INTRODUCTION TO DEBATES
SPECIFICATION:
Gender in Psychology: universality and bias. Gender bias includes androcentrism and alpha and beta bias;
Culture in Psychology: Cultural bias includes ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
Free will and determinism: hard and soft determinism; biological, environmental and psychic determinism. The scientific emphasis on causal explanations.
The nature-nurture debate: the relative importance of heredity and environment in determining behaviour; the interactionist approach.
Holism and reductionism: levels of explanation in Psychology. Biological reductionism and environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism.
Idiographic and nomothetic approaches to psychological investigation.
Ethical implications of research studies and theory, including reference to social sensitivity.
INTRODUCTION:
Psychology is shaped by fundamental debates that influence how human behaviour is studied and understood. One key issue is gender bias, where concepts like androcentrism, alpha bias, and beta bias challenge the universality of psychological theories. Similarly, cultural bias—through ethnocentrism and cultural relativism—raises questions about the generalisability of research across different societies.
Another major debate is free will vs. determinism, examining whether behaviour is a result of biological, environmental, or psychic determinism or if individuals have autonomy in their actions. Linked to this is the nature-nurture debate, which considers the extent to which genetics or environmental influences shape behaviour, often leading to an interactionist approach.
The discussion between holism and reductionism focuses on whether behaviour should be understood as a whole or broken down into biological and environmental explanations. Similarly, the idiographic vs. nomothetic approaches explore whether psychology should focus on individual case studies or general laws of behaviour.
Finally, the ethical implications of psychological research—especially concerning social sensitivity—highlight the responsibility of psychologists to consider the wider impact of their studies. These debates are central to psychological inquiry, shaping both research methodologies and real-world applications
