Key Approaches
- Created by: Jellie56
- Created on: 09-05-13 17:59
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- Approaches
- Biological
- Assumptions
- Behavioural continuity between species
- We are innate - inborn
- Behaviour is inherited and determined by our genes
- Behaviour has evolved and genes that help us to survive will be passed on
- Research
- Surgery and brain scans
- Twin studies
- Experiments to test the effect of drugs
- Strengths
- Methods are highly scientific
- Has useful applications e.g. drug therapy
- Weaknesses
- Problems with generalising findings from animal experiments
- Suggests that people don't have free will
- Assumptions
- Behaviourist
- Assumptions
- Believe in parsimony
- Only believe in studying overt behaviour
- Behaviour is learned through classical conditioning
- Believe in biological continuity
- Research
- Laboratory experiments with animals
- Laboratory experiments
- Observation
- Strengths
- Many therapies have been derived e,g, token economy
- Uses highly controlled scientific methods
- Weaknesses
- Deterministic - behaviour is only determined by our environment
- Problems with generalising findings from animal experiments
- Assumptions
- Social Learning Theory
- Assumptions
- Identification - desire to be like someone, so there is a desire to imitate them
- Vicarios reinforcement - through observations of the consequences of others actions
- Observational learning - attention, retention, motor production, motivation
- Behaviour is learned through observation and imitation
- Research
- Observations
- Laboratory experiments
- Strengths
- Explains the learning of complex human behaviours e.g. aggression
- Considers mental processing (mediating cognitive factors)
- Weaknesses
- Not all behaviours learned by obsrevation can be copied
- Doesn't explain individual differences
- Assumptions
- Cognitive
- Assumptions
- Human mind is comapred to a computer
- Events within a person need to be studied in order to fully understand behaviour
- Humans actively process information
- Concerned with how thinking shapes behaviour
- Research
- Case studies
- Scans
- Laboratory experiments
- Strengths
- Successful therapies have been developed e.g. for depression
- Considers the role of thinking in behaviour
- Weaknesses
- Shows how cognitive processes happen, but ignores why
- Likens human processing to machines which is simplistic and reductionist
- Assumptions
- Humanistic
- Assumptions
- Therapy - client centred, holistic, empathetic
- Behaviour is motivated by hierachy of needs
- Emphasis is on the self, psychological problems are from differences between the ideal self and percieved self
- People have free will to choose how to behave
- Research
- Observations
- Case studies
- Strengths
- Client-centred therapy is effective for minor problems and has lead to the growth of counselling
- A person is responsible for their own behaviour
- Weaknesses
- Unscientific as it rejects scientific methods and principles
- Focuses on the individual so generalisations can't be made to all human behaviour
- Assumptions
- Psychodynamic
- Assumptions
- Defence mechanisms protect our conscious from unpleasant events
- Personality has 3 parts - id, ego and superego
- Development takes place in the psychosexual stages, but we can get fixated at stages if the conflict is not resolved
- Early childhood experiences influence adult behaviour and personality
- Research
- Case studies
- Strengths
- Freud recognised the importance of childhood experience for later life
- Psychoanalysis methods are still used in psychiatry today
- Weaknesses
- The use of case studies lacks generalisability
- It is unfalsifiable so also unscientific
- Assumptions
- Biological
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