Issues And Debates

Question 1

What is holism

Answer 1

An argument or theory that proposes it only makes sense to study an indivisible system rather than its constituent parts.

Question 2

What is reductionism

Answer 2

The belief that human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller constituent parts.

Question 3

What is biological reductionism

Answer 3

It explains social and psychological behaviour at a lower biological level

Question 4

What is environmental reductionism

Answer 4

It explains all behaviour in stimulus-response links.

Question 5

What did Gestalt psychologists claim, that became the basis of holism

Answer 5

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Question 6

What are levels of explanation

Answer 6

They suggest that there are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in psychology.

Question 7

What are the different levels of explanation

Answer 7

Social and cultural, psychological, biological

Question 8

What is gender bias

Answer 8

The tendency to treat one individual or group in a different way than others based on their gender.

Question 9

What is universality

Answer 9

Any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all.

Question 10

What is alpha bias

Answer 10

Suggests that there are real, enduring differences between men and women, often undervaluing women.

Question 11

What is beta bias

Answer 11

Ignoring or minimising differences between the sexes

Question 12

What are women’s’ third option apart from fight or flight?

Answer 12

Tend and befriend, which is ignored due to beta bias

Question 13

What is androcentrism

Answer 13

Male-centred, when behaviour is judged by male standards and female behaviour is abnormal.

Question 14

What is cultural bias

Answer 14

Refers to a tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the lens of one’s own culture.

Question 15

What is ethnocentrism

Answer 15

Judging other cultures by the standard of one’s own culture.

Question 16

What is cultural relativism

Answer 16

The idea that norms and values, as well as ethics and moral standards, can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts.

Question 17

What is an etic approach

Answer 17

Looks at behaviour from outside of a given culture and attempts to explain those behaviours as universal.

Question 18

What is an emic approach

Answer 18

Functions from within certain cultures and identifies those behaviours that are specific to that culture.

Question 19

What is the nature-nurture debate

Answer 19

Concerned with the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited traits or acquired characteristics.

Question 20

What is nature

Answer 20

The idea that characteristics or aspects of knowledge are innate

Question 21

What is nurture

Answer 21

Based on environmental influences - there are different levels of nurture, defined in prenatal terms, for example the mothers physical and psychological state during pregnancy.

Question 22

What is heredity

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What is the interactionist approach

Answer 23

The idea that nature and nurture are linked to such an extent that it does not make sense to separate them.

Question 24

What is the diathesis stress model

Answer 24

Suggests that psychopathology is caused by a biological/genetic vulnerability which is only expressed when coupled with a trigger.

Question 25

What are epigenetics

Answer 25

Refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code

Question 26

What is the idiographic approach

Answer 26

• attempts to describe the nature of the individual
• people are studied as unique entities, each with their own subjective experiences, motivations and values

Question 27

What is the idiographic approach usually associated with

Answer 27

• methods that produce qualitative data, such as case studies, unstructured interviews, and other self-report methods

Question 28

What is the nomothetic approach

Answer 28

• aims to produce general laws for behaviour
• these provide a benchmark against which people can be compared, classified and measured

Question 29

Which side is the humanistic approach, idiographic or nomothetic?

Answer 29

• idiographic, as Rogers and Maslow took a phenomenological approach to the study of humans and were only interested in documenting the conscious experience of the self

Question 30

Which side is the psychodynamic approach, idiographic or nomothetic?

Answer 30

• idiographic, because of Freud’s use of the case study method. However, Freud also assumed he had found universal laws of behaviour, making it also nomothetic

Question 31

Are the biological, cognitive and behavioural approaches nomothetic or idiographic?

Answer 31

Nomothetic, as they promote general laws of psychology

Question 32

What are ethical implications

Answer 32

The impact that psychologists may have in terms of the rights of other people, especially participants.

Question 33

What is social sensitivity

Answer 33

Includes research in which there are potential consequences or implications, either directly for the participant in the research, or those that the research represents.

Question 34

What are ethical guidelines

Answer 34

Rules established to protect those involved in research, preserving their rights.

Question 35

Three main concerns of Sieber and Stanley

Answer 35

• research may be seen as giving scientific credence to discrimination
• findings may be used to create prejudicial public policy
• some findings have been found to be fraudulent

Question 36

Four places Sieber and Stanley found in which ethical issues may occur:

Answer 36

• the research question
• conduct and treatment
• institutional context
• interpretation and application