comparison

• real world applications for treatment

  psychodynamic: psychoanalysis

  behaviourist: flooding / SD

  humanistic: person centered counselling

  cognitive: CBT

  SLT: importance of role models

  biological: drug therapy
• approaches can be compared on their

  • scientific methodology
  • determinism
  • nature vs nurture
  • reductionism
  • psychological treatments
• Scientific methodology: Behaviourist

  • Highly scientific: focuses on observable stimuli and responses
  • Research: Pavlov's dogs, Skinner's rats (large samples, standardised procedures, controlled conditions)
  • Focus on the scientific method enables replication of findings
• Scientific methodology: SLT

  • Uses experimental techniques: large sample sizes, lab conditions
  • Investigates concepts: modeling, vicarious reinforcement
  • Less scientific: Studies mediational processes (internal mental processes) that are inferred from behaviour, reducing scientific credibility
• Scientific methodology: Biological

  • Highly scientific: Studies observable physical processes (e.g. brain activity)
  • Uses objective measuring devices: fMRI scanners, DNA sequences, blood tests.
  • Large-scale placebo-controlled trials to test drugs
• Scientific Methodology: Humanistic

  • Rejects the scientific method: Argues human behaviour is too complex to reduce to variables
  • Rejects cause-and-effect principle, lacking empirical evidence
• Determinism: Behaviourist

  • Environmental determinists: Behaviour results from experiences and interactions with the environment
  • Rewarded behaviours are more likely to be repeated
  • No role for free will
• Determinism: SLT

  • Environmentally deterministic: Bandura argued for reciprocal determinism
  • Behaviour is caused by the environment, and the environment is influenced by behaviour
• Determinism: biological

  • Biological determinism: Behaviours are caused by physical nature (hormones, brain, neurotransmitters, genes)
  • No role for free will
• Determinism: humanistic

  • Argues for free will: Humans have agency to make their own decisions without restraints.
  • Moral responsibility for choices
• Nature vs nurture: Behaviourist

  • Extreme end of nurture debate: Most important influences are environmental factors (stimuli, consequences)
  • Role for nature: Reflex actions are innate e.g. drooling for food
• Nature vs nurture: SLT

  • Explains behaviour through nurture: stimulus-response mechanisms, social experiences (observing models, vicarious reinforcement)
• Nature vs nurture: Biological

  • Extreme end of nature debate: Most important influences are hereditary
  • Behaviours explained by inheritance of DNA (neurotransmitter transport, imbalances leading to aggression or mental health conditions)
• Nature vs nurture: Humanistic

  • Holistic: Explanation must include a wide range of factors
  • Influence of genes (nature) and environmental factors (nurture)
• Behaviourist Approach

  • Highly reductive: Complex behaviour is explained as a chain of simple stimulus-response links.
• Social Learning Theory

  • Less reductionist: Includes internal mental processes (mediational processes - attention, retention, reproduction, motivation)
• Biological Approach

  • Highly reductionist: Explains behaviour (aggression, attachment, mental health) as chemical processes in the brain
  • Oversimplifies complex experiences and ignores cognitive and cultural forces
• Humanistic Approach

  • Against reductionist explanations: Only valid explanation is holistic
  • Includes biological factors, direct experiences, education, social learning, and culture