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Issues & debates (Nature-nurture (Nature: Human behaviour determined…
Issues & debates
Nature-nurture
Nature: Human behaviour determined by heredity, heredity coefficient measures (0-1) extent to which characteristic has genetic basis.
Nurture: Lerner identified 3 levels of the environtment, i.e. Post-natal terms, the social condition child grows up in.
Nurture & nature can't be logically separated, e.g. Hard to tell whether concordance rate in twin studies due to genetics or shared upbringing.
The interactionist approach: Nature 'creating' nurture, e.g. Attachment where child had innate behaviour that illicit parental response, which affects child's upbringing.
Diathesis - stress model: Suggest psychopathology caused by biological vulnerability, where environmental events then trigger it.
Epigenetics: Interactions with the environment changes genetic activity, which passes on to next generation.
Gender bias
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Universality: Applying human characteristics to all cultures, genders or races.
Alpha bias: Exaggerating differences between genders, e.g. Sociobiological theory, male's innately determines to pass on genes by impregnating females, while females ensure survival of few offspring.
Beta bias: Ignoring/minimising differences between genders. E.g Kohlberg, only based on men.
Androcentrism: Normal behavior judged from a male's standard, e.g. Kohlberg, PMS, as criticized to be a social construction to medicalise female emotions.
Holism & reductionism
Holism: Any attempt to break up behaviour is inappropriate as human behaviour is only meaningful & understood as a whole.
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Levels of explanation:
- Socio-cultural, e.g. repetitive hand washing.
- Psychological, e.g. experience of having obsessive thoughts.
- Physical, e.g. Sequence of movements in hand washing.
- Physiological, e.g. hypersensitivity of the basal ganglia.
- Neurochemical, e.g. Underproduction of serotonin.
Biological reductionism: Behaviour explained through physiological processes, e.g. Effects of proactive drugs on the brain.
Environmental reductionism: Break up learning to stimulus response, also only concerns with physical level & not mental processes.
Idiographic & nomothetic
The nomothetic approach: Aims to produce general laws of human behaviour, more scientifically associated.
Examples of the idiographic approach: Humanistic approach & psychodynamic - as used case study, although did draw universal conclusions.
The idiographic approach: People studied as unique entities with subjective experiences, therefore usually qualitative data, from case studies, unstructured interviews & self report.
Examples of the nomothetic approach: Behaviourist, biological & cognitive approaches, e.g. Results from animal studies produces general behaviour laws.
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Cultural bias
Mainstream psychology has generally ignored cultural differences, e.g. Asch study on conformity.
Ethnocentrism: Judging other cultures as 'normal' by the standards of one's own culture, e.g. Strange situation.
Cultural relativism: That behaviour can only be understood when the cultural context is taken in consideration.
Etic: Behaviour applied from outside of culture & universally, e.g. Strange Situation is imposed etic.
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Free will & determinism
Free will: Human beings are self-determining & free to choose own thoughts & actions, e.g. Humanistic approach.
Determinism
Hard determinism: All human behaviour has a cause & is possible to identify & describe causes. (Aims of science)
Soft determinism: Though acknowledges causes in human behaviour, also believes humans have some mental control over behaviour.
Biological determinism: Role of biological determinism in behaviour, e.g. role of genes in OCD.
Environmental determinism: All behaviour is shaped by environmental events, Skinner claims free will is an illusion.
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