Issues and Debates Key Terms

• Reductionism


  The belief that human behaviour is best understood by studying the smaller constituent parts.
• Environmental reductionism


  The attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience.
• Psychic reductionism


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


  A form of reductionism which attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level (in terms of actions of genes, hormones etc)
• Levels of explanation


  The idea that there are several ways that can be used to explain behaviour. The lowest level considers physiological/biological explanations. The highest considers sociocultural explanations
• Holism


  An argument or theory which proposes that it only makes sense to study an indivisible system rather than its constituent parts
• Parsimony


  The idea that complex phenomena should be explained in the simplest terms possible
• Gestalt psychology


  a psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts
• Hard determinism


  The view that all behaviour is caused by something (internal or external factors), so free will is an illusion
• Soft determinism


  The view that behaviour may be predictable (caused by internal/external factors) but there is also room for personal choice from a limited range of possibilities (restricted free will)
• Free will


  The notion that humans can make choices and their behaviour/thoughts are not determined by biological or external forces
• Biological determinism


  The belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control.
• Environmental determinism


  The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward and punishment) that we cannot control.
• Causal explanations


  Science is heavily deterministic in its search for causal relationships (explanations) as it seeks to discover whether the independent variable causes changes in the dependent variable.
• Psychic determinism


  The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control.
• Gender bias


  Psychological research or theory may offer a view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or women (usually women).
• Alpha bias


  Research that focuses on differences between men and women, and therefore tends to present a view that exaggerates these differences
• Beta bias


  Research that ignores or minimises the differences between men and women, and therefore tends to present a view that ignores or minimises differences
• Culture bias


  A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the 'lens' of one's own culture, ignoring the effects that cultural differences might have on behaviour.
• Universality


  Any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing
• Ethnocentrism


  Judging other cultures by the standards and values of one's own culture. In its extreme form it is the belief that may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures
• Cultural relativism


  The idea that norms and values, as well as ethics and moral standards, can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts.
• Idiographic


  An approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour, rather than aiming to formulate general laws of behaviour
• Nomothetic


  The nomothetic approach aims to study human behaviour through the development of general principle and universal laws
• Socially sensitive research


  Studies in which there are potential consequences or implications, either directly for the participants in the research or for the class of individuals represented by the research.
• Ethical implications


  The consequences of any research in terms of the effects on individual participants or n the way in which certain groups of people are subsequently regarded
• Nature


  The point of view that believes human development and behaviours are the product of genetic inheritance and biological factors
• Nurture


  The view that human behaviour and development is the product of environmental influences
• Heredity


  The genetic transmission of both mental and physical characteristics fro one generation to another
• Interactionist


  A way to explain the development of behaviour in terms of a range of factors, including both biological and psychological ones. Most importantly such factors don't simply add together but combine in a way that cant be predicted by each one separately