Issues and debates (definitions)

Question 1

Free will

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Determinism

Answer 2

The view that an individual’s behaviour is controlled (fully or partially) by internal or external forces rather than the individual’s free will

Question 3

Hard determinism

Answer 3

The view that free will does not exist and our behaviour is always controlled by forces beyond our control

Question 4

Soft determinism

Answer 4

The view that human behaviour is affected by both internal and external forces, and free will

Question 5

Biological determinism

Answer 5

The view that behaviour is cause by biological influences that we cannot control (e.g. genes, neurochemistry, hormones)

Question 6

Environmental determinism

Answer 6

The view that behaviour is caused by aspects of the environment that we cannot control (e.g. socialisation, conditioning)

Question 7

Psychic determinism

Answer 7

The view that behaviour is caused by unconscious processes that we cannot control (e.g. the conflict between the id and superego)

Question 8

Gender

Answer 8

Behavioural, cultural, and psychological characteristics that distinguish males from females

Question 9

Universality

Answer 9

The ability of the findings from a piece of research to be applied to anyone, anywhere

Question 10

Gender bias

Answer 10

The tendency to treat one gender differently to another either during or as a result of psychological research

Question 11

Androcentrism

Answer 11

The tendency to judge what is ‘normal’ by a male standard, making female behaviour abnormal

Question 12

Alpha bias

Answer 12

Psychological research that exaggerates or overestimates the differences between the sexes

Question 13

Beta bias

Answer 13

Psychological research that minimises or underestimates the differences between the sexes

Question 14

Reflexivity

Answer 14

The self-conscious, self-critical analytic scrutiny of the affect of values and attitudes on the self as a researcher

Question 15

Nativism

Answer 15

The view that our behaviour is determined by nature; innate, inherited factors (e.g. Descartes)

Question 16

Empiricism

Answer 16

The view that our behaviour is determined by nurture; environmental influences both physical and social, and pre-natal and post-natal (e.g. Locke)

Question 17

Interactionist approach

Answer 17

The claim that nature and nurture both affect behaviour, interacting and influencing each other

Question 18

Constructivism

Answer 18

Creating your own ‘nurture’ by actively seeking environments appropriate to your ‘nature’ a.k.a niche-picking or niche-building

Question 19

Passive interaction

Answer 19

The way a parent’s genes influence the way they treat their child

Question 20

Evocative interaction

Answer 20

The way the child’s genes influence the environment in which they grow up

Question 21

Active interaction

Answer 21

The way the child creates its own environment through the people and experiences it selects

Question 22

Culture

Answer 22

The shared patterns of behaviour and interaction, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialisation

Question 23

Ethnocentrism

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Cultural relativism

Answer 24

The understanding that norms and values can only be meaningfully understood within specific social and cultural contexts

Question 25

Cultural bias

Answer 25

The tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all human behaviour through the ‘lens’ of one’s own culture, assuming universality

Question 26

Etic approach

Answer 26

Studying behaviour across many cultures in order to find universal human behaviours

Question 27

Emic approach

Answer 27

Studying cultures in isolation by identifying behaviours that are specific to that culture

Question 28

Imposed etic

Answer 28

A test, measure, or theory devised in one culture that is used to explain behaviour in another culture

Question 29

Reductionism

Answer 29

The claim that human behaviour is best explained when broken down into its constituent parts

Question 30

Holism

Answer 30

The claim that human behaviour is best understood when studied as a whole, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Question 31

Biological reductionism

Answer 31

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain social and psychological phenomena at a lower biological level (e.g. through genes, neurochemistry)

Question 32

Environmental reductionism

Answer 32

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links learned through experience (e.g. behaviourist approach)

Question 33

Levels of explanation

Answer 33

Different ways of explaining the same phenomena, varying in level of reductionism (from sociocultural to biological)

Question 34

Scientific parsimony

Answer 34

The claim that complex phenomena should be explained by the simplest underlying principles possible

Question 35

Ethical implications

Answer 35

Issues which arise from research and have a social impact (e.g. through public policy or the perception of a particular group in society)

Question 36

Socially sensitive research

Answer 36

Studies of ‘taboo’ topics in which there are potential consequences or implications for the class of individuals represented by the research

Question 37

Implications

Answer 37

The wider effects of socially sensitive research including prejudice and discrimination

Question 38

Uses/public policy

Answer 38

What socially sensitive research findings are used for once they have been released (including in government public policy)

Question 39

Validity of research

Answer 39

The effect of the release of findings from socially sensitive research which are invalid for whatever reason

Question 40

Nomothetic approach

Answer 40

Using scientific methods to study human behaviour and produce general principles and universal laws

Question 41

Idiographic approach

Answer 41

Focusing on the individual in order to study human behaviour rather than attempting to generalise