issues and debates

• Alpha bias


  When differences between males and females are overstated
• Androcentrism


  A bias towards a male-centred view. In psychology, many subjects of important studies were male, resulting in general psychology paradigms being more male-centred
• Beta bias


  When differences between males and females are understated
• Biological determinism


  The idea that all human behaviour stems from your genetic code in some way
• Biological reductionism


  The idea that behaviour can be reduced to simple physical components such as nerves and ions
• Cultural relativism


  To view a person's culture from the perspective of someone within that culture, rather than your own
• Determinism


  The idea that things are predetermined and everything has a cause
• Environmental determinism


  The idea that all human behaviour is a direct result of the environment and outside forces
• Environmental reductionism


  The idea that behaviour can be reduced to simple responses to stimuli
• Ethnocentrism


  A bias towards your own culture, and judging other cultures by that subjective standard
• Hard determinism


  The idea that free will is non-existent, all choices and behaviour arise due to pre-existent causes
• Holism


  A type of learning approach that suggests that to understand human behaviour we must look at the human as a whole
• Idiographic approach


  A type of learning approach that suggests we should focus on the unique experiences of each individual to understand human behaviour
• Interactionist approach


  The idea that all human behaviour has multiple causes that stem from the simplest causes (genes) all the way to complex causes (social and cultural systems)
• Nomothetic approach


  A type of learning approach that suggests we should establish general laws of behaviour that can be applied to all people to understand human behaviour
• Psychic determinism


  The idea that all human behaviour is a result of unconscious mental processes
• Reductionism


  A type of learning approach that suggests that, to understand human behaviour, we must reduce it to its simplest parts
• Social sensitivity


  The possibility for studies to have results that could negatively impact some groups of people
• Soft determinism


  The idea that although the choices we pick from are limited and predetermined, humans still have the free will to pick within these predetermined choices