Strengths and weaknesses of four approaches WJEC

ADVANTAGES

-Scientific Approach

• Uses lab experiments 
• Quantifiable data

-Successful applications

• Classical conditioning applied in Aversion Therapy
• operant conditioning been applied in successful teaching techniques, positive and negative reinforcement develops behaviour in a classroom.

-Focuses on here and now

• Not concerned about events in a persons past. 
• e.g. Aversion therapy used to treat alcoholism

WEAKNESSES

-It focuses on the nurture side of the argument. 

• Role of nature ignored.
• role of external factors exaggerated.

-Deterministic

• Doesn't consider the thought processes that people have before acting the way they do.
• Undermines our choice of free will.

-More relevent to animals than humans

• Has its roots from Pavlov and Skinner both non-animal experiments 
• Humans may not respond in same way.

STRENGTHS

-Nature and Nurture

• Adult personality product of innate drives.(Nature)
• Also childhood experiences(Nurture)

-Usefulness

• Highlights fact childhood is a critical period.
• Freuds ideas have influenced therapies that treat mental disorders greatly.First person to put forward that psychological factors could play a part in physical symptoms.
• Useful approach for understanding Mental health.

-Reflects complexity of human behaviour

• seeks to uncover deep meanings and acknowledge deep understanding.

Weaknesses

-Reductioist approach 

• Mechanistic reductionism because it explains complex human behaviour with mechanisms such as the ID, EGO and superEGO.
• Ignores important influences such as biochemistry and genetics 
• e.g in 50s and 60s autism was explained by the fact the mother was not close enough to child.

-Determinist approach

• Tells us we have no free will of what we become when we grow up, all due to childhood experiences.

-Cannot be proven wrong

• Difficult to falsify
• All theories are about repressed feelings if there  repressed they cant be measured

Strengths

-Meditional Process

• Focuses on important process between stimulus and response.
• Tried to explain how processes such as memory and perception affect the way we respond to the world.
• Helped with practical psychology e.g. improving memory using cue cards.

-Important contributions

• has useful applied therapies, CBT that treats menatal disorders, such as depression.
• Much of thinking is cognitive in nature, involved at looking at world and people around us.

-Scientific Approach

• Lab experiments, quantifiable, repeatable, controlled variables.

WEAKNESSES

-Nature and Nurture

• Doesnt take in important parts such as Genes e.g. twin studies
• social and cultural factors ignored seems unrealistic.

-Deterministic

• we form schemas when we encounter something new but these may be incorrect e.g. a child may call everything with forur legs and hair a dog or that woman with blonde hair are stupid these cultural stereotypes may determine the way we interpret a situation.

-Mechanistic Approach

• It portrays human beings as being like machines.
• Ignore social and emotional factors, over simplify therefore reductionist also.

STRENGTHS

-Scientific Approach

• Have clear variables that can be measured, tracked and examined.

-Determinist

• We know what predetermines our behaviour, more likely to be able to treat people with abnormal behaviour.e.g. Neurotransmitter dopamine been linked to schizophrenia.

-Successful applications 

• Psychsurgery effective

WEAKNESSES

-Reductionist

• Reduce complex behaviours to simple explanation 
• Saysa mental illness is basically the chemical system gone wrong, this does not take into account any distress happening in their life.

-Nature 

• Focuses on nature 
• Ignores life experiences and physiological factors such as how people think or feel.

-Individual differences

• Nometheticapproach, makes generalisations about people 
• ignores individual differences e.g. when stressed people produce different amounts of adrenaline.