Advantages and Disadvantages of the Approaches in Psychology

Advantages:

• Scientific credibility - objective and has experiments to support it (Skinner Box)
• Real-life applications - token econmy used in prisons - treating phobias

Disadvantages:

• Mechanistic - mental processes not taken into account
• Hard determinism - all our behaviour is down to our environment
• Ethical issues with experiments - using animals - rats and dogs
• Lacks ecological validity - experimental findings generalised to humans

Advantages:

• Takes into account both cognitive and environmental factors
• Scientific - experiment with bobo doll
• Explains culteral differences

Disadvantages:

• Low validity - experiments done in a lab and so possibly of demand characteristics being shown
• Underestimates influence of biology - aggression may be down to high levels of testosterone in boys

Advantages:

• Scientific - experiments produce reliable and objective data
• Real-life applications - devleoped therapies like CBT

Disadvantages:

• Machine reductionism - ignores influence of emotions

Advantages:

• Explanatory power - had a huge influence on psychology
• Practical applications - psychoanalysis

Disadvantages:

• Non-scientific - cannot study the unconscious mind
• Hard determinism - denies possibility of free-will

Advantages:

• Highly scientific - uses precise techniques like scans
• Real-life applications - development of psychotheraputic drugs

Disadvantages:

• Drugs are only used to treat the symptoms not the causes
• Hard determinism - all our behaviour is down to genetics 
• Cannot seperate nature and nurture

Advantages:

• Not reductionist - places importance on the whole person
• Positive approach - sees people as basically good

Disadvantages:

• Non-scientific - vague ideas that are difficult to test
• Limited applications
• Culteral bias - only focuses on the individual