Terminology

Aetiology        the study of the cause of behaviour etc
Determinism behaviour is controlled by internal or external forces
Free will people respond actively to the events around them and control own behaviour
Holism an emphasis on the whole person rather than their constituent parts
Idiographic concerned with the individual rather than general laws of behaviour
Mechanistic     to treat humans as machines
Nature factors caused by inherited/genetic factors
Nomothetic concerned with general patterns of behaviour, shared by groups, rather than individual behaviour
Nurture factors caused by environmental influences
Reductionism reducing complex human behaviours to simple explanations based on the sciences


Useful link phrases

  • So we can see that
  • This would imply
  • One consequence would be
  • One advantage of this is
  • An alternative explanation could be
  • Therefore
  • This is supported by
  • This is challenged by
  • Not everybody reacts the same way, for example
  • There may be cultural variations
  • This has been applied to (give situation)
  • This suggests that
Rivington and Blackrod High School
Rivington and Blackrod High School