issues and debates terms Flashcards
What does determinism mean?
All of the physical events in the universe (including human behaviour) occurs in cause and effect relationships. Our thoughts, beliefs and behaviours are determined by past events and causes. It is a scientific view that implies complete knowledge of a cause and effect relationship will mean you can predict future behaviour in the same situation. It also implies that individuals have no free will over their behaviour and that it is determined by external factors.
What does free will mean?
Free will is the belief thst people are able to choose how to behave - their behaviour isn’t a response to external or biological factors, and isn’t influenced by past behaviour.
What does reductionism mean?
Reductionism is the scientific view that it should be possible to explain complex things by reducing them to their most simple structures or processes. In Psychology this means explaining behaviour by shortening things down to their basic principles. Testing this in an experiment means it is possible to establish cause and effect. However, experiments are often unrealistically simplified and ignore other influences, so they may not be testing real behaviour.
What does holism mean?
Holism is the argument thay human behaviour is more complicated than the processes that other sciences study. This means it should be viewed as the product of different influences, which all interact. Trying to separate these influences by just studying one of them means that complex behaviour can be misunderstood, so a holistic approach avoids this problem. However, it is difficult to test integrated theories because you can’t isolate the variables - this means it is difficult to establish cause and effect.
What does nature mean?
Nature (genotype) is innate characteristics which are determined by physiological and genetic factors
What does nurture mean?
Nurture is the influence of the environment and learning experiences.
What does nomothetic mean?
In psychology, the nomothetic approach applies general laws and theories to explain behaviour across a whole population
What does idiographic mean?
The idiographic approach focuses on the individual in detail and looks at what makes each individual person different.
