Issues and Debates Key Terms

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Universality
Any underlying characteristic of humans that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing. Gender and culture bias threaten the universality of findings in psychology.
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Gender Bias
When considering human behaviour, bias is a tendency to treat one individual or group in a different way from others. Psychological research/theory may offer a view that doesn't justifiably represent the experience & behaviour of men/women.
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Androcentrism
Male-centred; when 'normal' behaviour is judged according to a male standard (meaning that female behaviour is often judged to be 'abnormal'/'deficient' by comparison).
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Alpha Bias
Psychological theories that suggest there are real and enduring differences between men and women. These may enhance or undervalue members of either sex but typically undervalue females.
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Beta Bias
Theories that ignore or minimise differences between the sexes.
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Cultural Bias
Refers to a tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the 'lens' of one's own culture.
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Ethnocentrism
Juding other cultures by the standards & values of one's own culture. In its extreme form it is the belief in the superiority of one's own culture which may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures.
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Cultural Relativism
This idea that norms and values, as well as ethics and moral standards, can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts.
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Free Will
The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces.
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Determinism
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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Hard Determinism
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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Soft Determinism
All events, including human behaviour, have causes but behaviour can also be determined by our consciou choices in the absence of coercion. In contrast with hard determinism.
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Biological Determinism
The belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control.
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Environmental Determinism
The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment, such as systems of reward and punishment, that we cannot control.
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Psychic
The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control.
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The Nature-Nurture Debate
Concerned with the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics.
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Heredity
The genetic transmission of mental and psychical characteristics from one generation to another.
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Environment
Any influence on human behaviour that is non-genetic. This may range from pre-natal influences in the womb through to cultural and historical influences at a societal level.
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The Interactionist Approach
The idea that nature and nurture are linked to such an extent that it does not make sense to separate the two, so researchers instead study how they interact and influence each other.
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Holism
An argument or theory which proposes that it only makes sense to study an indivisble system rather than its constituent parts (which is the reductionist approach).
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Reductionism
The belief that human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller constituent parts.
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Biological Reductionism
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.).
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Environmental Reductionism
The attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience.
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Idiographic Approach
Derived from the Greek 'idios' meaning 'private/personal'. 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 (nomothetic approach).
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Nomothetic Approach
Derived from the Greek 'nomos' meaning 'law'. The nomothetic approach attempts to study human behaviour through the development of general principles and universal laws.
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Ethical Implications
The impact that psychological research may have in terms of the rights of other people especially particiants. This includes, at a societal level, influencing public policy and/or the way in which certain groups of people are regarded.
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Social Sensitivity
Sieber and Stanley (1988) define socially sensitive research as, 'studies in which there are potential consequences or implications, either directly for the participants in the research or for the class of individuals represented by the research'.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

When considering human behaviour, bias is a tendency to treat one individual or group in a different way from others. Psychological research/theory may offer a view that doesn't justifiably represent the experience & behaviour of men/women.

Back

Gender Bias

Card 3

Front

Male-centred; when 'normal' behaviour is judged according to a male standard (meaning that female behaviour is often judged to be 'abnormal'/'deficient' by comparison).

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Psychological theories that suggest there are real and enduring differences between men and women. These may enhance or undervalue members of either sex but typically undervalue females.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Theories that ignore or minimise differences between the sexes.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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