Issues and debates in psychology key terms (paper 3)

Question 1

Universality?

Answer 1

• Any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing.

Question 2

Gender bias?

Answer 2

• Bias is a tendency to treat one group individual or group in a different way from others.
• In the context of gender, psychological research may offer a view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or women.

Question 3

Androcentrism?

Answer 3

• Male-centred, when ‘normal’ behaviour is judged according to a male standard.
• Female behaviour is often considered abnormal.

Question 4

Alpha bias?

Answer 4

• Research that focuses on differences between men and women.
• Tends to present a view that exaggerates these differences.

Question 5

Beta Bias?

Answer 5

• Research that focuses on similarities between men and women.
• Presents a view that ignores or minimises differences.

Question 6

Cultural bias?

Answer 6

• Tendency to interpret all phenomena through the lens of ones own culture.
• Ignoring the effects that cultural differences may have on behaviour.

Question 7

Ethnocentrism?

Answer 7

• Judging other cultures by the standards and values of ones own culture.
• It is the belief in the superiority of ones own culture which may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures.

Question 8

Cultural relativism?

Answer 8

• 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 9

Free will?

Answer 9

The notion that humans can make choices and their behaviour/ thoughts are not determined by biological or external forces.

Question 10

Determinism?

Answer 10

The view that an individuals behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than and individuals will to do something.

Question 11

Hard determinism?

Answer 11

The view that all behaviour is caused by something, so free will is an illusion.

Question 12

Soft determinism?

Answer 12

The view that behaviour may be predictable but there is also room for personal choice.

Question 13

Biological determinism?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Environmental determinism?

Answer 14

The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (such as rewards and punishments) that we cannot control.

Question 15

Psychic determinism?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

The nature-nurture debate?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Heredity?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Environment?

Answer 18

Any influence on human behaviour that is non-genetic.

Question 19

Interactionist approach?

Answer 19

• A way to explain the development of behaviour in terms of a range of factors, including both biological and psychological ones.
• Such factors don’t simply add together but combine in a way that cant be predicted by each one separately (they interact).

Question 20

Cognitive development?

Answer 20

. Describes the development of all mental processes, i.e thinking, reasoning, and understanding of the world.
. It continues throughout lifespan but psychologists have been concerned with how thinking and reasoning develops through childhood.

Question 21

Schema?

Answer 21

Mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing, developed from experience.

Question 22

Assimilation?

Answer 22

. form of learning that takes place when we acquire new info or more advanced understanding of object, person or idea.
. When new info foes not usually change understanding of the topic we can incorporate (assimilate) it into existing schema.

Question 23

Accommodation?

Answer 23

. Form of learning that takes place when we acquire new info that changes our understanding of a topic to extent that we need to form one/more new schemas or change existing schema to deal with new understanding.

Question 24

Equilibrium?

Answer 24

. Takes place when we have encountered new info and built it into understanding of a topic
. Once assimilation or accommodation has taken place, everything is balanced and we have escaped experience of lack of balance