Comparison of Approaches

• The psychodynamic approach gives the most comprehensive view of child development compared to other approaches.
• Both the psychodynamic and cognitive approach developed stages of child development.
• The cognitive approach gives an environmental view of development compared to the biological approach.
• The humanistic approach is very focused on the self compared to the other approaches.
• The biological and some aspects of the psychodynamic approach support the nature debate.
• The cognitive and learning theories support the nurture debate.
• Most of the approaches in Psychology adopt a reductionist view, but humanistic tries to take a more holistic approach.
• The cognitive approach adopts a machine reductionist view of behaviour.
• The learning theories adopt an environmental determinist view.
• The biological approach adopts a biologically deterministic view.
• The psychodynamic approach adopts a psychic determinist view.
• The humanistic approach adopts free will as a main perspective.
• Hard determinism is seen in approaches like biological and behaviourist/ learning theories.
• Humanistic approaches are more in line with soft determinism.
• Idiographic approaches study more unique individual behaviour such as in the humanistic approach.
• Nomothetic approaches like the learning theory and cognitive approach are more likely to study people in large groups.
• Many psychologists will take a multidisciplinary approach which combine values and beliefs from several approaches to explain behaviour.
• Adopting a more eclectic approach by combining assumptions from several approaches may be more useful.