Issues and debates

• Nomothetic


  Attempts to generalise people
• Idiographic


  Focuses on recognition of uniqueness
• Nomothetic


  • Uses objective knowledge
  • Based on numerical data or data that can be categorised
• Idiographic


  • Uses subjective experiences
  • Based on study of uniqueness of individual
• Hard determinism


  The view that every effect has a cause, and that everything that happens now, in the present, is the necessary result of events that occurred in the past
• Libertarian free will and hard determinism are contradictory views
• Principle of Alternate Possibilities


  An action is free only if the agent could have done otherwise
• Event causation


  No physical event can occur without having been caused by a previous physical event
• Agent causation


  An agent can start a whole chain of causality that wasn't caused by anything else
• Reductionism


  The argument that we can explain behavior and experiences by referencing only one factor such as physiology or learning
• Reductionist view of the world


  • Looks for explanations which breaks things down into smaller constituent parts
  • Can be powerful but sometimes provides an explanation which is simplistic ignoring other important aspects or factors
• Holistic view


  Looks at the person as a whole or perhaps looks at a complex of factors which together might explain a particular behavior
• Types of reductionism


  • Physiological reductionism
  • Genetic reductionism
  • Social reductionism
• Physiological reductionism


  Argues that all behavior and experiences can be explained or reduced to by biological factors such as hormones or the nervous system
• Genetic reductionism


  Reduces all causes of behavior to genetic inheritance
• Social reductionism


  Argues that all behavior and experiences can be explained simply by the effect of groups on the individual
• Criticism of the reductionist argument is that they are too simplistic because they ignore the complexities of human behavior and experience
• Behavior often has a number of different causes and to reduce the possible explanations to one level can only provide a limited understanding
• Advantage of reductionist views


  • By breaking down a phenomena to its constituent parts it may be possible to understand the whole
• Strength of reductionism


  • Helps us to understand the world by breaking things down into component parts testing them and building them back up again
  • Important in studying the world and humans in a scientific way
  • Easier to study one component than several interacting components
• Strength of reductionism


  • Uses laboratory experiments with high levels of control so it avoids extraneous variables
  • Consistent with scientific approaches
  • Quantitative data is collected from highly scientific equipment which are easy to analyze and compare and are not down to any interpretation by the researcher
• Weakness of reductionism is that because it isolates factors it does not always give a proper valid and full account of behavior
• Weakness of reductionism is low ecological validity because on a daily basis variables are not isolated to measure the effect of them and therefore it does not reflect everyday life
• Weakness of reductionism is that it affects its generalizability to a target population because we can't generalize the results to people living in a normal life in a normal world if the study was carried out in an artificially controlled situation
• National culture


  The set of shared values and beliefs that affects the perceptions, decisions, and behavior of the people from a particular country
• Hofstede's cultural dimensions


  • Power distance
  • Individualism
  • Masculinity
  • Uncertainty avoidance
  • Short-term versus long-term orientation
  • Indulgence versus restraint
• Power distance


  The extent to which people in a country accept that power is distributed unequally in society and organizations
• Individualism


  The degree to which societies believe that individuals should be self-sufficient
• Masculinity


  Captures the difference between highly assertive and highly nurturing cultures
• Uncertainty avoidance


  The degree to which people in a country are uncomfortable with unstructured, ambiguous, unpredictable situations
• Short-term/long-term orientation


  Addresses whether cultures are oriented to the present and seek immediate gratification or to the future and defer gratification
• Cultural differences affect perceptions, understanding, and behavior
• Recognizing cultural differences is critical to succeeding in global business
• Hofstede: '"If you are going to spend time with a Japanese colleague, you shouldn't assume that overall cultural statements about Japanese society automatically apply to this person."'
• Cultural beliefs may differ significantly from one part of a country to another
• Adapting to cultural differences

  1. Becoming aware of cultural differences

  2. Deciding how to adapt your company to those differences
• Cultural values are changing, albeit slowly, in many parts of the world
• Cultural dimensions


  • Individualism vs collectivism
  • Power distance
  • Uncertainty avoidance
  • Long-term orientation
  • Indulgence vs restraint
  • Masculinity vs feminity
• Culture


  The customs, values, beliefs, knowledge, art, language, social structure, practices, and products of a society or a community
• Reductionism


  Breaking down complex phenomena into their constituent parts to explore how they fit together and what influence they have on each other