Issues and Debates

Question 1

Universality

Answer 1

The tendency to assume that one’s personal qualities and characteristics, including attitudes and values are common in the general social group or culture

Question 2

Gender Bias

Answer 2

Occurs when men or women are treated or represented differently in psychological reasearch

Question 3

Androcentrism

Answer 3

Male centered view of the world; when normal behaviour is judged to a male ‘standard’ (meaning female behaviour is often judged to be ‘abnormal’ in comparison)

Question 4

Alpha Bias

Answer 4

When differences (between men and women or cultures) are overexaggerated

Question 5

Beta Bias

Answer 5

Underestimates/minimses the differences (between men and women or cultures)

Question 6

Culture

Answer 6

The rules, customs,morals and ways of interacting that bind together memebers of society or some other collection of people

Question 7

Culture Bias

Answer 7

Refers to the tendency to ingnore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the ‘lens; of one’s own culture. (the act of interpreting and judging behaviours and psychological characterisitics of one culture by holding them to the standards of your own)

Question 8

Ethnocentrism

Answer 8

Judging other cultures by standards and values of one’s own culture

Question 9

Cultural relativism

Answer 9

The idea that behaviour can only be properly understood in the context of the norms and values of the society or culture within which it occurs

Question 10

Emic Approach

Answer 10

Research on a single culture to understand it within local context; this ISN’T the generalised to other cultures; instead it looks at variations and contrasts them

Question 11

Etic Approach

Answer 11

Research across a number of cultures to discover elements of behaviour that might be universal

Question 12

Imposed Etic

Answer 12

Imposing the judgments and values of one culture onto another

Question 13

Free Will

Answer 13

The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces

Question 14

Determinism

Answer 14

The view that an individual’s behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individuals will to do something (this means behaviour should be predictable)

Question 15

Hard Determinism

Answer 15

Implies that free will is not possible as our behaviour is always caused by internal and external eventd beyond our control

Question 16

Soft Determinism

Answer 16

All events (including human behaviour) have causes but are not forced, by coercion, the environment or external factors but by our conscious choices

Question 17

Biological Determinism

Answer 17

The belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control

Question 18

Psychic Determinism

Answer 18

The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control

Question 19

Environmental Determinism

Answer 19

The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (parents, society) that we cannot control

Question 20

Nature

Answer 20

Behaviour is seen as the product of innate factors

Question 21

Nurture

Answer 21

Behaviour is the product of environmental influences

Question 22

Nature/Nurture Debate

Answer 22

Concerned with the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inhertied or acquired characteristics

Question 23

Interactionist

Answer 23

The idea that nature and nurture are linked together to such an extent that it does not make sense to separate the two, so researchers instead study how they interact and and influence eachother

Question 24

Heredity

Answer 24

The genetic transmission of mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another

Question 25

Holism

Answer 25

The arguement or theory that proposes that it only makes sense to study an indivisble system rather than it’s constituent parts

Question 26

Reductionism

Answer 26

The belief that human behaviour is best understood by studying the smaller parts

Question 27

Biological Reductionism

Answer 27

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level ( in terms of genes & hormones ect.)

Question 28

Environmental Reductionism

Answer 28

The attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience

Question 29

Levels of explanations

Answer 29

The idea that there are several ways(levels) to explaining behaviour
- The lowest level considers physiological/ biological explanations
- The middle level considers psychological explanations
- The highest level considers social and cultural explanations

Question 30

Holism-Reductionism Debate

Answer 30

Is the question of whether holism or reductionism is the better approach to use in order to understand human behaviour

Question 31

Social Sensitivity

Answer 31

Studies in which there are potential consequences or implications either directly for participants for the class of individuals that the participant represent

Question 32

Ethical Implications

Answer 32

The concequences of any research (studies/theories) in the terms of the effect on the individual participants or on the way in which certain groups of people are subsequently regarded. There may also be implications on a wider societal level

Question 33

Idiographic

Answer 33

An approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour, rather than aiming to formulate general law of behaviour

Question 34

Nomothetic

Answer 34

An approach aims to study human beahviour through the development of general principles and universal law