Issues and debates definitions

Issues and Debates

Gender bias

Gender bias = differential treatment or representation of males and females based on stereotypes, not real differences —> leads to distorted views of female and male behaviour

Alpha bias = theories that exaggerate differences between men and women —> often devalue one gender (usually women)

Beta bias = theories that ignore or minimise the differences between the sexes —> often assumes male findings apply equally to females

Androcentrism = theories that are centred on, or focused on males —> male behaviour seen as ‘norm’, women behaviour seen as a deviation

Cultural bias

Culture = shared values, beliefs, and patterns of behaviour of a group

Cultural bias = judging people using your own cultural assumptions

Alpha bias = exaggerates cultural differences

Beta bias = ignores/minuses cultural differences, assumes all people are the same

Ethnocentrism = seeing the world from one’s own cultural viewpoint and believing it’s correct and normal

Cultural relativism = behaviour can only be understood within its cultural context

Universality = theories that apply to everyone, across genders and cultures, without bias

Free will and determinism

Determinism = behaviour controlled by internal/external forces; free will is an illusion

Free will = individuals actively choose their behaviour; self-determined

Hard determinism = behaviour completely shaped by forces outside of control; incompatible with free will

Soft determinism = behaviour partly constrained by internal/external forces but with some free will

Biological determinism = behaviours caused by gene, hormones, brain structure

Environmental determinism = behaviour learned through experience, conditioning, and surroundings

Psychic determinism = behaviour shaped by unconscious conflicts and childhood experiences

Causal explanations = scientific search for cause and effect

Nature-nurture

Nature-nurture debate = debate about whether behaviour is mainly caused by genetics (nature) or the environment (nurture)

Heredity = traits and characteristics passed genetically from one generation to the next

Environment = everything outside the body that influences behaviour (people, events, physical surroundings)

Interactionist approach = argues both nature and nurture interact to shape bheaviour

Holism and reductionism

Reductionism = belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler parts

Biological reductionism = explains behaviour in terms of biology: neurons, genes, neurotransmitters, hormones, brain structure

Environmental reductionism = behaviourists explain all behaviour as stimulus-response (S-R) associations

Experimental reductionism = complex behaviour is reduced to one variable to test it scientifically

Holism = from Greek “holos” meaning whole, holism sees behaviour as a whole experience, not separate parts

Interactionist approach = explains behaviour using multiple levels (biological, psychological, social)

Parsimony = idea that complex phenomena should be explained in simple terms

Idiographic and nomothetic

Idiographic = from Greek “idios” meaning own/private, focuses on individuals and unique personal experiences

Nomothetic = from Greek “nomos” meaning law, aims to create general laws of behaviour using large samples and quantitative methods

Ethical implications and social sensitivity

Ethical implications = impact or consequences psychological research has on the rights of participants and others in wider society

Social sensitivity = research that has potential social consequences for the participants or groups represented