Key terms

• Alpha Bias 


  Theories that exaggerate the differences between males and females, which are often stereotypical and undervalue members of either sex. They are fixed and inevitable.
• Universality 


  Applying characteristics to everyone despite our individual differences
• Hysteria 


  a psychological condition leading to strong emotional expression. Freud believed It to be caused by repressing unpleasant traumatic memories.
• Beta Bias 


  Theories that ignore or minimise sex differences, they also underestimate the differences between sexes, and it mostly occurs when female ppts are not included.
• Androcentrism 


  Theories that are centred on or focused on males.
• Cultural Relativism 


  Insists that behaviours can be properly understood only if the cultural context is taken into consideration.
• Culture Bias 


  The tendency to judge people in terms of ones own cultural assumptions.
• Ethnocentrism 


  Seeing the world only from ones own cultural perspective and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct.
• Gender bias 


  The different treatment and/or representation of males and females, based on stereotypes and not on real differences .
• Biological determinism 


  Refers to the idea that all human behaviour is innate and determines by genes.
• determinism 


  the view that free will is an illusion, and that our behaviour is governed by internal/external forces which we have no control over.
• environment 


  environment is seen as everything outside of the body, which can include people, events and the physical world.
• Environmental determinism 


  the view that behaviour is determined or caused by forces outside the individual. it posits that our behaviour is caused by previous experience learned through classical and operant conditioning.
• ethical implications 


  they consider the impact or consequences that psychological researth has on the rights of other people in a wider context, not just the ppts taking part in the research
• free will 


  the idea that we play an active role, and have choice in how we behave in our lives. the assumption is that individuals are free to choose their behaviour and are self-determined
• hard determinism 


  the view that forces outside of our control like biology or past experiences shape our behaviour. it is seen as incompatible with free will.
• psychic determinism 


  claims that human behaviour is the result of childhood experiences and innate drive (id, ego and superego), as Freud’s model of psychological development.
• soft determinism 


  an alternative position favoured by many psychologists.

  where behaviour is constrained by the environment or biological make-up but only to a certain extent.
• hereditary 


  the process where traits are passed down genetically from one generation to the next.