Issues and debates

• Issues


  Important factors that must be considered when conducting psychological research
• Debates


  Arguments within psychology representing different viewpoints on how to understand and explain human behavior
• Debates


  • Reductionism vs Holism
  • Determinism vs Free Will
  • Nature vs Nurture
  • Individual vs Situational
• Reductionism


  • Psychologists attempt to break down behavior into its constituent parts
  • Focuses on individual factors
• Holism


  • Sees human behavior as too complex to be reduced to single explanations
  • Focuses on the whole, considering many factors that influence behavior
• Determinism


  • Suggests we lack control over our behavior, which is controlled by determining factors
• Free Will


  • Suggests human beings are entirely free to act as they choose and are responsible for the outcomes of their behavior
• Soft Determinism


  • Suggests we have some element of free will, but it is constrained by other factors
• Nature


  • Sees biological factors as the explanation for thinking and behavior
• Nurture


  • Sees behavior as being learned or acquired through experiences and the environment
• Individual


  • Suggests personality or disposition of the person is the cause of their behavior, thoughts, or attitudes
• Situational


  • Suggests the circumstances and context around an individual influence their behavior, thoughts, or attitudes
• Issues in Psychology


  • Psychology as a Science
  • Conducting Socially Sensitive Research
  • Ethical Considerations
  • Usefulness of Research
• Psychology as a Science

  • Considerations of whether psychology should be considered a science, including factors like causality, falsification, replicability, objectivity, etc.
• Socially Sensitive Research


  • Research that could create a negative impact on a group within society, such as causing controversy, stigma, or discrimination
• Ethical Considerations


  • Weighing the values and ethical practices involved in conducting research
• Usefulness of Research


  • Considering whether research is useful in adding to knowledge and being applicable to real-world situations
• Free Will


  This is the belief that all humans have conscious control and choice over all of their behaviours. I.e. an individual may act aggressively because they choose to act aggressively.
• Strength of Free Will

  This view places all responsibility for behaviour on the individual's choices, which is in line with how our criminal justice system works.
• Weakness of Free Will

  When we make choices, these are not just limited by our biology, but are also affected by our cognitive processes and the environment we live in, so it is not fair to judge behaviour in terms of black and white: free-will or determinism
• Determinism

  Psychologists who take this position argue that humans do not have any free choice over their behaviour; instead, they argue that all human behaviour is pre-determined by either past experiences/situational causes, or by biological factors such as genetic inheritance, hormones or brain anatomy.
• Strength of Determinism

  Deterministic views allow us to predict how people will behave based on their past experiences/biological factors.
• Weakness of Determinism


  One weakness is that deterministic explanations allow for the removal of responsibility from the individual. This could have important ramifications for the way we manage law breaking in society.

  Study example: Bandura.
• Reductionism


  This is the view that all human behaviour can be explained in terms of single, very basic causes (e.g. hormones, or classical conditioning). Therefore the task of the psychologist is to identify these causes carefully through controlled experiments in which variables can be isolated and tested.
• Strength of Reductionism


  Reductionist explanations of behaviour are usually based on highly controlled research.

  Study example: Loftus and Palmer.
• Weakness of Reductionism


  Reductionist explanations of behaviour are too simplistic in that they ignore many other factors which may interact to explain behaviour.

  Study example: Grant et al.
• Holism


  This is the view that when explaining human behaviour psychologists should look at the multitude of different factors which interact together to cause behaviour.
• Strength of Holism


  These explanations are useful because they see the individual as a whole person, rather than simply explaining behaviour in terms of simple single causes.

  Study example: Freud
• Weakness of Holism

  It is difficult to support holistic explanations of behaviour scientifically, because such explanations rely on the use of a variety of research methods in case studies, which is a time-consuming process and difficult to replicate.

  Study example: Freud
• Nature


  This is the view that all human behaviour can be explained in terms of genetic inheritance, it argues that our characteristics are determined by our genes, and therefore the same characteristics we experienced in adulthood should be present from birth.
• Strength of Nature


  Useful applications for treatments and medication. The brain can now be targeted with treatments which may improve people's ability to delay gratification (E.g. Casey et al.)
• Weakness of Nature


  One weakness of claiming that behaviour is due to nature is that it is very reductionist as it only focuses on one influence on human behaviour.

  Study example: Casey.
• Nurture

  This is the view that human behaviour is the result of our upbringing and past experiences. This view therefore believes that our behaviours, personality etc.... may change and develop throughout our life.
• Strength of Nurture


  One strength is that such explanations of behaviour have provided useful applications in the field of teaching and child rearing practices.

  Study example: Bandura/Chaney.
• Weakness of Nurture


  One weakness is that it is reductionist as it only focuses on external influences of behaviour and ignored other factors such as genetics.
• Situational


  This is the view that our actions and behaviours are a product of the situation we are in at the time those behaviours occur. This view therefore states that different people will act in the same way when put in the same environment.
• Strength of Situational Factors

  One strength is that explaining behaviours in terms of these factors has useful applications to the real world.
• Weakness of Situation Factors

  One weakness of these explanations of behaviour is that is it too deterministic; it ignores the role of free-will in individual's overcoming their situation to choose their own behaviour.
• Individual/Dispositional


  This is the view that our behaviour is because of factors internal to an individual. These internal factors may be dispositional factors such as biological make-up (genetics) or personality.
• Strength of Individual/Dispositional Factors

  Explanations based on individual factors such as the biological make-up of the individual tend to be based on scientific research.