Issues & Debates

Question 1

reductionism?

Answer 1

the belief that human behaviour is best understood by studying the smaller constituent parts

Question 3

explain the key concept of cultural bias?

Answer 3

tendency to judge others based on own cultural assumptions- traditional psychology represents western bias mostly - theories and methods biased

Question 4

explain the key concept of ethnocentrism?

Answer 4

seeing your culture as superior and believing it to be normal and correct

Question 5

explain the concept of imposed etic?

Answer 5

applying a test/concept made for one culture to others eg DSM as manual or strange situation as a test

Question 6

cultural relativism as a concept?

Answer 6

behaviour can inly be understood within culture it was created within

Question 7

what are the levels of explanation?

Answer 7

several ways that can be used to explain behaviour

-highest level (social and cultural
-middle level (psychological explanations)
-lowest level (biological explanation)

highest level= least reductionist, most holistic
lowest level = most reductionist, least holistic

Question 8

schizophrenia examples of levels of explanation?

Answer 8

highest - urban areas more likely to have sz

middle - family dysfunction

lowest - dopamine hypothesis

Question 9

whats biological reductionism?

Answer 9

lowest level
- reduce behaviour to a physical level and explain in terms of neurons, genes etc
- eg OCD explained by damaged caudate nucleus

Question 10

whats environmental reductionism?

Answer 10

-more holistic than bio
- reduce behaviour down to simple building blocks of stimulus response associations
- eg cupboard love and two process model

Question 11

whats experimental reductionism?

Answer 11

reduced complex behaviours to isolated variables as a useful strategy for conducting research

Question 12

whats holism?

Answer 12

theory that looks at a system as a whole and sees any attempt to divide behaviour (break down into smaller) as inappropriate

Question 13

whats gestalt psychology?

Answer 13

holistic app to psych
- when we percieve somrthing in real life we look at it as a whole

Question 14

humanistic approach (holistic???)

Answer 14

humans react to stimuli as ab organsied whole
look at persons unified identity

research methods used: qualitative, case studies, unsgructered interview for rich detail

Question 15

strengths and weaknesses of holism and reductionism?

Answer 15

holism lacks practical value - too complex to know which factor is causing affect or most influence

altho client centred therapy and business motivation

reductionist has praccy aappbas bio reductionism has led to develipment of drug therapy - developennt of SSRIs for OCD or sz

reductionist app criticised for oversimplifying behaviour
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