Issues and Debates in Psychology

What Issues and Debates in Psychology covers

Issues and Debates in Psychology is Section A of Paper 3 and is compulsory. It covers gender and culture bias, free will and determinism, nature and nurture, holism and reductionism, and the ethical implications of socially sensitive research. The material is applied to the topics studied elsewhere rather than treated on its own.

The 6 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Gender and culture in PsychologyAlpha and beta bias, androcentrism and ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, and how each distorts psychological research.Open →
• Free will and determinismWhat free will claims, the distinction between hard and soft determinism, the three types of determinism, and the case for and against the determinist position.Open →
• The nature-nurture debateWhat the debate concerns, how twin and adoption studies separate genetic from environmental influence, what epigenetics adds, and the diathesis-stress model.Open →
• Holism and reductionismReductionism in its biological and environmental forms, the holistic alternative, and how the two compare in scientific standing.Open →
• Idiographic and nomothetic approachesThe idiographic study of the individual and the nomothetic search for general laws, the methods and examples typical of each, their strengths and limitations, and how the two approaches can be combined.Open →
• Ethical implications of research and social sensitivityWhat makes research socially sensitive, the concerns it raises beyond the participants themselves, and why the wider costs have to be weighed.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Issues and Debates in Psychology further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Alpha bias vs Beta bias

  Alpha bias: exaggerating the differences between males and females. Beta bias: playing down or ignoring the differences between males and females.

• Ethnocentrism vs Cultural relativism

  Ethnocentrism: judging other groups by the standards of one's own society. Cultural relativism: understanding behaviour only within the setting where it occurs.

• Hard determinism vs Soft determinism

  Hard determinism: the view that every action is caused by forces beyond our control. Soft determinism: the view that constraints operate but some choice still remains.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does universality mean in the context of psychological research?

   Model answer

   Universality refers to the assumption that findings from psychological research can be applied to all people regardless of gender, culture, or other characteristics.

2. 2

   What is bias in psychology?

   Model answer

   Bias occurs when research findings are distorted by the characteristics of the researcher or the sample studied, limiting the generalisability of conclusions.

3. 3

   Define gender bias in psychological research and theory.

   Model answer

   Gender bias is the differential treatment or representation of males and females in psychological research and theory, based on stereotypes rather than real differences.

4. 4

   What is androcentrism?

   Model answer

   Androcentrism is a form of gender bias where male behaviour is taken as the norm and female behaviour is judged against this standard or overlooked entirely.

5. 5

   Define alpha bias in psychology.

   Model answer

   Alpha bias refers to theories or research that exaggerate the differences between males and females.

6. 6

   What is beta bias?

   Model answer

   Beta bias refers to theories or research that minimise or ignore differences between males and females, often by assuming findings from studies on one sex apply equally to the other.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Issues and Debates in Psychology revision questions

What does Issues and Debates in Psychology cover in AQA A-Level Psychology?

6 subtopics: gender and culture in psychology, free will and determinism, the nature-nurture debate, holism and reductionism, idiographic and nomothetic approaches and ethical implications of research and social sensitivity. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Issues and Debates in Psychology organised?

By the AQA 7182 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.