keywords

• the idiographic approach focuses on the individual and emphasizes the unique personal experience of human nature
• the nomothetic approach is concerned w/ establishing general laws, based on the study of large groups of people
• biological determinism is when all human behavior is innate and determined by genes = an example being psychopathology
• environmental determinism is behaviour caused by forces outside the individual, behaviour caused: past experience learned through classical + operant conditioning, example = psychopathology
• psychic determinism is when human behaviour is the result of childhood experiences and innate drives (id, ego and super-ego) = Freud's model of psychological development, example = Gender
• determinism is the view that free will is an illusion and that our behaviour is governed by internal (e.g. circadian rhythms) or external (e.g. social factors) forces over which we have no control, consequently our behaviour is viewed as predictable
• hard determinism is the view that forces outside of our control (e.g. biology or past experiences) shape our behaviour, it's seen as incompatible w/ free will
• soft determinism is the view behaviour is constrained by the environment or biological make-up but only to a certain extent and that there is an element of free will in all behaviour
• free will is the idea that we can play an active role and have a choice in how we behave, the assumption is that individuals are free to choose their behaviour and are self-determined
• nature is the view that behaviour is the product of innate biological or genetic factors
• nurture is the view that behaviour is the product of environmental influences
• heredity (genetic inheritance) is the process in which traits are passed down from one generation to the next
• the environment is seen as everything outside the body which can include people, events and the physical world
• interactionist approach is the view that both nature and nurture work together to shape human behaviour
• nature-nurture debate is the argument as to whether a person's development is mainly due to their genes or to environmental influences
• Holism comes from the Greek word 'holos' which means 'all', 'whole' or 'entire' and is the idea that human behaviour should be viewed as a whole integrated experience and not as separate parts
• biological reductionism refers to the way that biological psychologist try to reduce behaviour to a physical level and explain it in terms of neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones, brain structure etc.
• environmental reductionism is also known as stimulus-response reductionism, behaviourists assume that all behaviour can be reduced to the simple building blocks of S-R (stimulus-response) associations and that complex behaviour are a series of S-R chains
• reductionism is the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler components parts
• alpha bias refers to theories which exaggerate the differences between male and females
• androcentrism are theories which are centered on, or focused on males
• beta bias refers to theories which ignore or minimise sex differences, these theories often assume that the findings from males can equally apply to females
• gender bias is the differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences
• universality is the aim to develop theories that apply to all people, which may include real differences
• cultural bias is the tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions, this distorts or biases your judgement
• cultural relativism insists that behaviour can be properly understood only if the cultural context is taken into consideration
• culture is the rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people
• ethnocentrism means seeing the world only from one's own cultural perspective and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct
• socially sensitive research is any research that might have direct social consequences for the participants in the research or the group that they represent
• ethical guidelines is a set of principles set out by the BPS to help psychologists behave honestly and with integrity
• ethical issues are issues that arise when there is conflict between the rights of the participant and the aims of the researcher(s)
• ethical implications considers the impact or consequences that psychological research has on the rights of other people in a wider context, not just participants taking part in research