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Psychology > Great Debates > Flashcards

Great Debates Flashcards

1
Q

How are different positions taken on?

A
  • How behaviour should be studied

- How behaviour can be explained

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2
Q

What is idiographic?

A

Studies individuals to investigate what makes people unique.

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3
Q

What is nomothetic?

A

This studies people to establish general laws about behaviour; compares different groups.

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4
Q

What type of data does idiographic tend to use?

A

Qualitative data

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5
Q

What type of data does nomothetic tend to use?

A

Quantitative data

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6
Q

What types of research methods does idiographic use?

A

Case studies

Including observation, self-report or machine readings.

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7
Q

What types of research methods does nomothetic use?

A

Experiments or large scale studies

Including observation, self-report, correlations and meta-analysis.

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8
Q

Why does idiographic tend to collect qualitative data?

A

Qualitative data is more descriptive than numbers and you want to find out about an individual in depth. No comparisons will be made so you don’t need numbers.

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9
Q

What are the strengths of qualitative data?

A

Detailed, full picture.

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10
Q

What are the weaknesses of qualitative data?

A

Collection and analysis are time consuming, comparisons cannot be compared directly.

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11
Q

Why is the humanistic approach most idiographic?

A
  • It focuses on individual
  • Holistic view of people
  • Interested in uniqueness
  • Focus on personal growth
  • Believes in free will so not interested in discovering general ‘laws’ as we are all free to think + behave as we choose
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12
Q

What are the strengths of quantitative data?

A

Analyse, calculate averages and make comparisons to draw conclusions.

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13
Q

What are the weaknesses of quantitative data?

A

Lack of detail, may not tell us why or give us a complete picture.

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14
Q

What are the 3 types of general law that can be established using nomothetic approach?

A
  • Classifying people into groups (DSM-5 categorises people in disorders, attachment types)
  • Creating general rules of how people are similar in their behaviour (‘most’ will conform, Zimbardo)
  • Creating dimensions along which people can be placed relative to each other (IQ, F-Scale)
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15
Q

What is the nature vs nurture debate based on?

A

Is behaviour due to inherited or acquired characteristics?

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16
Q

What is nature?

A

Sees behaviour as due to genes “nativism”.

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17
Q

What is nurture?

A

Sees behaviour as due to learning from the environment “empiricism”.

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18
Q

What is the interactionist approach?

A

Modern psychology looks for the interaction between nature vs nurture and the extent to which each side influences behaviour.

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19
Q

What does the Diathesis-Stress model illustrate?

A

The interaction of genes and environment together cause our behaviour.

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20
Q

As nature and nurture interact, what are the 3 stages people pass through?

A

Passive
Evocative
Active

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21
Q

What is the passive stage?

A

During infancy, individual’s environments are provided by their parents. The rearing environmental reflects the parents’ genes, so it is genetically suitable for the child.

22
Q

What is the evocative stage?

A

The child’s genes will influence the way the environment treats them: prizes at school, praise for success.

23
Q

What is the active stage?

A

The child seeks out experiences which suits its genes and actively shapes its own nurture. Eg. joins the debating team, reads widely for pleasure, seeks out similarly curious friends.

24
Q

What is constructivism?

A

During this active phase, people construct their own nurture through the experiences they choose according to their nature.
The innately friendly child seeks more interaction with others.
The innately aggressive child seeks similar children and gets into fights.
This is called niche picking and niche building.
Overtime this means that children become more whatever it is their genes predispose them to be.

25
Q

What did Maguire do in her study of the hippocampi of taxi drivers and what did she find?

A

She scanned brains of taxi drivers and measured their hippocampi.
She found that taxi driver’s hippocampi were larger compared to controls.
She also found that taxi drivers that had been driving longer had larger hippocampi.

26
Q

What is a criticism about the fact that taxi drivers had larger hippocampi than controls?

A

Maybe those with very developed hippocampi choose the job of taxi driving. It could just be a case of ‘niche picking’ - example of nature affecting nurture.

27
Q

What does the fact that the longer taxi drivers had been in their jobs, the larger their hippocampi suggest?

A

Suggests that the environment (experience) changes the hippocampi and makes them larger - example of nurture affecting nature.

28
Q

What are epigenetics?

A

This refers to a change in how our genes work but the genetic code stays the same.
This is possible through the activation of ‘switches’ which turn genes on or off.
We can inherit these switch positions from our parents and grandparents.
So the experiences of our parents and grandparents can alter our behaviour because of the physical changes they cause.

29
Q

Why is the determinism/free will debate important to psychologists?

A

There is a disagreement in psychology about how best to approach research and treatments.

30
Q

What is free will?

A

There may be biological or external influences on our behaviour but we are able to reject these and freely choose the path we take.

31
Q

What is determinism?

A

The belief that our behaviour is caused by factors outside of our control.

32
Q

What are the 5 types of determinism?

A 
Hard determinism
Soft determinism
Biological determinism
Environmental determinism
Psychic determinism
33
Q

What is hard determinism?

A

‘Fatalism’

All behaviour is predictable, laws can be drawn up for behaviour just like any natural phenomenon.

34
Q

What is soft determinism?

A

We are influenced by certain factors but there may be some room for manoeuvre as we have conscious control over much of our behaviour.

35
Q

What is biological determinism?

A

Behaviour is caused by biological forces we cannot control.
Genes (evolution)
Hormones (gender)
Brain function (neurotransmitters)

36
Q

What is environmental determinism?

A

Behaviour is caused by features of the environment we can’t control.
Classical and operant conditioning
Influences of upbringing, other people

37
Q

What is psychic determinism?

A

Sees behaviour as determined by biological drives and instincts, and unconscious forces outside of our control.
Id/ego/superego conflict
Ego defences; denial, displacement, repression
Being in a particular psychosexual stage

38
Q

Why is the diathesis model deterministic?

A

It shows a biological factor (genetic vulnerability) interacting with an environmental factor (stress) to cause an outcome.

39
Q

What are the advantages of determinism?

A
  • Consistent with the aims of science
  • Scientific study of cause and effect has allowed treatments and interventions to be used to improve human well-being
  • No one would choose to have schizophrenia so free will can’t be the only explanation
40
Q

What are the disadvantages of determinism?

A
  • Inconsistent with our legal system, religious views and personal experience
  • Hard determinism is impossible to falsify and therefore is limited as a scientific explanation
41
Q

What are the advantages of free will?

A
  • Consistent with everyday experience, our justice system and religious views
  • Those with an internal locus of control are mentally healthier than those with an external locus, so just believing we can control events is helpful even if we cannot
42
Q

What are the disadvantages of free will?

A
  • We can make predictions about behaviour particularly on a group level; this suggests people are not just making it up as they go along
  • No one would choose to have schizophrenia and we can predict and prescribe successful treatments for disorders which indicates they have a chemical cause
43
Q

What is the reductionism vs holism debate about?

A

At what level should we seek an explanation for behaviour?
Holistic=highest level
Reductionist=lowest level

44
Q

What is holism?

A

The theory that the parts of any whole cannot be understood except in their relation to the whole.

45
Q

What is reductionism?

A

Looks for the most focused, simplified factor to explain behaviour.

46
Q

What is biological reductionism?

A

The belief that all human behaviour and characteristics can be attributed to a specific, basic, biological source eg. hormones, genes, neurotransmitters.

47
Q

What is environmental reductionism?

A

All behaviour can be explained in terms of specific, basic, environmental factors eg. stimulus-response links, either classical or operant conditioning.

48
Q

What is experimental reductionism?

A

Experiments focusing on one narrow, measurable cause for behaviour.

49
Q

What are the reasons for holism?

A
  • Many phenomena cannot be understood at the individual level
  • Conformity to social roles can only be meaningful studied at the socio-cultural level because we are studying an individual interacting with others in a social context, they cannot be studied in isolation.
50
Q

What are the reasons against holism?

A
  • Less scientific because the wider the explanation the harder it is to study - lots of variables interacting
  • Some holistic approaches are theoretical and largely untestable which makes them unscientific
  • There are therefore fewer applications
51
Q

What are the reasons for reductionism?

A
  • Scientific
  • The most time and cost effective way of explaining behaviour
  • Allows us to predict behaviour, prevent and treat, so has applications
52
Q

What are the reasons against reductionism?

A
  • Ignores social context so may be less full and therefore less valid
  • The methodology used means it may lack ecological validity, so may be less applicable to real life

Psychology (17 decks)

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