Issues and Debates

Question 1

What is nativism?

Answer 1

All human characteristics (personality, intelligence) are innate

Question 2

What is empiricism?

Answer 2

Born a blank slate, knowledge acquired through senses and experience

Question 3

What is biological approach?

Answer 3

Focuses on inherited influences

Question 4

What is behaviourist approach?

Answer 4

Focuses on experiences

Question 5

What is nature?

Answer 5

Innate factors

Question 6

What are innate characteristics?

Answer 6

E.g, Intelligence and personality determined by biological factors, just as eye colour and height are

Question 7

What is concordance rate?

Answer 7

Statistical measure of agreement

Question 8

What is heredity?

Answer 8

Genetic transmission of mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another

Question 9

What is heritability coefficient?

Answer 9

Extent to which a trait is inherited, a figure of 1% suggests genes contribute almost nothing to individual differences, and 100% means genes are only reason for individual differences

Question 10

What is nurture?

Answer 10

Learning/experience

Question 11

What is tabla rasa?

Answer 11

Argues that the mind is a blank slate at birth which is shaped by the environment

Question 12

What are acquired characteristics?

Answer 12

Characteristics gained after birth as a result of external influences and own activities and cannot be inherited.

Question 13

What are levels of the environment?

Answer 13

Identified by Lerener, such as prenatal factors (physical influences like smoking and psychological influences like music) and their effect on a foetus

Question 14

What is the interactionist approach?

Answer 14

How approaches interact with one another and contribute to a disorder

Question 15

What is the diathesis stress model?

Answer 15

Suggests behaviour is caused by a biological or environmental vulnerability, only expressed when coupled with a trigger

Question 16

What is epigenetics?

Answer 16

Change in genetic activity without changing the genes themselves

Question 17

What is gender bias in psychology?

Answer 17

When psychology fails to discover truth about behaviour because of gender bias in research that either exaggerates or minimises/ignores gender differences in behaviour

Question 18

What is alpha bias?

Answer 18

Exaggerates gender differences in behaviour

Question 19

What is beta bias?

Answer 19

Ignores or minimises gender differences in behaviour

Question 20

What is alpha bias in evolutionary theory research?

Answer 20

Sociobiological view of sexual relationships
According to evolutionary theory, it is in men’s genetic behaviour to be promiscuous, whereas it is in a woman’s nature to be dedicated to caring for her family
This can lead to double standards in judging behaviours
Evolutionary view overlooks influence of culture in secual relationships, alpha nbiased

Question 21

What is alpha bias in Freud’s research?

Answer 21

Psychosexual theory, Oedipus complex focuses on the psychological development of boys
Believed boys developed stronger superego than girls
Girls seen as inferior to males`

Question 22

What is an example of beta bias in research?

Answer 22

Early research into fight/flight only on males, assumed females were the same
Further research suggests that females show ‘tend and befriend’, increased oxytocin stress response

Question 23

What is beta bias in world athletics?

Answer 23

World Althetics may have been so keen to include gender diverse people that its rules for M/F competition tended to deny that men and woman are different
Meant that athletes could compete against women without reducing levels of testosterone

Question 24

What is androcentrism?

Answer 24

When research conducted on all male samples
Leads to assumption that male behaviour is ‘normal’, females judged against it, seen as ‘abnormal’

Question 25

What is the androcentric view of anger?

Answer 25

Male anger presumed to have an objective, external cause Female anger is seen as subjective and internal, and thus less valid Trivialising or ignoring female-typical behaviours

Question 26

What is researcher reflexivity?

Answer 26

When researchers open about biases, rather than promoting idea of being objective

Question 27

What is hard determinism?

Answer 27

Behaviour has an internal or external cause beyond our control Free will is an illusion Biological approach: genes and neural factors Behavioural: CC and OC determine behaviour, free will is an illusion

Question 28

What is soft determinism?

Answer 28

Behaviour is constrained by external and internal factors, but some choice (from limited range of options) SLT: influenced by environment/role models, can select what reproduce and influence others Cognitive: shaped by past experiences, but select what we give attention to, make rational choices

Question 29

Give an example of biological determinism

Answer 29

Biological approach: psychopathology, OCD at least partly genetic, found people with first degree relatives with OCD 5x more likely to suffer from OCD

Question 30

Give an example of environmental determinism

Answer 30

Behaviourist approach: psychopathology, phobias acquired through classical conditioning, maintained through operant

Question 31

Give an example of psychic determinism

Answer 31

Psychodynamic: forensics, early childhood experiences of identification with same sex parent in phallic stage shapes unconscious, deficient superego makes offending inevitable

Question 32

Give an example of free will

Answer 32

Humanism: argue against the determinist position, claims humans are active agents, self determining, client takes responsibility for own decisions in person-centred counselling, can choose to overcome conditions of worth and self actualise

Question 33

What was Robert's research into free will?

Answer 33

Fatalism in adolescents = believe events decided by factors outside of their control, greater risk of depression Free will, internal locus of control, more optimistic

Question 34

What is an imposed etic?

Answer 34

When psychology makes judgements about behaviour in a different culture, imposing values on the culture that is being judged.

Question 35

What is an etic approach?

Answer 35

Behaviour studied by outsider: could be more objective and scientific and no chance of in group bias

Question 36

What is an emic approach?

Answer 36

Behaviour studied by insider: more valid as researcher more sensitive to nuances and meaning of behaviours.

Question 37

What is holism?

Answer 37

Whole is greater than sum of parts, contains properties that cannot be discovered through analysis of parts

Question 38

Give examples of holism

Answer 38

Humanistic approach: person centred counselling from humanist tradition considering family influences, life circumstances, feelings, to get to know whole person, uses qualitative methods and analyses themes rather than breaking into component parts Gestalt theory: holistic view to perception, perceive something in the real world, we see the whole rather than the parts, only what we see only makes sense when we consider the whole image rather than individual elements

Question 39

What is reductionism?

Answer 39

Analysing behaviour by breaking down into constituent parts Based on the scientific principle of parsimony = complex phenomena should be explained by using simplest principles possible Different types of reductionism and different levels of explanation

Question 40

What is biological reductionism?

Answer 40

Biological psychologists try to reduce behaviour to a physical level and explain it in terms of neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones, brain structure etc

Question 41

What is environmental reductionism?

Answer 41

Behaviourists assume that all behaviour can be reduced to simple building blocks of stimulus-response associations and that complex behaviours are a series of S-R chains

Question 42

What are some ethical considerations when doing research?

Answer 42

Informed consent Protection from harm Right to withdraw Privacy and confidentiality

Question 43

What are some of the wider implications of psychology research

Answer 43

Despite benefits, may also lead to problems in groups Social sensitivity in psychology

Question 44

What did Yerkes 1917 research into/

Answer 44

Intelligence, pioneered IQ tests but culturally biased towards white English speakers, discriminated against people of colour and those with English as a second language, got lower IQ scores

Question 45

What were the bad consequences of Yerkes 1917

Answer 45

Research used by Nazis to support idea of master race

Question 46

What are socially sensitive studies in psychology?

Answer 46

Studies with potential to provoke consequences for people in real life -Portrays groups in negative lights -Provokes stereotyping -Need to be especially careful when investigating protected characteristics

Question 47

What is the idographic approach?

Answer 47

Individual approach, focuses on the person , aim to understand and help people by gaining insight into one, unique person

Question 48

What is the nomothetic approach?

Answer 48

Scientific search for objective, generalisable laws of behaviour, comparing an individual's behaviour to norms established from wider population, studying large groups and aiming to predict and control behaviour

Question 49

What are the methods of investigation for the idiographic approach?

Answer 49

Case studies, qualitative methods, unstructured interviews, longitudinal approach

Question 50

What are the methods of investigation in the nomothetic approach?

Answer 50

Experiments, correlational studies (especially in the behaviourist, cognitive and biological approaches) Quantitative, structured questionnaires, large sample sizes

Question 51

What are three nomothetic measures?

Answer 51

-Classifying people into groups (classification of disorders, eg schizophrenia) -Establishing standadisded measured of behaviour (eg strange situation) -Creating generalisable laws of behaviour (eg positive reinforcement increases behaviour frequency)