AQA A-Level Psychology 16 Mark Model Essays
Issues and Debates
1. Discuss ethical implications in psychological research, including references to social
sensitivity (8 marks)
Ethical implications refers to research or theories that have consequences for the wider group of
people represented by the research. Sieber and Stanley referred to this kind of research as socially
sensitive. Ethical implications go beyond the ethical guidelines provided by the British Psychological
Society (BPS) because they consider not only the impact of some research on its participants, but
how it will affect the perception of certain groups of people. If the research appears to lend
credence to damaging stereotypes, then a risk-benefit ratio would likely suggest it should not be
carried out.
For example, in the A2 Forensics topic, Lombroso’s research into the atavistic form appears to
suggest that characteristics of black people are more readily associated with criminality e.g. ‘dark
skin’. This risks perpetuating racial inequalities. Milgram’s research in the A1 memory topic
demonstrates that people can be made to obey orders, even those that they don’t want to. This may
have damaging consequences in the wrong hands, as it could lead to a manipulation of people’s free
will in order to further destructive agendas.
However, some may argue that failing to carry out any research with potential ethical implications
would leave psychologists with only trivial subject matter to investigate. This might amount to an
abduction of responsibility if potentially crucial findings are not made for fear of potential ethical
implications. Instead, it might be more appropriate for psychologists to ensure that they work
closely with policy makers to ensure that their research is not used to create ill-informed or
misguided policies. Furthermore, some research with ethical implications can actually have positive
consequences. Flin et al. found that child eyewitnesses can produce accurate and high-quality
information when questioned in a timely and appropriate manner. This has led to a good working
relationship between psychologists and the legal profession in ensuring child eyewitnesses are
supported.
2. Discuss levels of explanation in psychology (16 marks)
Reductionism is based on the scientific principle of parsimony; that the most complex phenomena
should be explained in the simplest terms possible. Biological reductionism explains behaviour in
terms of neurochemistry, brain structures and hormonal mechanisms. Experimental reductionism
reduces behaviour to a single isolated variable for testing in a laboratory. The cognitive approach is
often associated with machine reductionism because it likens human cognition to the systematic
processes run by a computer (input, processing and output). Reductionism is underpinned by the
idea that there are levels of explanation, ranging from single unitary components to holistic
multivariable levels, to any behaviour. At the most basic level, behaviour can be explained in terms
of biology (e.g. Bowlby believing that attachment is innate). The next level looks at psychological
factors (e.g. Dollard and Miller’s learning approach suggested babies learn to associate their mother
- NS - with food - UCS). Finally, the most complex variables are social and cultural factors (e.g. van
Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg showed how different proportions of attachment types are prevalent in
different countries).
In terms of evaluation, reductionism is valued because it aligns with the principles of the ‘hard
sciences’. As the statement suggests, reductionism allows research to be ‘objective’ and ‘empirical’
, because the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable can be measured.
Reducing behaviours to variables increases internal validity and enables experiments to be
controlled, reducing the likelihood of the results being confounded by extraneous variables.
Reductionism is a useful approach because it raises the scientific profile of psychology, lending it
credibility, and enables research to be replicable and thus more reliable.
Reductionism is also useful because lab experiments have resulted in the development of drug
treatments. For example, reducing OCD and depressive disorders to their neurochemical basis has
allowed researchers to produce SSRIs that increase the levels of serotonin in the synapse, therefore
leading to increased stimulation of the postsynaptic neuron and helping to promote feelings of
happiness and wellbeing. SSRIs have proved an effective, convenient and low-cost way of managing
mental health disorders for many people, enriching their lives. This makes reductionism useful
because it improves patients’ quality of life and enables them to continue working and contributing
to the economy.
However, reductionism has been accused of losing sight of the whole person. To treat depression
with drugs in the belief that it is nothing more than a neurochemical imbalance may be mistaking its
symptoms for its true cause. Humanistic psychologists might instead advocate a talking therapy -
such as Rogerian therapy, or psychotherapy - which enables patients to understand themselves as
unique, self-determined individuals and free agents. The reductionist approach is often seen as
reductionist because it relies heavily on the assumption of a causal basis for everything, which the
humanistic approach disagrees with, believing it is more helpful to understand ourselves as in
control and in possession of free will. Therefore, reductionism is less useful because it may not give
us the whole picture of human behaviour.
Predicted
3. Discuss culture bias in psychological research. Refer to one topic you have studied in your
answer (16 marks)
Culture bias refers to judging others in terms of one’s own cultural assumptions and is often
associated with ethnocentrism, defined as viewing the world from one’s own cultural perspective
and believing this perspective to be both normal and correct. The opposite of culture bias is cultural
relativism, which describes the belief that, in order to understand any behaviour, we must situate it
within its cultural context. The recently-developed field of indigenous psychology (which draws
explicitly on the experience of people from a particular cultural background) stresses the importance
of cultural relativism. One example of a culturally biased research study in the A1 attachment topic is
Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation, which has been described as an imposed etic because it
assumes that methodology developed in Britain and the US (western, individualist cultures) can be
generalised to similar effect across the world. In reality, collectivist cultures such as those of Japan
and Korea have different child-rearing practices that mean a higher proportion of babies were found
to be insecure-resistant in Keiko Takahashi’s study than in Ainsworth’s original one. Culture bias is
also a feature of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Klein and Cohen
found that detailed work on mental disorders found outside of the US had been virtually ignored in
the DSM. For example, pa-feng (fear of wind) in China. Rack points out that this can lead to
misdiagnosis as white American psychologists fail to properly understand the symptoms of
indigenous populations. Rack claims that many African Americans are diagnosed with mental
disorders when their symptoms (such as hearing voices) are actually entirely typical for their cultural
background.
In terms of evaluation, culture bias in psychology continues to be a feature of secondary school
education. For example, Smith and Bond analysed textbooks available to students in classrooms and
