Controversies in Psychology

What Controversies in Psychology covers

Controversies in Psychology is examined on A2 Unit 3 of WJEC Psychology, Psychology: Implications in the Real World. 130 recall questions across 15 subtopics.

The 15 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Controversy: Cultural Bias — issue, and why it is controversialRecall questions on Cultural Bias — issue and why it is controversial.Open →
• Controversy: Cultural Bias — applying psychological knowledge to itRecall questions on individualism-collectivism dimension.Open →
• Controversy: Cultural Bias — judgements and conclusionsRecall questions on Cultural Bias — judgements and conclusions.Open →
• Controversy: Ethical Costs of Conducting Research — issue, and why it is controversialRecall questions on Ethical Costs of Conducting Research — issue and why it is controversial.Open →
• Controversy: Ethical Costs of Conducting Research — applying psychological knowledge to itRecall questions on socially sensitive research.Open →
• Controversy: Ethical Costs of Conducting Research — judgements and conclusionsRecall questions on Ethical Costs of Conducting Research — judgements and conclusions.Open →
• Controversy: Non-Human Animals — issue, and why it is controversialRecall questions on Non-Human Animals — issue and why it is controversial.Open →
• Controversy: Non-Human Animals — applying psychological knowledge to itRecall questions on animal-assisted therapy.Open →
• Controversy: Non-Human Animals — judgements and conclusionsRecall questions on Non-Human Animals — judgements and conclusions.Open →
• Controversy: Scientific Status — issue, and why it is controversialRecall questions on Scientific Status — issue and why it is controversial.Open →
• Controversy: Scientific Status — applying psychological knowledge to itNine recall questions on controversy: Scientific Status — applying psychological knowledge to it.Open →
• Controversy: Scientific Status — judgements and conclusionsRecall questions on Scientific Status — judgements and conclusions.Open →
• Controversy: Sexism — issue, and why it is controversialRecall questions on sexism in psychology, alpha bias, beta bias and androcentrism.Open →
• Controversy: Sexism — applying psychological knowledge to itRecall questions on gender similarities hypothesis and heterosexism.Open →
• Controversy: Sexism — judgements and conclusionsRecall questions on Sexism — judgements and conclusions.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Controversies 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 difference between groups. Beta bias: minimising or ignoring it.

• Ethnocentrism vs Cultural relativism

  Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures by one's own standard. Cultural relativism: refusing to judge outside the local context.

• Presumptive consent vs Prior general consent

  Presumptive consent: asking a similar group whether the procedure is acceptable. Prior general consent: the participant agreeing in advance that they may be deceived.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by cultural bias in psychology?

   Model answer

   Cultural bias is the tendency to interpret and judge behaviour using the assumptions of one's own culture, so that findings drawn from one group are treated as though they described everyone.

2. 2

   Why is cultural bias treated as a controversy rather than just a methodological weakness?

   Model answer

   It challenges psychology's central claim to describe universal human behaviour, and biased findings have historically been used to disadvantage the very groups they misdescribe.

3. 3

   Define ethnocentrism as the term is used in this controversy.

   Model answer

   Ethnocentrism is judging other cultures by the standards and values of one's own and treating one's own culture as the norm; Sumner (1906) introduced the term.

4. 4

   Distinguish an emic approach from an etic approach.

   Model answer

   An emic approach studies behaviour from inside a single culture and describes it in that culture's own terms, while an etic approach looks at behaviour from outside and seeks patterns that hold across cultures; the distinction was taken from linguistics by Pike (1954).

5. 5

   What is an imposed etic, and who identified it?

   Model answer

   An imposed etic is a construct or measure developed in one culture and applied to another as if it were universal; Berry (1969) named the problem.

6. 6

   Explain why the Strange Situation is often given as an example of an imposed etic.

   Model answer

   It was devised with American infants, so the responses of infants raised under different childrearing practices are read as insecurity rather than as a different but normal pattern.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Controversies in Psychology revision questions

What does Controversies in Psychology cover in WJEC A-Level Psychology?

15 subtopics: controversy: cultural bias — issue, and why it is controversial, controversy: cultural bias — applying psychological knowledge to it, controversy: cultural bias — judgements and conclusions, controversy: ethical costs of conducting research — issue, and why it is controversial, controversy: ethical costs of conducting research — applying psychological knowledge to it, controversy: ethical costs of conducting research — judgements and conclusions, controversy: non-human animals — issue, and why it is controversial, controversy: non-human animals — applying psychological knowledge to it, controversy: non-human animals — judgements and conclusions, controversy: scientific status — issue, and why it is controversial, controversy: scientific status — applying psychological knowledge to it, controversy: scientific status — judgements and conclusions, controversy: sexism — issue, and why it is controversial, controversy: sexism — applying psychological knowledge to it and controversy: sexism — judgements and conclusions. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Controversies in Psychology organised?

By the WJEC 601-5719-7 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.