Debates

Front 1

Determinism v Free Will

Back 1

Determinism
All human behaviour results from either internal or external causes. Therefore people do not have much control over their behaviour, since it is controlled, to a great extent, by forces beyond their control.

Free Will
People have control over their behaviour and make a free choice to behave in the way that that they see as appropriate.


Strength
May gain insight into cause and effect relationships
Ohman et al (genetic inheritance and phobia acquisition)
Deterministic explanations may lead to practical applications that improve people’s lives
(Psychodynamic perspective has lead to psychoanalysis (therapy techniques of hypnosis/regression/dream analysis and free association))

Weakness
Reductionist
Bandura Ross Ross (aggression in children is due to learning the behaviour from adult role models)
Does not take into account individual differences Watson and Raynor (phobia acquisition in children will not always be due to classical conditioning)

Front 2

Ethnocentrism

Back 2

Interpret human behaviour from our own ethnic or social group.
Way things happen in our culture is the way things happen in all other cultures.
Researchers may draw appropriate findings/conclusions about their own culture, but which has very little meaning to other cultural groups.
Generalising research findings to all cultures, then it can be justifiably argued that the research is ethnocentric.

Strengths
Identifying characteristics and behaviour that seems universal can provide informed evidence for the nature-nurture debate
Highlighting the differences between different cultures helps us to challenge our assumptions as to what behaviour is normal/abnormal

Weaknesses
Questions may be understood differently by individuals from different cultures
Cross cultural studies are only a sample of that culture and may not be generalisable.

Front 3

Individual v Situational

Back 3

Individual - Some characteristic of the human being
Situational - Social context i.e the social group or physical environment.
If child is violent towards another child in class; is this because the child has a violent personality or is it is provoked by his class mates, or is his home life encouraging violent behaviour or are all the boys in the class violent and he is just trying to fit in?

Strengths
It may lead to useful/practical applications to the real everyday world. (Reicher and Haslam)
It provides clear evidence to support the nurture side of the nature-nurture debate. (Milgram)

Weaknesses
Reductionist -Piliavin (helping behaviour occurs not only because of situational factors that are present at the time/individual differences in personality will also be an influential factor)
Situational explanations ignore the importance of individual differences - Milgram (only 65% went to 450v why not all?)

Front 4

Nature v Nurture

Back 4

Nativists argue some behaviours are mainly determined by hereditary (inborn) factors. Genes provide the blueprint for all behaviours.
Nurturists argue that some behaviours are mainly determined by the individual’s interaction with the environment. In other words, learnt.
This debate between nativists and nurturists is often referred to as the nature-nurture debate in psychology.

Physiological v Behaviourist

Front 5

Usefulness of Research

Back 5

The usefulness of psychological research refers to the extent to which the results and conclusions drawn from psychological research can be applied to everyday life to improve the welfare/quality of life of individuals.
The way the findings/conclusions of psychological research could be applied to improve people’s lives could take many forms. It could lead to practical applications in the area of treatments or changes in the law at a government policy level.

Front 6

Reduction v Hollism

Back 6

Reductionism
Tendency to try and understand complex human behaviour by reducing it to a set of simple principles or a single factor.
Biological reductionism where genetic/hormonal/biological factors are proposed as the primary reason for a particular form of behaviour.
In contrast holism is the viewpoint that in order to effectively understand complex human behaviour it is necessary to adopt a multi-faceted approach acknowledging a wide variety of possible explanations/viewpoints.

Front 7

Psychology as a Science

Back 7

Psychology places great emphasis on the experimental method as a way of making the subject more scientific in approach. It uses laboratory, field and quasi-experiments to investigate aspects of human behaviour.
Research is designed with a high degree of control so as to establish cause and effect relationships between variables.
Procedures are standardised and scientific equipment are used to gather precise quantitative data so as to allow comparison of results across conditions aswell as ensuring objectivity.
Substantial amounts of research in psychology can be replicated so as to test whether the results initially gathered have high reliability.

(-) Reductionist. Gathering precise quantitative data using experimental methods may mean that rich qualitative data is overlooked.
(-) Low ecological validity as controlled settings and controlled tasks.
(+) High control + standardised procedures mean cause and effect easy to establish between variables.
(+) Useful applications.