Scientific Emphasis On Causal Explanations And Levels Of Explanations

Question 1

Who came up with ‘levels of explanation’ in psychology and what are they?

Answer 1

Rose (1976): suggests there are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in psychology. Explanations vary from those at a lower or more fundamental level, focusing on basic components, in contrast to the more holistic study of higher levels of explanation

Question 2

What are the 3 levels of explanation?

Answer 2

Highest: cultural and social explanations of how social norms affect our behaviour (holistic)
Middle level: psychological explanations of behaviour (cognitive, SLT)
Lower level: biological explanations e.f how biological aspects like genes affect our behaviour

Question 3

Which section of issues and debates highlights the importance of casual explanations?

Answer 3

Determinism

Question 4

Why is control so important in experiments?

Answer 4

Control allows researched to establish cause and effect
- control isolates variables (this is seen in determinism as there is only one variable affecting your behaviour that can be measured)

Question 5

What is meant by causality?

Answer 5

The IV has an effect on the DV (experimental conditions)