Issues and Debates

• Freewill

  Idea that humans can make choices and are not influenced by internal or external forces
• Determinism

  The view that an individual's behaviour is controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual's own choice
• Scientific emphasis on causal explanations

  • Every event in the universe has a cause which can be explained using general laws (hard determinism)
  • Allows scientists to predict and control future events
  • Lab experiments are ideal as it allows researchers to demonstrate causal relationships as all other variables are controlled
• Hard determinism

  Implies that free will is not possible and behaviour is always caused by prior events or internal/external factors that are outside of our personal control (no free will)
• Soft determinism

  Implies all human behaviour has causes, but that behaviour can also be caused by our conscious choices (some free will)
• Biological determinism

  • Influence of the autonomic nervous system on stress response or genes on mental health
  • Innate and determined by genes
  • e.g. psychopathology - OCD is partly genetic
• Environmental determinism

  • Skinner said free will is an "illusion" and all behaviour is due to conditioning
  • Choice is the sum of reinforcement contingencies acted upon us
  • e.g. psychopathology - phobias acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
• Psychic determinism

  • Freud said free will is an "illusion"
  • Emphasised biological drives and instinct
  • Behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood
  • No such thing as an accident
  • e.g. Freudian slips explained by the influence of the unconscious
  • e.g. forensic psychology - inadequate superego
• Determinism

  For

  • Consistent with the aims of science
  • Idea that human behaviour always has a cause and obeys laws puts psychology on a footing with more established sciences
  • In addition, the idea that behaviour can be controlled has led to treatments that have benefited many people
  • e.g. antipsychotic drugs to treat Sz
• Determinism

  Against

  • Incompatible with the way our legal system operates
  • If behaviour is determined by internal or external forces, there is a potential excuse for crime
  • e.g. 1981, Stephen Mobley argued he was "born to kill" after killing a pizza shop manager because his family had a disposition towards violence
  • A truly determinist position may be undesirable as it provides an excuse
  • Allows people to claim they are not responsible for their crimes
• Determinism

  Against (ADDITION)

  • Determinism is unfalsifiable as it is based on the idea that behaviour always has a cause even though it has not yet been found
  • Suggests the deterministic approach is not as scientific as it first appears
• Freewill

  For

  • Everyday experience gives the impression that we are constantly exercising free will
  • Gives face validity to the concept of free will
  • Research suggests that people who have an internal locus of control tend to be more mentally healthy
  • A study demonstrated that adolescents with a strong belief in fatalism (their lives decided by something outside of their control) were at greater risk of depression
  • Suggests that even if we do not have free will, thinking we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour
• Freewill

  Against

  • Neurological studies of decision-making have revealed evidence against free will
  • The brain activity that determines the outcome of simple choices may predate our knowledge of having made such a choice
  • The activity related to whether to press a button with the right or left hand occurs in the brain up to 10 seconds before the ppts report being consciously aware of making the decision
  • Shows that even our most basic experiences of free will are decided and determined by our brain before we become aware of them
• Freewill vs determinism

  Interactionist position

  • Provides a compromise in the debate
  • A soft deterministic position argues behaviour has a cause but we have some free will over our choices
  • Approaches in psychology that have a cognitive element, such as social learning theory are soft determinism
  • Bandura argued although environmental factors in learning are key, we are free to choose when to perform certain behaviours
• Reductionism

  The belief that behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts
• Holism

  The belief that human behaviour can only be understood by analysing the person or behaviour as a whole
• Biological reductionism

  • Includes neurochemical and physiological levels as well as genetic influences
  • All behaviour is, at some level, biological
  • e.g. drugs increasing serotonin are effective in treating OCD so, working backwards, low serotonin may cause OCD
  • OCD is reduced to the level of neurotransmitter activity
• Environmental reductionism

  • Behaviourist approach, all behaviour is learned through the environment
  • Based on conditioning, focused on stimulus and response, reducing behaviour
  • e.g. attachment learning theory reduces love to an association between the person feeding and food, resulting in pleasure
• Experimental/machine reductionism

  • Complex behaviour is reduced to a single variable for testing
  • Underpins the experimental approach; complex behaviours are reduced to operationalised, isolated variables to measure and determine causal relationships
  • e.g. Peterson and Peterson examined duration of short-term memory by testing participants' memory for nonsense trigrams
• Levels of explanation

  Suggests there are different ways of viewing a behaviour:

  Biological explanations:

  • Genes, neurochemicals, hormones, brain structure
  • e.g. size of hippocampus linked to spatial ability
  • e.g. Sz explained by dopamine hypothesis

  Psychological explanations:

  • Cognitive and behavioural/environmental
  • e.g. cognitive psychologists examined particular aspects of memory: STM and LTM
  • e.g. Sz explained by family dysfunction

  Social and cultural explanations:

  • Influence of social groups
  • e.g. schemas affect memory
  • e.g. hallucinations are seen as normal in some cultures
• Reductionist

  For

  • Possible to break behaviour into its constituent parts and scientifically test them
  • Cause of behaviour can be established more easily
  • "Cause and effect" makes reductionism more scientifically grounded
• Reductionist

  Against

  • Many different theories of cognitive functioning: memory, perception and language have been created in psychology
  • Little attempt has been made to combine the theories together
  • Reductionism cannot take into account all factors
  • Providing an incomplete and overly simplistic explanation
• Holism

  For

  • Reminds us that the whole is not just the sum of the parts
  • Takes into account the complexity of behaviour and ways in which different factors may interact
  • Something reductionism cannot do
• Holism

  Against

  • Holism cannot be rigorously tested
  • Less credible
  • Does not focus on just one factor
  • Focuses on multiple which is difficult to establish a cause-and-effect relationship
  • Reduces scientific credibility
• Reductionism vs holism

  Interactionist approach

  • Diathesis-stress model
  • Disorders come about from interaction between a genetic predisposition and an environmental stressor
  • Led to a more multidisciplinary and holistic approach to treatment
  • Combination of drugs, family therapy and CBT reduces in lower relapse rate for Sz
• Nomothetic approach

  • Studying a large number of people and trying to understand why they behave in similar ways
  • General laws can then be created

  1. Classifying people into different groups (e.g. DSM-5)
  2. Establishing principles of behaviour (e.g. social influence)
  3. Establishing dimensions on which people can be placed (e.g. EPI)

  Research methods:

  • Lab studies
  • Controlled observations
  • Structured interviews
  • Questionnaires

  
  

  • e.g. Skinner
  • e.g. George Miller described short-term memory capacity as 5-9 items
• Idiographic approach

  • Everyone is unique so people must be studied in a personal and detailed way to capture individuality
  • No general laws due to free will, chance and uniqueness

  Research methods:

  • Case studies
  • Unstructured interviews

  
  

  • e.g. Freud - Little Hans
  • e.g. HM and KF
• Nomothetic

  For

  • Fits scientific criteria
  • Emphasises precise measurement, standardisation and the ability to control behaviour
  • Nomothetic investigations use large groups of people
  • Objective and controlled methods
  • Ensures reliability and generalisability
  • Means it is more credible
• Nomothetic

  Against

  • Generalisations may not apply to individual behaviour
  • Loses the sense of individuality
  • e.g. knowing there is a 1% risk of developing Sz tells us little about what life is like for someone who has Sz
  • Fails to appreciate the subjective experience
  • Takes a "one size fits all" approach to treatment
• Idiographic

  For

  • Findings can compliment the nomothetic approach, providing a more complete account
  • e.g. HM generated a hypothesis for further study
  • These cases may provide insight into normal functioning which contributes to our overall understanding
  • Although the focus is on fewer individuals, it still help form scientific laws of behaviour
• Idiographic

  Against

  • Can be narrow and restrictive
  • Meaningful generalisations cannot be made without further examples as there is no baseline for a comparison
  • Methods of research used (case studies) are less scientifically credible as the experience is subjective and open to interpretation
  • Difficult to establish effective general theories of human behaviour in the absence of nomothetic research
• Idiographic vs nomothetic

  Interactionist approach

  • Nomothetic approaches are seen as scientific
  • Biological psychologists explain OCD via a nomothetic approach which explains that it is caused by low levels of serotonin
  • SSRIs would effectively "cure" OCD by preventing the reuptake and breakdown of serotonin, instead keeping it in the synaptic cleft
  • Helps to improve QOL for most OCD sufferers
  • Drug treatments are not effective for all sufferers, so idiographic approach may be taken in other cases
  • Important to use both approaches for their different strengths
• Nature vs nurture

  The extent to which behaviour is caused by inherited factors or acquired characteristics from the environment
• Heredity

  • Genetic transmission of psychological and physical characteristics from one generation to the next
  • Assessed using a correlation co-efficient
  • René Descartes suggested all human characteristics are innate
  • Psychological characteristics (IQ or personality) are innate just as physical characteristics (eye or hair colour) are
  • Fight-or-flight response
  • Nestadt et al (2010) - 68% of MZ twins shared OCD compared to 31% of DZ twins
• Environment

  • Any external influence on behaviour that is non-genetic (prenatal, cultural, biological e.g. food)
  • John Locke argued the mind is a blank slate at birth, shaped by the environment
  • Richard Lerner identified different levels of the environment: prenatal and postnatal factors
  • Watson and Rayner (1920) - Little Albert, classical conditioning
  • Learning theory uses operant conditioning to explain that babies cry in order to receive food
  • Contrast with Bowlby's monotropic theory (social releasers are innate)
• Nature vs nurture

  • Implications of taking only one side of the debate
  • Nativists suggest our genetic makeup determines our behaviour, with little environmental influence
  • Extreme determinist approach is controversial as it leads to the consideration of ethnicity, genetics and intelligence and the application of eugenic policies
  • Empiricists suggest any behaviour can be changed by altering the individual's environment - behaviour shaping
  • Could lead to complete social control by the state for the "good" of everyone
• Nature vs nurture

  Research

  • One strength of the research is adoption studies
  • Useful as they separate the competing influences of nature and nurture
  • If adopted children are more similar to their adoptive parents, environment must be the bigger influence - vice versa
  • Shows how adoption studies are vital for separating the influences of nature and nurture
  • Research suggests nature and nurture cannot be separated
  • Plomin suggested people create their own nurture by selecting environments appropriate for their nature (niche-picking)
  • Does not make sense to look at nature and nurture separately
• Nature vs nurture

  Interactionism - diathesis-stress

  • Diathesis - biological vulnerability (e.g. a gene that predisposes you to a disorder)
  • Stressor - environmental trigger that causes the disorder to develop (e.g. trauma)
  • Supports interactionism as the tendency for criminal behaviour comes from a genetic predisposition and having criminal role models
  • Shows both genetic and environmental influences play a part in offending behaviour
• Nature vs nurture

  Interactionism - epigenetics

  • A change in our genetic activity without changing the genes themselves
  • Occurs through interactions with our environment throughout our lives
  • Aspects of our lifestyle leave "markers" on our DNA which switch genes on or off
  • These changes can also affect genetic code for future generations
  • In 1994, Nazis blocked food distribution to Dutch people
  • Susser and Lin reported Dutch women who became pregnant during this time gave birth to low weight babies which were 2x as likely to develop Sz
  • Supports epigenetics
• Nature vs nurture

  Interactionism - neuroplasticity

  • The ability of the brain to adapt its processes and structures as a result of experience and new learning
  • Maguire investigated the hippocampus volume of London taxi drivers in comparison to non-taxi drivers
  • Found that the hippocampus (particularly the right side) was much larger in taxi drivers
  • Concluded that driving a taxi (nurture) actually had an effect on the size of the hippocampus (nature)