Issues, Debates and Approaches (IDA)

1. Issues, Debates and Approaches (IDA) IDA Toolkit AQA Specification: Issues and debates in Psychology • Gender and culture in Psychology – universality and bias. Gender bias including androcentrism and alpha and beta bias; cultural bias, including ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. • Freewill and determinism: hard determinism and soft determinism; biological, environmental and psychic determinism. The scientific emphasis on causal explanations. • The nature-nurture debate: the relative importance of heredity and environment in determining behaviour; the interactionist approach. • Holism and reductionism: levels of explanation in Psychology. Biological reductionism and environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism. • Idiographic and nomothetic approaches to psychological investigation. • Ethical implications of research studies and theory, including reference to social sensitivity

2. Activity 1 - Universality and bias • Psychology attempts to conduct research that is ‘objective’ and ‘value-free.’ • However, psychologists possess beliefs and values that are influenced by the social and historical contexts they live in. • This may then influence their research, findings and conclusions. • This can undermine the universality of the research (it being applied to all human beings)

3. Today’s focus: gender bias The differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences.

4. Gender Bias Occurs in psychology when findings show a difference between males and females, this difference can be genuine or exaggerated. It also occurs when research is conducted just on males but applied to both sexes.

5. Alpha Bias When the differences between males and females are shown and may be exaggerated. Either to heighten the value of women or devalue them. These differences are presented as real and enduring, fixed and inevitable. The socio-biology theory of sexual selection is an example of this.

6. Socio-biological theory of sexual selection • Suggets that it is in a male’s interest to try and impregnate as many women as possible as this will guarantee that his genes will be passed down through generations. • Females need to ensure the healthy survival of her offspring which would guarantee that her genes are passed on. • Thus it can be argued that sexual promiscuity in males is genetically determined, while females who engage in similar activity are seen as going against their nature.

7. Another example is Freud's theory of psychosexual development. Freud believed femininity was failed masculinity and that we can never believe that the 2 sexes are equal in position or worth. However Horney stated it was wrong to think females were envious of men’s attributes but they were jealous of their social class. She coined the term; womb envy, in which males were envious of females ability to have children and compensated for that by achieving in other domains. Alpha Bias

8. Beta Bias When differences between the 2 sexes are ignored or minimised and then generalised to the opposite sex. examples; Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning – he concluded that women were morally inferior due to their life within the home. Another example is the fight or flight response

9. Early research into fight or flight was based exclusively on male animals and was assumed to be a universal response to a threatening situation. • Taylor et al (2000) suggested that female biology has evolved to inhibit the fight or flight response, shifting attention towards caring for offspring and forming defensive networks with other females.

10. ANDROCENTRISM: • This is a consequence of beta bias. • It describes a study conducted only on males but generalised also to females • If our understanding of ‘normal’ behaviour is being drawn from research that involves ‘all male’ samples, then behaviour that deviates from this is seen as ‘abnormal’ by comparison. • Often female behaviour is misunderstood. • PMS – feminists object to this as they believe that it is a social construct. People now think that female anger is due to hormones whereas male anger is due to external pressure!

11. Androcentric = a study conducted only on males but generalised also to females Gynocentric = a study conducted only on females but generalised also to males Other Types

12. Ao3 – implications of gender bias: • gender-biased research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour, it fails to challenge negative stereotypes and validates discriminatory practices. • it may provide a scientific ‘justification’ to deny women opportunities both in the workplace and society.

13. AO3 - Sexism • Lack of women at senior level means that female concerns may not be reflected in the research questions asked. • Male researchers are more likely to have their work published • Studies that find evidence of gender differences are more likely to appear in journal articles • Lab experiments have female participants and male researchers – what might this mean?

14. AO3 - Reflexivity • modern researchers are beginning to recognise the effect their own values and assumptions have on the nature of their work • what did dambrin and lambert find? • reflexivity is an important development in psychology and may lead to greater awareness of the role of personal bias in research.

15. More ao3 - essentialism • Read the point on essentialism in the PHG • Think about how you would make this into an AO3 point.

16. AO3 – feminist psychology • Judith Worrell along with other feminists have stated that a number of criteria should be adhered to in order to avoid gender bias: • Women should be studied in real life context • They should genuinely participate in research • They should not be objects of study • Diversity within groups of women should be examined as opposed to differences between men and women • Collaborative research methods should be developed and we should be collecting more qualitative data too.

17. Read about Gender bias in PHG What if this topic was worth 16 marks in your summer examination? Would you feel confident to describe and evaluate Gender bias in psychology?