Introduction to Psychology Flashcards
(8 cards)
What is Psychology?
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior
What are two important debates in Psychology?
NATURE VS NURTURE
FREE WILL VS DETERMINISM
What’s Free Will?
The idea that we are able to have some choice in how we act and assumes that we are free to choose our behavior, in other words we are self determined.
For example, people can make a free choice as to whether to commit a crime or not (unless they are a child or they are insane).
According to freewill a person is responsible for their own actions.
What’s Determinism?
The determinist approach proposes that all behavior has a cause and is thus predictable.
Free will is an illusion, and our behaviour is governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control.
What does the Free Will vs Determinism debate revolves around?
Revolves around the extent to which our behavior is the result of forces over which we have no control or whether people are able to decide for themselves whether to act or behave in a certain way.
What’s the nature vs nurture Debate?
The nature-nurture debate is concerned with the relative contribution that both influences make to human behavior, such as personality, cognitive traits, temperament and psychopathology.
What’s Nature?
Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors.
What’s Nurture?
Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after conception, e.g., the product of exposure, life experiences and learning on an individual.
