issues and debates in psychology Flashcards
what are the debates in psychology?
holism vs reductionism
free will vs determinism
idiographic vs nomothetic
nature vs nurture
what issues are central to the idiographic vs nomothetic debate?
- should psychologists research people generally or individually?
- should the aim of research produce general claims about human behaviour which can be used as a baseline for people to compare people to OR should researchers focus on what makes people UNIQUE
what is an idiographic approach?
- an approach to research that focuses more on the individual cases to understand human behaviour
- people are studied as UNIQUE entities
what is a nomothetic approach to research?
- attempts to create general principles and universal laws as a means of understanding human behaviour
- which future behaviour can be predicted or controlled
what research methods does the idographic approach include?
methods that produce qualitative data - case studies, unstructured interviews and other self-report
why is self report firrting for idiographic
because it allows the research deeper insight into the richness and subjective experience of an individuals life
what research methods does the nomothetic approach use?
scientific - experiments - large sample - so they can establish similarities
nomos meaning
law
idio
private
examples of idiographic
humanism -> studied unique experience
maslow and rogers took a phenomenological approach, only reporting conscious experience of the self.
example of nomothetic
and biological psychologists tend to do this.
skinner - analysed loads of animals to generalise human behaviour
miller - labe experiments to nake conclusions on human memory
what is the main discussion in the reductionism and holism debate?
- concerned with what level is most appropriate for understanding human behaviour
what is reductionism?
human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller constituent parts
what is holism?
Makes more sense to study human behaviour by looking at the whole person as an indivisible system
other types of reductionism ?
biological
environmental
machine
biological determnism
breaks human behaviour down to a biological level
-depression and schizophrenia has been explained through NT (helpful, treatment)
environmental reductionism
attempts to explain human behaviour merely through experience
who were the Gestalt psychologists?
group of german psychologists in the 1920s and 30s
what is the issue discussed in the nature vs nurture debate?
wether traits such as personality, intelligence or criminality are determined by innate or external influences
how does nature and nurture interact as it is more likely they both influence human behaviour
what is the issue in the nature and nurture debate?
- are traits such as personality, IQ or criminality etc influenced by internal (biology, neuroscience) or external forces (environment)
what is the interactionist approach?
how does nature and nurture interact as it is more likely they both influence human behaviour, it does not make sense to study these individually
Descartes view on nature-nurture debate
- human traits and even knowledge is innate, the result of heredity.
John Lockes view on nature-nurture debate
he was an empiricist
stated that we are born a blank slate (tabula rasa)
we learn through our experience with the environment
what is heredity’?
the genetic transmission of mental and physical charectoristics from one generation to another
what is the heritability coefficient?
asses heredity-> range from 0-1 -> indicates the extent to which something has a genetical basis -> 1 is entirely genetical ->
what is the heritablity coefficient for IQ
0.5 suggesting nature and nurture
lerners view on nurture
- nurture needs more research because reffering to it as effects from the environment is to broad
- lener said this could be - post-natal expereinces, culture and social class
what in forensics demonstrates the interactionist theory
the diasthesis-stress model as an explanation for criminal behaviour
it states that we have a biological predisposition to crime but a environmental trigger is required to influence criminal behaviour
what are epigenetics
refers to the change in our genetic code, it happens throughout life and is caused by an interaction of the environment. diet, smoking or even war can leave epigentic markers on our DNA.
This change can even be passed down to offsring.
dias and resslers research
mice electruc chocks every time they were exposed to the smell of acetophenone. the mice showed fear but so did their children suggesting there was a epigentic marker that was on their DNA and then inherited by the offspring.