior. prejudice and discrimination against specific ethnic groups.
Full understanding of human behaviour. Cross-cultural research but research by Ekman
suggested that facial expressions and emotions are the same in all cultures, universal.
Free will vs determinism: are our behaviours controlled by internal/external forces or do we
have a choice.
Free will: choices e.g humanistic approach
Determinism:
Hard- fatalism, identify the cause
Soft- has a cause but we are free to make our own decisions within a restricted amount
of options
Types of determinism:
Biological determinism- e.g the influence of the autonomic nervous system on stress
Environmental determinism- free will is an ‘illusion’ and all behaviour is a result of
conditioning
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