Comparison of approaches

• Determinism


  The belief that behaviour is determined by forces other than the individual's will to do something
• Approaches covered in this chapter

  • Behaviourist
  • Social learning
  • Cognitive
  • Biological
  • Psychodynamic
  • Humanistic
• Free will


  The alternative to determinism, where the individual is seen as being capable of self-determination
• Our behaviour is probably a mixture of determinism and free will, somewhere in between the two extremes
• What behaviour is determined by in each approach

  • Behaviourist: The consequences of our behaviour
  • Social learning: Observations of others
  • Cognitive: Our own thought processes
  • Biological: Physiological, biochemical and hormonal factors, and inherited (genetic) factors
  • Psychodynamic: Unconscious factors
  • Humanistic: Our own free will
• Nature


  Behaviour is seen to be a product of innate (biological or genetic) factors
• Nurture


  Behaviour is a product of environmental influences
• Human behaviour is rarely entirely one or the other (nature or nurture) alone, it is usually a combination of the two
• The origin of behaviour in each approach

  • Behaviourist: Nurture
  • Social learning: Primarily nurture, with some innate capacity to learn
  • Cognitive: Both nature and nurture
  • Biological: Primarily nature, but experience may modify
  • Psychodynamic: Both nature and nurture
  • Humanistic: Both nature and nurture
• Science


  A systematic approach to creating knowledge. The method used to gain scientific knowledge is referred to as the scientific method.
• Commitment to the scientific method in each approach


  • Behaviourist: Positive, highly objective and experimentally focused
  • Social learning: Positive to a degree
  • Cognitive: Mixed, as mental processes are largely unobservable
  • Biological: Positive, lends itself to experimental study
  • Psychodynamic: Mixed, with more reliance on case studies and subjective interpretation
  • Humanistic: Largely negative, argue scientific methods are not appropriate