Issues and Debates Flashcards
what are different levels of explanation that can be used in psychology
social cultural context
psychological level
physiological level
neurochemical level
define ethnocentrism
involves evaluating other cultures according to the customs and standards of your own culture, leading to a bias whereby you view your culture as superior
define reductionism
view that behaviour is better explained by breaking it down into simpler constituent parts
give a strength of holism
able to explain certain aspects of social behaviour that reductionists could not such as conformity to social roles in the prison study. able to understand behaviours of more wider social contexts
give an example of socially sensitive research that has had ethical implications
Goddard did research which found IQ to be fully genetic. this led to eugenic procedures in the 1920s whereby the feeble minded were sterilised
Approaches on idiographic side
humanistic approach- focused on experiences of one’s self and each person’s individual ability to strive to achieve self actualisation
psychodynamic approach- Freud’s use of cases studies emphasises the importance of individual experience
approaches on the nomothetic side
biological approach- involves many lab experiments and brain scan evidence on many people whereby generalisation of human functioning have been made
behaviourist approach- many experiments have been done on many animals where generalisable laws of learning have been developed
what is meant by cultural relativism
the idea that norms values and behaviours and culturally specific and may not be universal. it should be evaluated in the context of the culture in which they occur
what is the difference between the emic approach and etic approach
emic- the insider perspective
etic- the outsider perspective
describe universality
refers to when conclusions can be applied to everyone regardless of which place, culture or time a person is in
describe determinism
belief that behaviour is pre determined by external or internal forces acting upon an individual that is out of their control
what is the difference between hard and soft determinism
hard- states that we have completely no control over what directs our lives
soft- states that our behaviour is determined by external or internal forces but at the same time we do have some control
list three types of determinism
biological- behaviour is innate and determined by genes
environmental- all behaviour is determined by factors outside the individual
psychic- behaviour is the result of childhood experiences and innate drives
define free will
refers to the ability to act at one’s own discretion, to choose behaviour without being influenced by external forces
which approaches take the side of nurture
behaviourist
humanistic
social learning theory
psychodynamic
