Issues and Debates Key Words

Question 1

Universality

Answer 1

Any underlying characteristics of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing. Gender and culture bias threaten the universality of findings in Pyschology

Question 2

Gender bias

Answer 2

Psychological research may offer a view that does not justifiabily represent the experience and behaviour of men and women

Question 3

Andocentrism

Answer 3

Male-centred; when ‘normal’ behaviour is judged accordingly to a male standard (meaning female behaviour is judged as abnormal)

Question 4

Alpha bias

Answer 4

Psychological theories that suggest there are real and enduring differences between men and women

Question 5

Beta bias

Answer 5

Theories that ignore or minimise differences between the sexes

Question 6

Cultural bias

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Ethnoentrism

Answer 7

Judging other cultures by the standards and values of one’s own culture. In its extreme form it is the belief in the superiority of one’s 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 are not determined by biological or external forces

Question 10

Determinism

Answer 10

The view that an individual’s behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual’s will to do something

Question 11

Hard determinism

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Soft determinsm

Answer 12

All events, including human behaviour, have causes, but behaviour can also be determined by our conscious choices in the absence of coercion

Question 13

Biological determinsm

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Environmental determinsm

Answer 14

The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment that we cannot control (rewards and punishment)

Question 15

Psychic determinism

Answer 15

The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious 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 charcteristics

Question 17

Heredity

Answer 17

The genetic transmission of 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

The interactionist approach

Answer 19

The idea that nature and nurture are linked to such an extent that it makes no sense to separate the two, so researchers study how they influence each other

Question 20

Holism

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Reductionism

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Biological reductionism

Answer 22

Attempts to explain social and psychological phenomena at a lower biological level (genes and hormones)

Question 23

Environmental reductionism

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Idiographic approach

Answer 24

Focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour rather than aiming to formulate general laws of behaviour

Question 25

Nomothetic approach

Answer 25

Attempts to study human behaviour through the development of general principles and universal laws

Question 26

Ethical implications

Answer 26

The impact that psychological research may have in terms of the rights of participants.

Question 27

Socially sensitive research

Answer 27

Studies that have potential consequences either for the participants or the class of individuals represented in the research - Sieber and Stanley