The Biosocial Theory Money and Ehrhardt 1972 In their book ‘man and woman, boy and girl’ they set out their theory that once a biological male or female is born, social labelling and differential treatment interact with biological factors (such as exposure to...
Evaluation: There are actual implications for the socially sensitive research. Research on gender Dysphoria has potential social consequences for those represented by the research. However, it needs to be considered that they may be better off with the research...
AO1 The nature vs. nurture debate within psychology is the extent to which we are a product of biological or genetic innate factors, nature, or if our behaviour is a product of environmental influences. An example of the influence of nature is genetic explanations...
AO1 Reductionism refers to an approach that breaks complex phenomena into more simple components. It also implies that this process is desirable because complex phenomena are best understood in terms of a simpler level of explanation. Psychologists are drawn to...
AO1 The idiographic approach focuses on individuals and emphasises uniqueness favouring qualitative methods in research. The idiographic approach is qualitative as the focus is on gaining insights into human behaviour by studying unique individuals in depth as opposed...
Free will is the idea that we are self-determining Humans are free to choose thoughts/actions Biological/environmental influences on behaviour but we can reject them Behaviour has no cause/is unpredictable View of the humanistic approach Determinism: behaviour is...
Nature: behaviour is the product of innate biological/genetic factors Result of heredity Genetic transmission of mental/physical characteristics from one generation to another Heritability coefficient: number 0-1, extent to which characteristic has a genetic basis g....
Holism People/behaviour should be studied as a whole system Gestalt psychologists: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts Breaking up behaviour/experience is inappropriate as they can only be understood by analysing the person/behaviour as a whole View shared...
Idiographic approach Study of unique experience Aims to describe nature of the individual People studied as unique entities with their own subjective experiences/motivators/values No attempt to compare to a larger group/standard/norm Qualitative research methods Case...
Psychology claims to unearth universal truths but in reality, findings may only apply to the particular groups who were studied Wrongly assumed that western findings could be applied all over the world g. conformity (Asch) and obedience (Milgram) produced different...
Ethical implications Ethical issues are due to conflict between: Psychology’s need for valid/valuable research Preserving rights/dignity of participants Wider ethical implications are hard to predict Researchers control methods/how the treat participants Less...
AO1 Culture bias is the tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgement. An example of culture bias can be seen in Ainsworth’s strange situation whereby 106 middle-class American infants were observed in...
AO1 Determinism is the view that an individual's behaviour is controlled by either internal or external forces acting upon the individual. There are different types of determinism namely environmental, biological and psychodynamic determinism. Biological determinism...
Explain what is meant by the terms ‘universality’ and ‘bias’ in relation to gender [4 marks] Universality refers to any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing. The...
In relation to culture in psychology, explain what is meant by the terms ‘bias’ and ‘universality’ [4 marks] Universality refers to any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing....
With reference to either research studies or theories, explain what is meant by ‘ethical implications’ [3 marks] Ethical implications are the impact that psychological research may have at a societal level, in terms of influencing public policy and/or the way in which...
Psychologists seek universality but bias may be inevitable Social/historical contexts that they live in Gender bias: psychological theory/research may not accurately represent the experience/behaviour of men and women Alpha bias exaggerates differences,...