Comparing approaches

• Determinism v Free Will

  > Does the approach believe we are free to choose how to behave and respond (free will) or does the approach argue our behaviour is inevitable (deterministic) due to either internal or external factors
• Reductionism v Holism

  > Does the approach explain human behaviour by breaking it down in to simple basic units e.g. biology or does the approach consider a holistic view and take in to account the persons culture and socio-economic background when explaining their behaviour
• Nature v Nurture

  > Does the approach explain behaviour through the role of the environment (nurture) or does the approach focus on innate factors (nature)?
• Practical applications

  > Has the approach led to real world applications? Has the approach developed a treatment that can be used to help people with mental illnesses such as depression

  > Is the treatment effective
• Scientific methods

  > Does the approach use scientific techniques to study human behaviour such as gene mapping, PET scans etc

  > Or does it study human behaviour using abstract/untestable techniques?

  > Does it use human participants or animals?
• Idiographic approach

  > An idiographic approach to psychological investigation focuses on the individual and their unique experiences.

  > An idiographic approach would use research methods that gain in-depth qualitative data such as open questionnaires and unstructured interviews.

  > They would use small samples of participants.
• Nomothetic approach

  > On the other hand, a nomothetic approach to psychological investigation uses objective methods to study human behaviout such as lab experiments and brain scans.

  > They use large samples of participants to study and aim to generalise their findings to the wider population to create general laws of human behaviour.