What is nature?
Characteristics determined by your genes. These may be present at birth or appear later as you mature
What is nurture ?
The view that everything is acquired though interactions with the environment. May be be more widely referred to as ‘experience’
Strengths of nature
- hard biological determinism- behaviour is caused by biology/genes (no free will)
- usefulness- practical applications such as biological interventions e.g. surgery, neurotherapy, genetic counselling
Weakness of nature
- ignores the role of nurture to explain complex behaviour- reduced validity
- not useful- it is reductionist as it simplifies complex behaviour by using basic explanations.
- lack of personal responsibility- e.g. a person arrested for a violent attack might plead that they were not responsible for their behaviour- it was due to their genetics (psychiatric problem🤷🏻♀️)
Strength of nurture
- environmental determinism
* usefulness- practical applications in advising government policy such as education curriculum, parenting classes, etc
Weakness of nurture
- ignores the role of nature to explain complex behaviour- reduces the validity
- not useful- it is reductionist as it simplifies complex behaviour using basic explanations
- reduces lack of personal responsibility- e.g. someone arrested for a violent attack might plead that they were not responsible due to their upbringing (parents start to get blamed🤷🏻♀️)
What is determinism?
It proposes that all behaviour has a cause and is predictable. Also, that free will is an illusion.
Behaviour is governed by internal and external forces over which we have no control.
What is free will?
The idea that we are able to make choices about our behaviour
There are different levels of determinism. What are they?
Hard determinism and soft determinism
What is hard determinism?
It sees free will as an illusion and believes that every event/action has a cause.
What is soft determinism?
It stands as middle ground.
It states that there’s is some free will but mainly there is a cause.
People do have a choice, but that choice is constrained by external or internal forces.
Strength of determinism
- specific causes for behaviour can be determined
- useful- can predict behaviour- identify situations/individuals with practical applications
- more scientific- supports psychology as a science
Weakness of determinism
- ignores the role of free will and therefore lack of personal responsibility over one’s behaviour e.g. a person arrested for a violent attack might plead they were not responsible for their behaviour.
- not useful- it is reductionist as it over simplifies complex behaviour and only provides basic explanations.
- deterministic psychology underestimated the uniqueness of human beings and their freedom of choice
Strength of free will
• useful- practical applications to rehabilitate individuals (aim of psychology) or in education
Weakness of free will
- not useful- reductionist - oversimplified behaviour with basic explanations
- socially sensitive- individuals may be labelled if behaviour is down to ‘rational’ decision making
What is Holism?
The idea that to understand behaviour we must consider all the different factors that contribute to that behaviour
What is reductionism?
Is the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into smaller component part.
The best way to understand why we behave as we do is to look closely at the simplest parts.
Strength of Holism
- high in ecological validity
- does not ignore the complexity of behaviour
- looks at everything that may impact behaviour
Weakness of Holism
- over complicates behaviour which may have simpler explanations
- does not lend itself to the scientific method and testing
- makes it hard to determine cause and effect
- neglects the importance of the biological explanations
- almost impossible to study all factors that influence complex human behaviours
Strength of reductionism
- useful- practical applications- a reductionist approach to studying mental disorders has led to the development of effective chemical treatments.
- supports psychology as a science
Weakness of reductionism
- it can be over simplistic. Humans and their environments are so complex that a reductionist explanation falls short of giving the whole explanation of behaviour.
- lacks ecological validity
- does not address larger societal issues e.g. poverty
What is individual?
This explains behaviour according to some feature or characteristic of the person (personality)
What is situational?
This explains behaviour according to the wider context of the environment e.g. the immediate circumstances that a person faces or the behaviour of other people
Strengths of the individual v situational debate
- useful- discovering which behaviour is individually determined and which is situationally determined- can influence interventions/treatments
- can direct further study- discovery of complex interactions between individual and situational factors
