Areas, Perspectives & Debates in Core Studies

Question 1

6 ethical guidelines

Answer 1

Deception, informed consent, protection from psychological and physical harm, right to withdraw,
debrief, confidentiality

Question 2

How to adhere to ethical guidelines

Answer 2

use of posters, consent forms and briefings to ensure informed consent, use of a post-experimental interview to ensure participants are debriefed

Question 3

nature/nurture debate

Answer 3

concerned with the extent to which particular aspects of behavior are a product of either inherited (i.e. genetic) or acquired (i.e. learned) characteristics

Question 4

nurture

Answer 4

refers to all environmental influences after conception, i.e. experience.

Question 5

freewill

Answer 5

is the belief that our behaviour is a result of our own choice

Question 6

determinism

Answer 6

is the belief that behaviours are determined by factors outside our control.

Question 7

reductionism

Answer 7

the belief that human behavior can be explained by breaking it down into smaller component parts

Question 8

holism

Answer 8

refers to any approach that emphasizes the whole rather than their constituent parts. In other words ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’

Question 9

nature

Answer 9

is that which is inherited / genetic

Question 10

situational explanations

Answer 10

explanations suggest that behaviour is determined by factors in the environment that are external to an individual’s characteristics or past behaviour

Question 11

individual explanations

Answer 11

explanations believe behaviour is determined by characteristics within a person such as personality, IQ, thinking patterns or hormonal levels and that using these behaviour can be predicted.

Question 12

social area

Answer 12

how people influence each other, how individuals think about other people (social cognition), and how peoples behaviour is affected by the social situation they are in

Question 13

cognitive area

Answer 13

assumes that mental processes allow us to deal with information but is affected by emotional and instinctive factors too, based on the analogy between the mind and the digital computer

Question 14

developmental area

Answer 14

assumes that individuals develop and change over this lifespan and this can be predicted

Question 15

biological area

Answer 15

assumes biological/genetical factors determine how a person will behave and we can accurately predict behaviour by exploring human behaviour/experience of people as if they are biological machines

Question 16

individual differences area

Answer 16

looks at the differences between people rather than factors that are common to all people

Question 17

behaviourist perspective

Answer 17

assumes the environment and reinforcements together with motivational state and controlling stimuli, dictates how we will behave and that experiences lead to predictable outcomes

Question 18

psychodynamic perspective

Answer 18

assumes that psychic factors (conscious and unconscious mental or emotional processes) can explain actions and individual tasks as well as phobias and fixations

Question 19

humanist area

Answer 19

assumes that every person is unique and must be assessed by looking at their subjective experience and their perception

Question 20

existentialist area

Answer 20

assumes that to understand a person you must understand their whole experience and what meaning individuals give to their lives to understand their behaviour

Question 21

Allports definition of the social area

Answer 21

‘the scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others’

Question 22

types of learning (behaviourist)

Answer 22

classical and operant conditioning, social learning theory

Question 23

conscious

Answer 23

what an individual is aware of at any given time

Question 24

preconscious

Answer 24

made up of memories that a person can recall when they want to

Question 25

unconscious

Answer 25

made up of memories, desires, fears which cause anxiety so have been “repressed” or forced out of conscious awareness

Question 26

the life instinct (Eros)

Answer 26

needed to fulfill basic biological needs eg. infants have the need for sexual pleasure

Question 27

the death instinct (Thanatos)

Answer 27

involves the urge to be aggressive and destructive to others/ourselves causing violence, wars, suicide

Question 28

id

Answer 28

basic animal part of personality that contains innate, aggressive, sexual instincts - wants to be satisfied by whatever means possible, obeys the pleasure principle

Question 29

ego

Answer 29

the conscious, rational mind- negotiated between the id and superego to work out whether an individual can actually have what they want, based on the reality principle

Question 30

superego

Answer 30

an individuals conscience, moral part, includes ideas about how to behave that are learned from parents/others

Question 31

types of validity

Answer 31

population, internal, face, construct, concurrent, criterion, ecological

Question 32

types of reliability

Answer 32

inter-rater, internal, external, split-half, test-retest

Question 33

types of effects

Answer 33

researcher, observer

Question 34

types of bias

Answer 34

researcher, observer, sampling

Question 35

psychology as a science

Answer 35

manipulation of variables, standardisation, quantifiable measures, control, objectivity, replicability, falsification, induction, deduction, cause and effect, hypothesis testing

Question 36

other methodological issues

Answer 36

demand characteristics, representativeness, social desirability, generalisability, ethnocentrism, usefulness

Question 37

debates

Answer 37

freewill/determinism, reductionism/holism, individual/situational, nature/nurture