Approach/Debate
|
Strengths
|
Weaknesses
|
Biological approach, Cognitive approach Individual debate,
Reductionism debate & Nature debate
|
1.
Practical/useful applications: understanding
and identifying certain behaviours that are inherited or specific to the
individual can help us to intervene accordingly.
2.
Uses objective scientific measures. This means
that extraneous variables are highly controlled and cause and effect can be
established, increasing validity.
|
1.
Reductionist as it tries to explain complex
behaviour with one influence. It doesn’t consider how other factors interact
together in influencing behaviour.
2.
Discovering that certain behaviours are
inherited (e.g. personality, intelligence) may not be helpful. It can lead to
the assumption that these types of behaviour are difficult to change through
the environment. This restricts the useful applications.
3.
Specific to Cognitive – lacks ecological
validity due to high use of lab experiments.
|
Social approach, Behaviourist approach, Situational debate &
Nurture debate
|
1.
Practical/useful applications: has real life
relevance as it focuses on real life social issues. It has key relevance to
the majority and helps our understanding on how human behaviour can be changed
in a positive way.
2.
It is very scientific and usually uses controlled
experimental methods in order to establish cause and effect – increasing
validity
|
1.
It is very difficult to separate the effects
of a situation/social/environmental influences from the individual. This is
very similar to the nature/nurture debate, in the sense that it is impossible
to study them separately as they will always influence together – reducing
validity of the approach/debate.
2.
Ethical issues can arise due to deceiving
participants in order to achieve valid results of
environmental/social/situational influences.
|
Individual differences approach & Psychodynamic approach
|
1.
Research has practical applications. It helps
us to understand how we measure differences and develop support for certain
disorders.
2.
Different types of data are used. Freud uses
qualitative and Baron-Cohen uses quantitative. Using both types enables
researchers to obtain comparable and measureable results as well as an in
depth exploration into individual differences.
|
1.
Methodology is sometimes subjective and therefore
open to bias. Freud is a perfect example of this, reducing the validity.
Theory of mind is also a subjective construct which could be difficult to
measure in a valid way.
2.
Ethical issues tend to arise. People with
disorders are classed as vulnerable and therefore informed consent is
sometimes questionable. In addition, participating in certain tasks may cause
psychological harm e.g. people with Asperger's out of their normal routine.
|
Developmental approach & Holistic debate
|
1.
Useful/practical applications i.e. holism -
more reflective or how factors interact in real life, developmental –
understanding children and cognitive – understanding memory.
2.
More holistic as considers more than one
factor as it looks at interactions: Developmental – interaction between
nature and nurture.
|
1.
Ethical issues: Relies heavily on the use of
children Issues with gaining parental consent and debriefing children in a
way that makes sense to them.
2.
Issues with validity. Holism – difficult to
measure all factors reducing cause and effect. Developmental - measuring
children’s thoughts and behaviour accurately is difficult due to adult’s
perceptions.
|
Ethnocentrism
|
1.
Understanding ethnocentrism can help us to
understand how discrimination arises in the first place so that other
cultures can be studied in more depth.
2.
By understanding ethnocentrism, researchers
are better prepared in addressing it, in order to improve researches
generalisability.
|
1.
Ethnocentrism causes prejudice and
discrimination which raises moral ethics, by discounting some cultures as
unimportant and therefore no researching them.
2.
Researchers must be aware of ethnocentrism
when generalising and interpreting data in order to avoid biased and invalid findings.
|
Socially sensitive research
|
1.
Carrying out socially sensitive research
usually means that the researcher develops a personal relationship with
participants and can often gain insightful data.
2.
Building an understanding of these sensitive
issues can allow useful applications by finding out info that wouldn’t
usually be accessible.
|
1.
Building relationships when carrying socially
sensitive research can open issues with bias and subjectivity.
2.
Interviewing participants about sensitive
topic may induce painful emotions and memories and therefore cause harm.
|
Freewill/
Determinism debate
|
1.
Having deterministic views helps the world to
be more understandable and predictable.
2. Determinism
is very scientific in this sense that it tries to highlight certain factors
have an influence. This makes this debate more acceptable in society with its
explanations and scientific basis.
|
1.
An extreme determinist would say that free
will in an illusion - we think we have choice, but we do not. Therefore how
could we punish others if it wasn’t their fault?
2.
Determinism can never fully explain behaviour
because behaviour is far too complex and a deterministic view is often a
reductionist one.
|
Psychology as a science
|
Is a science:
1.
Psychology uses scientific methods in its
investigations. Research is carried out through experimentation and uses many
controls, which means cause and effect can be established.
2.
Like other sciences, psychology has theories.
Theories generate hypotheses and these are tested empirically.
|
Is not a science:
1.
Psychologists study humans. They cannot be
investigated in the same way as subject matter of e.g. chemistry or physics.
People are aware of being investigated and this can alter behaviour.
2.
Even with hypotheses, lots of material which
is called psychology is clearly not a science e.g. Freudian theories.
|
Thursday, 9 June 2016
Strengths and weaknesses of the debates and approaches
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