Key terms

Question 1

Nature vs Nurture

Answer 1

This debate centres on the relative contribution of genetic inheritance and environmental factors to human development and behaviour

Question 2

Culture bias

Answer 2

The tendency to judge people in terms of ones own cultural assumptions

Question 3

Gender bias

Answer 3

The tendency to favour one gender over another

Question 4

Free will

Answer 4

The idea that we can play an active role and choice in how we behave

Question 5

Determinism

Answer 5

The belief that free will is an illusion and our behaviour is governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control

Question 6

Holism

Answer 6

The idea that human behaviour should be viewed as a whole and integrated experience, not as separate parts

Question 7

Reductionism

Answer 7

The belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts

Question 8

Nomothetic

Answer 8

Psychologists who take a nomothetic approach are concerned with establishing general laws, based on the study of large groups of people, and the use of statistical(quantitative) techniques to analyse data

Question 9

Idiographic

Answer 9

Psychologists who take an idiographic approach focus on the individual and emphasise the unique personal experience of human nature