Debates

Question 1

Reductionism
How human behaviour could be explained
How research could be conducted

Answer 1

Human behaviour explained as arising from simple processes (because of hormones, or because of which behaviour has been rewarded in the past).

Research should be conducted by isolating variables one at a time to establish cause and effect (e.g. in experiments).

Question 2

Holism
How human behaviour can be explained
How research can be conducted

Answer 2

Human behaviour should be viewed as the product of different influences which all interact.

Psychologists should develop multi-factor models or conduct case studies that capture all the different influences on a persons behaviour.

Question 3

Strengths and weaknesses of reductionism

Answer 3

• allows psychological research to be more scientific (as it allows researchers to test impact on behaviour of one factor at a time).
• studies which take a reductionist approach make it possible to draw more valid conclusions about cause and effect because they’re more controlled.
• because they’re highly controlled, they’re often more replicable, enabling researchers to repeat studies to see if there’s a reliable (consistent) effect.
• human behaviour is often too complex to be reduced down to single-factor explanations.
• focusing on one factor at a time can result in other variables being missed out.
• reductionist studies are often highly controlled experiments so can lack ecological validity.

Question 4

Strengths and weaknesses of holism.

Answer 4

• holistic approach gives a more complete understanding of complex behaviours.
• research isn’t limited to single area or perspective within psychology so can consider different explanations for the behaviour being investigated.
• can be difficult for researchers to pin down which, out of many different factors, is having the greatest effect.
• holistic explanations can only be verified by separating the different elements within them one by one to confirm that all the different factors within them play a part in explaining the behaviour in question. If this is done it means holism is collapsing back into reductionism.

Question 5

Strengths and weaknesses of Individual

Answer 5

Strengths:

• Helps us to understand why people behave the way they do
• Useful- we could try placing people in jobs (or romantic relationships) on the basis of their personality characteristic.

Weaknesses:

• limited usefulness- if a persons personality is the reason why they behave the way they do, this will not be easy to change.
• Reductionist- misses out situational factors.

Question 6

Strengths and weaknesses of situational

Answer 6

Strengths:

• Helps us to understand why people behave the way they do
• Useful- we can alter behaviour by altering the situations that create it.

Weaknesses:

• Socially sensitive- it could be used as an excuse to explain away bad behaviour
• Reductionist- misses out individual factors as an explanation.

Question 7

What studies can individual/ situational relate to?

Answer 7

Milgram:
Situational- they had the authority figure and the prods causing them to be obedient.
Individual- if they really didn’t want to, they could’ve refused (35% did leave before 450V)

Piliavin:
Situational- if they weren’t in a situation they couldn’t escape (train), they might have just walked past.
State of victim (drunk or ill)
Clear situation
Wasn’t much effort to help.
Individual:
Diffusion of responsibility- they didn’t have to help the victim as there were many other people there. They had the choice. However, no diffusion of responsibility was found.
Gender (90% male)

Question 8

Features of psychology as a science and studies that relate to the debate.

Answer 8

Objective (not up for interpretation- proved by quantitative data).
Falsifiable- can be proved wrong.
Replicable- can be repeated (controls).

Milgram, piliavin

Question 9

Benefits and drawbacks of psychological research being scientific.

Answer 9

Benefits:

• Can analyse quantitative data to see significant effects.
• Scientific research is less vunerable to being affected by researcher bias.
• Involves the use of lab experiments that enable cause and effect to be inferred.
• Controlled lab experiments can be repeated to see if findings are reliable.

Drawbacks:

• lacking in qualitative data (explanatory power is reduced).
• often reductionist as it tries to test the impact of a single factor (missing out other factors that may be involved).
• controlled lab settings reduce the ecological validity.

Question 10

Strengths and weaknesses of freewill

Answer 10

Strengths:

• Not socially sensitive- people often like to feel that they have control over their behaviour.
• Useful- people can be held to account for the behaviours they carry out.

Weaknesses:
-Unscientific- is free will just the way we explain behaviour that we can’t explain in any other way?
-Socially sensitive- people may find it uncomfortable being told they are responsible for how they choose to act.
We cant predict behaviour or influence people.

Question 11

Strengths and weaknesses of determinism and studies that relate to it.

Answer 11

Strengths:
-Open to positive uses- if we know what causes a wanted behaviour, we can make the behaviour occur again.
-Scientific- determinist explanations often arise from controlled experiments in which cause and effect has been established.
Weaknesses:
-Open to negative uses- lawyers could use determinist explanations to get guilty people acquitted.
-Reductionist- maybe behaviour isn’t so easily explained.
-Socially sensitive- people may find it uncomfortable being told they are not in control of how they behave.

Bandura- children’s behaviour is due to socially learned imitation.
Loftus and Palmer- verbs influence what we remember

Question 12

Strengths and weaknesses of nature/nurture

Answer 12

Strength of nature:
No ethnocentric (Sperry- hemispheres same for everyone)
Weakness:
Socially sensitive (Gottesman- schizophrenia)

Strength of nurture:
Useful (funhaler)
Weakness:
Dererministic (Lee- culture influences behaviour)