AQA A Level Psychology 3.3.1 Issues and Debates Exam Questions

About AQA A Level Psychology 3.3.1 Issues and Debates

Issues and Debates is the compulsory section of AQA A Level Paper 3, Issues and Options in Psychology. It asks you to step back from individual topics and evaluate psychology as a whole. You study gender bias and culture bias, free will and determinism, the nature-nurture debate, holism and reductionism, idiographic and nomothetic approaches, and the ethical implications of research including socially sensitive research. The best answers draw on examples from across the course, such as Milgram, attachment research, the biological approach and schizophrenia. Examiners reward precise use of key terms and synoptic examples, and these debates are also expected as evaluation in essays elsewhere.

What you need to know

• Gender bias Universality is a theory that claims to apply to everyone. Alpha bias exaggerates differences between men and women; beta bias minimises them, often by studying only men; androcentrism treats male behaviour as the norm.
• Culture bias Ethnocentrism judges other cultures by the standards of one's own; cultural relativism recognises behaviour must be understood in its cultural context. Imposed etics apply a theory from one culture (emic) as if it were universal, for example the Strange Situation.
• Free will and determinism Hard determinism says all behaviour has causes, while soft determinism allows conscious choice within constraints. Types are biological, environmental and psychic determinism; the scientific emphasis on causal explanations assumes determinism.
• Nature-nurture Nature refers to inherited influences, nurture to environmental ones. The interactionist approach includes the diathesis-stress model and epigenetics, and heritability coefficients estimate the genetic contribution.
• Holism and reductionism Holism studies the whole person; reductionism explains behaviour at a lower level. Levels of explanation, biological reductionism and environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism are key terms.
• Idiographic and nomothetic approaches Idiographic approaches study individuals in depth, such as case studies and the humanistic approach; nomothetic approaches seek general laws from large groups, such as experiments.
• Ethical implications and socially sensitive research Sieber and Stanley (1988) defined socially sensitive research as studies with potential social consequences for participants or the group they represent. Researchers must consider the research question, how findings are used and who benefits.

Common mistakes in 3.3.1 Issues and Debates

• Confusing alpha and beta bias; alpha bias exaggerates differences, beta bias minimises them.
• Writing that determinism means behaviour is caused by biology only; environmental and psychic determinism are also forms.
• Describing a debate without a synoptic example from the course, which limits marks in Paper 3 essays.
• Assuming reductionism is always a weakness; it allows scientific testing and has produced effective drug treatments.
• Mixing up ethical issues (such as deception in a study) with ethical implications (the wider consequences of findings for society).

Try three 3.3.1 Issues and Debates exam-style questions