Key Terms

Question 1

Alpha bias

Answer 1

Exaggeration of differences between genders or cultures, devaluing one gender or culture

Question 2

Beta bias

Answer 2

Ignores gender/cultural differences

Question 3

Feminist psychology

Answer 3

Argues that there are are biological differences that need to be recognised and are unavoidable

Question 4

Indigenous psychologies

Answer 4

Employ psychologists from other culture they aim to study to adapt resources

Question 5

Biological determinism

Answer 5

Behaviour is affected solely by physiological processes that are not under our conscious control

Question 6

Environmental determinism

Answer 6

Our experience of choice is merely the sum total of reinforcement contingencies from our life

Question 7

Psychic determinism

Answer 7

Behaviour is caused by innate drives and unconscious conflicts

Question 8

Hard determinism

Answer 8

Completely disregards free will - everything is decided by biological and environmental factors

Question 9

Soft determinism

Answer 9

Allows for the possibility of free will - we have inputs and influences but ultimately we get to choose

Question 10

Universality

Answer 10

Recognises the difference but doesn’t value one gender over the other

Question 11

Androcentrism

Answer 11

Research which views males as the norm and judges females based on male values and norms

Question 12

Gynocentrism

Answer 12

Female equivalent of androcentrism

Question 13

Moral responsibility

Answer 13

Moral accountability for behaviour

Question 14

Nature

Answer 14

Innate and genetic influences

Question 15

Nurture

Answer 15

Environmental influences acquired through interactions

Question 16

Diathesis stress model

Answer 16

Biological vulnerability only expressed under certain environmental triggers

Question 17

Holism

Answer 17

Emphasises the idea that any attempt to break up behaviour and experience is inappropriate as these can only be understood by analysing the person or behaviour as a whole

Question 18

Reductionism

Answer 18

Simplifying an idea down into its constituent parts in order to explain it more easily

Question 19

Levels of explanation

Answer 19

Different ways of viewing the same phenomena in psychology, some more reductionist than others

Question 20

Biological reductionism

Answer 20

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain social and psychological phenomena at a lower biological level

Question 21

Environmental reductionism

Answer 21

A way of viewing behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning

Question 22

Gestalt psychology

Answer 22

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts - Germans 1920s+30s

Question 23

Idiographic approach

Answer 23

Attempts to describe the nature of the individual as unique entities with own subjective experiences motivation ps and values without generalising to all

Question 24

Nomothetic approach

Answer 24

Aims to produce general laws of behaviour using large samples of quantitative data

Question 25

Research question

Answer 25

A source of ethical problems. Just by studying a particular subject, e.g. racial differences in IQ could cause issues

Question 26

Conduct of research and treatment of participants

Answer 26

The ethical implications of your study for your participants e.g. revealing immoral or socially deviant behaviours

Question 27

Institutional context

Answer 27

There may be pressure from the sponsors of a study to massage the findings and come to unscientific conclusions

Question 28

Interpretation and application of findings

Answer 28

The way in which findings could be exploited by others for unethical purposes, such as support racist or sexist prejudice

Question 29

Scientific determinism

Answer 29

The basic assumption of the scientific method that each cause has an effect

Question 30

Experimental reductionism

Answer 30

The assumption that all other conditions and variables in a study are the same from one condition to the next

Question 31

Paradigm

Answer 31

A model of the universe that we hold, such as the earth orbits the sun. Groundbreaking findings cause shifts

Question 32

Publication bias/ file drawer effect

Answer 32

Where psychologists only publish research that supports their aims, and hide away any negative results, creating a biased perception