These are Essay Plans for the Issues and Debates Topic of AQA A-Level Psychology. They 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
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Issues and Debates Essay Plans
Describe and Evaluate the Role of Gender Bias in Psychology
AO1:
- Psychologists seek universality but bias may be inevitable due to the social and historical contexts that they live in. This
undermines their claims to discover objective facts about human behaviour which are consistent across time and
culture.
- Gender bias is when psychological research does not accurately represent the behaviour of men and women.
- Alpha bias exaggerates the difference between men and women, and this generally devalues women. Freud (1905)’s
theory of psychosexual development is an example of this. 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.
- Beta bias minimises the differences 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.
- An example of this is the fight or flight response research 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.
- Alpha and beta bias are consequences of androcentrism. Due to the facts that 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.
- For example, 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).
A limitation is that Gender-biased research can create misleading assumptions about female behaviour and validate
gender-biased research discriminatory practices, it could provide a scientific justification to deny women higher positions
can create misleading within the workplace due to things such as PMS, maternity leave, or the assumption that she will
assumptions 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.
Another limitation is Gender bias promotes sexism in the research process. Women are underrepresented in university
that gender bias departments, and although psychology undergraduates are mainly women, the lecturers are more
promotes sexism in the likely to be men. This means more research is conducted by men which may disadvantage female
research process. participants. Also, the lack of women at senior research level may mean that female concerns are
not reflected in the research questions asked. Also, 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. Therefore, psychology may be
guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism which creates bias in research and theory.
A strength is that there Worell & Remer (1992) suggests criteria that can help researchers to avoid gender bias. Women
are methods to avoid should be studied in meaningful real-life contexts, instead of being objects in a study. Diversity
gender bias 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.
A limitation is that Maccoby & Jacklin (1974) concluded that girls have superior verbal ability whereas boys have a
gender differences are better spatial ability. They said that these differences are hardwired into the brain before birth.
often presented as being However, Joel et al (2015) found no such differences in brain scans. So, the data from the previous
fixed. Maccoby & Jacklin was popularised because it fitted stereotypes of girls as speakers and boys as
doers.
Discuss cultural bias in psychology. Refer in your answer to ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
AO1:
- 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 and 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. This can lead to ethnocentrism where people believe that their cultural group
is superior.
- An example of this is 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.
- Cultural relativism can help to reduce bias, it means that things discovered by psychologists can only make sense from
the perspective of the culture that they were discovered in.
- An etic approach looks at behaviour from outside a given culture and identifies behaviours that are universal. Whereas
an emic approach functions from which certain cultures and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture.
A limitation is that the Both Asch’s and Milgram’s original studies were conducted with exclusively US participants (who were
most influential studies also mainly white and middle class). Replications of these studies in other cultures produced different
in psychology are results Smith & Bond (1993) found significantly higher rates of conformity than the original studies
culturally biased in collectivist cultures. This suggest that our understanding of social influence should only be applied
to individualist cultures.
A strength is the The emergency of cultural psychology has led to researchers using an emic approach conducting
emergency of cultural research from within a culture alongside local researchers using cultural-based techniques. This
psychology suggest that modern psychologists are more mindful of the dangers of cultural bias and are taking
steps to avoid it.
A strength is the The ‘imposed etic’ shows the culturally specific nature of psychology. However, not all psychology is
recognition of both cultural relative and there is still some universal human behaviour. Ekman (1989) suggests basic facial
cultural relativism and expressions for emotions are the same all over the world. Also, some features of human attachment
universals such as imitation and interactional synchrony are universal. A full understanding of human behaviour
requires the study of both universal and variation among individuals and groups.
A limitation is that The first intelligence tests led to eugenic social policies in the US. Psychologist used WW1 soldiers to
cultural bias has led to pilot their first IQ tests, these were ethnocentric questions assuming things like knowing the name of
prejudice against groups the US presidents. This meant recruits from south-eastern Europe and African Americans received
of people the lowest scores. This was used to form a racist theory of the genetic inferiority of particular
cultural and ethnic groups and ethnic minorities were deemed ‘mentally unfit’ in comparison to the
white majority and were denied education and professional opportunities as a result. This shows how
cultural bias can be used to justify prejudice and discrimination towards certain cultural and ethnic
groups.
Discuss Free Will and Determinism in Psychology
AO1:
- Free will is the idea that we are self-determining and able to choose our own thoughts and actions. There are biological
and environmental influence on behaviour but free will says that we are able to reject them. On the other hand,
determinism says that behaviour is controlled by internal and external forces. There are many different types of
determinism, hard determinism says that behaviour is completely out of our control and all human behaviour has a
cause dictated by forces we cannot control, whereas soft determinism says that all human behaviour has a cause, but
people have conscious mental control over their behaviour.
- The biological approach uses biological determinism saying that human behaviour is due to hormones, genes, and
physiological processes.
- Environmental determinism was popularised by the behaviourist approach, it is the idea that all behaviour is as a result
of conditioning and the experience of ‘choice’ is just a sum of all the reinforcement contingencies which have acted on
us throughout our lives.
- Psychic determinism was suggested by Freud. He said that free will is an illusion, all behaviour is determined and directed
by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood, and even a ‘slip of the tongue’ is determined by the unconscious.
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