eclectic essay + application PSYB4 12/12

‘There are a number of approaches in psychology. Each approach is valuable in itself, but combining the knowledge and insights of several approaches provides a more complete understanding of behaviour.’ Discuss this statement. Support your answer with reference to at least two topics in psychology.

Combining the knowledge and insights of several approached is an ‘eclectic approach’. Eclecticism considered a more sensible, reasonable and practical approach to psychology. Taking an eclectic approach shows an understanding and acknowledgement that having only one approach in psychology cannot fully explain human behaviour.

When looking at gender, the term sex refers to the biological status of male or female. The biological approach would use the chromosomes and gametes to determine and individual’s gender, however most other approaches would say gender is split into two topics, how we are biologically identified and how we identify ourselves. An example of ‘split’ gender is when a male is born with a penis but considered to have more feminine than masculine traits and thus identify himself as a woman this is called being transgender.  The biological approach cannot explain why this man would identify as a woman but using assumptions of other approaches such as the cognitive approach,…