Summary AQA A-Level Psychology Issues and Debates Notes
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Issues and Debates
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AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2
These are Revision Notes for the Issues and Debates Topic of AQA A-Level Psychology. These were written by me using a combination of class notes, revisions guides and textbooks. I will also be uploading the other topics and creating bundles.
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- Gender Bias - Cultural Bias
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Issues and Debates
Gender Bias:
Gender Bias
- Psychologists’ beliefs and values are influenced by
the social and historical context that they live in. Cultural Bias
- This undermines their claims to discover objective Free will and determinism
facts about human behaviour which are consistent
across time and culture. This is known as The nature-nurture debate
universality. Holism and reductionism
Alpha Bias:
Idiographic and nomothetic approaches
- Research that exaggerates the differences
between men and women. It often devalues women Ethical implications of research studies and theory
in relation to men.
- Freud (1905)’s theory of psychosexual development. During the phallic stage children develop a desire
for their opposite gender parent, this creates castration anxiety in boys, but this is resolved when the
boy identifies with his father. However, a girl’s identification with her mother is weaker, this means that
her superego is weaker as it develops from taking on the same gender parent’s moral perspective.
Therefore, women are morally inferior to men.
- Wilson (1975) said that ‘survival efficiency’ means that it is in a male’s interests to try and impregnate
as many females as possible to increase the chances of his genes being passed on to the next
generation. Whereas the female’s best chance to preserve her genes is to ensure the survival of the
offspring she produces. Therefore, sexual promiscuity in males is naturally selected and genetically
determined whereas it is not in females, so females who have the same behaviour are seen as going
against their nature.
Beta Bias:
- Research that underestimates the difference between males and females. This often happens when
women are not a part of research, but the findings are generalised to them, and it is assumed that
their behaviour would be the same.
- Biological research on the fight or flight response was based off of male animals due to the fact that
female behaviour is affected by the regular hormonal changes of the menstrual cycle. It was then
assumed that the reaction of the male animals would be the same to females.
- Taylor et al (2000) suggested that oxytocin is more abundant in females and women respond to stress
by increasing oxytocin production, this shifts attention towards caring for offspring and forming a
defensive network with other females. This is known as the tend and befriend response.
Androcentrism:
- Alpha and beta bias are consequences of androcentrism.
- Psychology is male dominated, our understanding of normal behaviour comes from all male samples, so
any behaviour deviating from this is seen as abnormal. This means female behaviour is often
misunderstood and is even sometimes taken as a sign of illness.
- Feminists oppose the diagnosis of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) as it medicalises female emotions by
explaining them in hormonal terms. However male anger is seen as a rational response to external
pressures (Brescoll & Uhlman 2008).
AO3
- Gender differences are often presented as being fixed such as Maccoby & Jacklin (1974) concluded
that girls have superior verbal ability whereas boys have a better spatial ability. They said that these
differences are hardwired into the brain before birth. However, Joel et al (2015) found no such
differences in brain scans. So, the data from the previous Maccoby & Jacklin was popularised because it
fitted stereotypes of girls as speakers and boys as doers.
- Gender-biased research can create misleading assumptions about female behaviour and validate
discriminatory practices, it could provide a scientific justification to deny women higher positions within
the workplace due to things such as PMS, maternity leave, or the assumption that she will want to
, stay at home or work only part-time once she has children. This may have damaging consequences and
affecting the lives and prospects of women.
- Gender bias promotes sexism in the research process. Women are underrepresented in university
departments, and although psychology undergraduates are mainly women, the lecturers are more likely
to be men. This means more research is conducted by men which may disadvantage female participants.
Also, the lack of women at senior research level may mean that female concerns are not reflected in
the research questions asked. Therefore, psychology may be guilty of supporting a form of institutional
sexism which creates bias in research and theory.
- Research challenging gender biases may not be published. Formanowicz et al (2018) analysed 1000
articles relating to gender bias. They found research on gender bias is funded less often and published
by less prestigious journals. This means it is seen by less scholars become aware and apply it in their own
work.
+ Understanding gender bias leads to reflexivity which is when researchers recognise the effect of their
values on their work. They can then embrace bias an important aspect of the research process rather
than as a threat. Reflexivity is an important development in development in psychology and may lead to
greater awareness of the role or personal bias in shaping future research.
+ Worell & Remer (1992) suggests criteria that can help researchers to avoid gender bias. Women should
be studied in meaningful real-life contexts, instead of being objects in a study. Diversity between
different types of women should be studied, rather than comparisons made between men and women
and there should be a greater emphasis on research methods that collect quantitative data. This method
is less gender-biased than laboratory-based research.
Cultural Bias:
- Psychologists seek universality but bias may be inevitable. Psychology claims to have uncovered truths
about people over the world however studies only apply to the particular group of people who were
studied. They show cultural bias.
- Henrich et al (2010) found that 68% of research studies came from the United States.
- Arnett (2008) found that 80% of research participants are undergraduates studying psychology.
- If the standard behaviour is judged from only one particular culture, then any cultural differences in
behaviour will inevitably be seen as abnormal or inferior.
- Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority of one’s own cultural group.
- Ainsworth’s (1970) Strange Situation has been criticised for only reflecting the norms and values of
Western culture. She decided that the ideal attachment type is secure attachment which is categorised
by babies showing moderate amounts of distress when left along by their primary caregiver.
- This led to misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries which deviate from the
American norm. German mothers were seen as cold and rejecting rather than encouraging independence
in their children. Japanese infants were more likely to be classified as insecurely attached because they
showed considerable distress on separation, this is probably because Japanese babies are rarely separated
from their mother.
- The things psychologists discover may only make sense from the perspective of the culture that it was
discovered in. This is called cultural relativism.
- An etic approach looks at behaviour from outside a given culture and identifies behaviours that are
universal.
- An emic approach functions from which certain cultures and identifies behaviours that are specific to
that culture.
AO3:
- The most influential studies in psychology are culturally biased. Both Asch’s and Milgram’s original
studies were conducted with exclusively US participants (who were also mainly white and middle class).
Replications of these studies in other cultures produced different results Smith & Bond (1993) found
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