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A Level Psychology > Issues & Debates > Flashcards

Issues & Debates Flashcards

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1
Q

What is cultural bias?

A

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

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2
Q

What is ethnocentrism?

A

The belief in the superiority of one’s own culture which may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures

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3
Q

What are etic constructs?

A
  • Analyses of behaviour that focus on the universal of human behaviour
  • Universal factors that hold across all cultures
  • Looking at behaviour from outside the culture
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4
Q

What are emic constructs?

A

Behaviours that are specific to a given culture and vary from one culture to another

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5
Q

What is cultural relativism?

A
  • 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
  • Helps to avoid cultural bias
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6
Q

What is universality?

A

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

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7
Q

What can threaten the universality of findings in psychology?

A

Gender and cultural bias

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8
Q

Give examples of cultural bias within studies and theories.

A
  • DSM e.g. Depression classification
  • Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
  • Milgram
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9
Q

What is gender bias?

A
  • When considering human behaviour, gender bias is a tendency to treat an individual or group in a different way from others which means that, in terms of psychological research, may offer a view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or women (usually women)
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10
Q

What is androcentrism?

A
  • When ‘normal’ behaviour is judged according to a male standard
  • Meaning that female behavior is often judged to be ‘abnormal’ or ‘deficient’ by comparison
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11
Q

What is alpha bias?

A
  • The acknowledgement that there are differences between men and women
  • These may enhance or undervalue members of either sex, but typically undervalue females
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12
Q

What is beta bias?

A

Theories that ignore or minimise differences between the sexes.

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13
Q

Give an example of beta bias within a theory.

A

Fight of flight

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14
Q

What is free will?

A

The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological (internal) or external forces

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15
Q

Which approach is the notion that humans have free will?

A

Humanistic approach

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16
Q

What is determinism?

A

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

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17
Q

What is hard determinism?

A

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

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18
Q

What is hard determinism also known as?

A

Fatalism

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19
Q

What is soft determinism?

A

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

20
Q

Which approach is soft determinism?

A

Cognitive approach

21
Q

What is biological determinism?

A

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

22
Q

What is environmental determinism?

A

The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward and punishment and different types of conditioning) that we cannot control.

23
Q

What is psychic determinism?

A

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

24
Q

What is a ‘freudian slip’?

A

According to Freud, there is no such thing as an accident, and even something as seemingly random and innocuous as a ‘slip of the tongue’ can be explained by the underlying authority of the unconscious.

25
Q

What is the nature vs nurture debate?

A

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

26
Q

What does heredity mean?

A

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

27
Q

What is the heritability coefficient?

A
  • Used to assess heredity
  • It is a numerical figure ranging from 0 to 1 which indicates the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis (with a value of 1 meaning it is entirely genetically determined).
28
Q

What does environmental mean, in terms of the nature vs nurture debate?

A

Any influence on human behaviour that is non-genetic. This may range from prenatal influences in the womb through to cultural and historical influences at a societal level.

29
Q

What is interactionist approach, in terms of the nature vs nurture debate?

A

The idea that nature and nurture are linked to such an extent that it does not make sense to separate the 2, so researchers instead study how they interact and influence each other

30
Q

What does nature mean, in terms of the nature vs nurture debate?

A

Early nativists such as Rene Descartes (1596-1650) argued that human characteristics - and even some aspects of knowledge - are innate: the result of heredity. In contrast, empiricists including the philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) argued that the mind is a blank slate at birth

31
Q

What does nurture mean, in terms of the nature vs nurture debate?

A

The concept of nurture and environmental influences in psychology requires further clarification as ‘the environment’ is such a broad and all-encompassing concept

32
Q

What is holism?

A

An argument or theory which proposes that it only makes sense to study an indivisible system and study as a whole, rather than its constituent parts

33
Q

What is reductionism?

A

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

34
Q

What is biological reductionism?

A

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain social and psychological phenomena at a lower biological level (in terms of the actions of genes, hormones, etc.)

35
Q

What is biological reductionism based upon?

A

Based on the premise that we are biological organisms made up of physiological structures and processes. Thus, all behaviour is at some level biological and so can be explained through neurochemical, neurophysiological, evolutionary and genetic influences

36
Q

What is environmental reductionism?

A

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

37
Q

There are different levels of explanation in psychology. What does this mean?

A
  • The notion of ‘levels of explanation’ suggests that there are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in psychology - some more reductionist than others.
  • Psychology itself can also be placed within a hierarchy of science with the more precise ‘micro’ of these disciplines at the bottom, and the more general and ‘macro’ of these at the top. Researchers who favour reductionist accounts of behaviour would see psychology as ultimately being replaced by explanations derived from those sciences lower down the hierarchy.
38
Q

What is the idiographic approach?

A
  • An approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour, rather than aiming to formulate general laws of behaviour
  • It rejects scientific methods
39
Q

What are the strengths of the idiographic approach?

A
  • Gain detailed and informative descriptions of behaviour
  • Can uncover causes for behaviour not identified using nomothetic methods
  • Develop a holistic understanding of individual behaviours
  • Can provide hypotheses for future scientific study
40
Q

What are the limitations of the idiographis approach?

A
  • Cannot generalise to wider population
  • Methods are subjective, flexible and understandardiased so replication, prediction and control of behaviour is difficult
41
Q

Give 2 examples of the idiographic approach?

A
  • Humanistic approach

- Psychodynamic approach

42
Q

What is the nomothetic approach?

A

It attempts to study human behaviour through the development of general principles and universal laws.

43
Q

What are the strengths of the nomothetic approach?

A
  • Can generalise to wider population

- Methods are objective, measurable and can be verified so replication, prediction and control of behaviour is easy

44
Q

What are the limitations of the nomothetic approach?

A
  • Generalised laws and principles may not apply to an individual
  • Understanding is often superficial
45
Q

GIve 2 examples of the nomothetic approach.

A
  • Reductionism

- Determinism

A Level Psychology (11 decks)

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