Great Debates

1
Great Debates

• Holism Vs Reductionism
• Idiographic Vs Nomothetic
• Free Will Vs Determinism
• Nature Vs Nurture

2
What are the Debates?

• A spectrum of two concepts.
• A disagreement about a range of issues.
• The different positions lead to different
  approaches.

3
Holism Vs Reductionism

• Holism
• Emphasis on the whole person.
• Gestalt Psychology.
• Interactionist Approach.

• Reductionism
• Breaking down complex issues into simpler parts
• Biological Reductionism.
• Hierarchy of sciences.

4
Holism - Introduction

• Human behaviour is complex.
• It should be looked at as a whole rather than in
  parts.

5
Holism Gestalt Psychology

• 1915-1945.
• Gestalt German, meaning whole configuration.
• The whole of behaviour and experience is more
  than the sum of its parts.
• Kohler (1925) demonstrated insight learning in
  chimpanzees.

6
Holism Interactionist Approach

• Explains human behaviour in terms of links or
  interactions between different levels of
  explanations.
• Takes biological, psychological, social, etc
  factors into account to build a better
  understanding.

7
Holism - Strengths

• Provides a complete picture.
• Does not ignore the complexity of behaviour.
• The person is seen as an entity to be considered
  in its own right.
• Seeks to integrate different components in order
  to understand the person as a whole.

8
Holism - Limitations

• Does not lend itself to scientific inquiry and
  empirical testing.
• Tends to neglect the importance of biological
  explanations specifically the role of genes.
• More hypothetical than lower-level reductionist
  explanations and theories lack the predictive
  power of a scientific explanation.

9
Reductionism - Introduction

• Complex phenomena can be explained by breaking
  them down into separate simpler components.

10
Reductionism Biological

• Attempts to explain all behaviour in terms of
  biology.
• Assumes continuity of behaviour between animals
  and humans.

11
Reductionism Hierarchy of Sciences

• Less precise, more general sciences at the top.
• More narrowly focused and precise sciences at the
  bottom.
• Watson There is only one science, Physics the
  rest is just social work.

12
Reductionism - Strengths

• Has brought with it both analytic and scientific
  ways of attempting to understand and explain
  behaviour.
• Scientific investigation allows for empirical
  investigation.
• Demonstrates how biology is for understanding and
  explaining behaviour.

13
Reductionism - Limitations

• May lead to an over simplistic view of behaviour
  the complexity is missed.
• Many theories have been developed but no attempt
  has been made to combine the theories.
• Some physicists argue it suffers from an infinite
  regress parts can be reduced endlessly.

14
Holism/Reductionism Relating to Topics

• Schizophrenia in terms of neurotransmitters and
  genes (Reductionist) in terms of socio-cultural
  explanations (higher level more holistic).
• Humanistic a person can only be understood as a
  whole (Holistic).

15
Idiographic Vs Nomothetic

• Idiographic
• Focus on the individual and recognition of
  uniqueness.
• Private, subjective and conscious experiences.
• Qualitative methods of investigation.

• Nomothetic
• Attempts to establish laws and generalisations
  about people.
• Three kinds of laws.
• Objective knowledge through scientific methods.
• Quantitative methods of investigation.

16
Idiographic - Introduction

• Suggests everyone is unique and therefore every
  one should be studied in an individual way.
• No general laws are possible because of chance,
  free will and the uniqueness of individuals.

17
Idiographic Methods of Investigation

• Tends to include quantitative data, investigating
  individuals in a personal and detailed way.
• Methods of research include case study,
  unstructured interviews, self-reports,
  autobiographies and personal documents.

18
Idiographic - Strengths

• Provides a more complete or global understanding
  of the individual.
• Satisfies key aim of science description and
  understanding of behaviour.
• Findings can serve as a source of ideas or
  hypotheses for later study.
• The focuses mean the individual feels valued and
  unique.

19
Idiographic - Limitations

• Difficult to generalise from detailed subjective
  knowledge about one person.
• Often regarded as non-scientific as subjective
  experience cannot be empirically tested.
• Largely neglects biological, especially genetic,
  influences.

20
Nomothetic - Introduction

• Focuses on similarities between people.
• Attempts to establish laws and generalisations
  about people.
• Laws can be categorised into three kinds
  classifying people into groups establishing
  principles and establishing dimensions.

21
Nomothetic Three Kinds

• Classifying people into groups
• Such as the DSMIV for classifying people with
  mood disorders.
• Establishing principles
• Such as the behaviourist laws of learning.
• Establishing dimensions
• Such as Eysencks personality inventory which
  allows for comparisons between people.

22
Nomothetic Methods of Investigation

• Uses scientific and quantitative data.
• Usually uses experiments and observations.
• Group averages are statistically analysed to
  create predictions about people in general.

23
Nomothetic - Strengths

• Regarded as scientific as it is precise
  measurement prediction and control of behaviour
  investigations of large groups objective and
  controlled methods allowing replication and
  generalisation.
• Has helped psychology as a whole become
  scientific by developing laws and theories which
  can be empirically tested.
• Combines biological and social aspects.

24
Nomothetic - Limitations

• Predictions can be made about groups but these
  may not apply to individuals.
• Approach has been accused of losing sight of the
  whole person.
• Gives a superficial understanding people may
  act the same but for different reasons.
• Extensive use of controlled laboratory
  experiments creates a lack of generalisation to
  everyday life.

25
Idiographic/Nomothetic Working Together

• Both have a role but relative value of each
  depends on the purpose of the research.
• Two approaches can be complementary idiographic
  can further develop a nomothetic law.
• Both can contribute to scientific approach
  idiographic suited to description nomothetic to
  predictions.

26
Idiographic/Nomothetic Relating to Topics

• Child development Bowlbys maternal deprivation
  theory (Nomothetic).
• Memory case studies on how memory is affected
  by brain damage (Idiographic complemented
  nomothetic, furthering general laws).
• Humanistic emphasises individual (Idiographic)
• Psychodynamic use of case studies (Idiographic).

27
Free Will Vs Determinism

• Free Will
• The ability to make decisions and choose
  behaviours freely.
• How is it tested?

• Determinism
• All behaviour is caused by prior events.
• Internal and external.
• Hard and soft determinism.
• Biological, psychic and environmental determinism.

28
Free Will - Introduction

• Dictionary A hypothetical and often reified
  internal agency that functions independently of
  externally imposed forces.

29
Free Will How is it Tested?

• Cannot meet the rigours of scientific testing due
  to the lack of an operational definition.
• Abstract and hypothetical concepts have to be
  turned into measureable and observable operations.

30
Free Will - Strengths

• Allows individual differences and the uniqueness
  of a person.
• Observable that some people choose to act in a
  way different to others.

31
Free Will - Limitations

• Difficult to measure/prove.
• Difficult to accept an explanation of behaviour
  if we follow free will.
• Not scientific.
• Nearly always there are some sort of forces in
  making a decision.

32
Determinism - Introduction

• All behaviour is caused by underlying factors.

33
Determinism Internal/External

• Internal Determinism
• Internal causes of behaviour are seen as causes
  of behaviour.
• Such as biological factors and mental processes.

• External Determinism
• Behaviour occurs because there is a cause in the
  environment.

34
Determinism - Hard/Soft

• Hard Determinism
• Behaviour is caused by events outside ones
  personal control.
• Sees free will as an illusion as behaviour is
  always predictable and therefore determined.

• Soft Determinism
• Behaviour is determined or caused by a persons
  own character, wishes or conscious desires.
• A compromise free will plays a part but there
  are always other forces.

35
Determinism - Biological

• Includes the controlling role of different parts
  of the brain, hormonal system and genetics on
  behaviour.
• Some studies have indicated a genetic
  predisposition towards some behaviours.

36
Determinism - Psychic

• Represented by Freuds psychodynamic theory.
• Human behaviour, thoughts and feelings are caused
  by the life and death instincts and by repressed
  conflicts, wishes and memories in the unconscious
  mind.
• Because it is unconscious people believe they are
  free.

37
Determinism - Environmental

• Behaviour is caused by factors within the
  external environment.
• The power of the situation (as demonstrated by
  Asch and Milgram) and how social factors can have
  a strong effect on behaviour.
• Free will is seen as an illusion.

38
Determinism - Strengths

• More scientific as it can be measured.
• Has a compromise for free will and explains why
  it seems as if it is free will when in reality it
  is not.
• Can be applied to many areas of psychology.
• Helps Psychology be seen as a science as it means
  all behaviour is predictable and can be controled.

39
Determinism - Limitations

• Some behaviour is unpredictable and does not
  follow the conventions/predictions.
• Takes away individuals choices and uniqueness.

40
Free Will/Determinism Relating to Topics

• Obedience Milgrims participants felt that had
  to obey him (Deterministic).
• Offending behaviour most theories include some
  elements of determinism.
• Humanistic people direct their own lives and
  goals (Free will).
• Cognitive people select what they want (Soft
  determinism).

41
Nature Vs Nurture

• Nature
• The effect of genes.
• Methods of investigating effect of Nature.

• Nurture
• The effect of the environment.
• Types of environmental influence.
• Levels of environment.
• Methods of investigating effect of Nurture.

42
Nature - Introduction

• Concerned with how genes influence behaviour.
• Genes are passed to offspring from the parents.
• Genotype.

43
Nature Methods of Investigating

• Twin Studies Using MZ twins if they have a
  high concordance nature must play a part.
• Adoption studies If the offspring act the same
  as their biological parents rather than adoptive
  parents nature must play a part.
• Largely scientific.

44
Nature Strengths

• Can be seen in many studies that Nature has a
  large part.
• Experiments have influenced useful applications
  for treatments.
• Scientifically tested.

45
Nature - Limitations

• Neglects the role of the environment.
• Often hard to find twins or adoption studies to
  relate to the topic of interest.

46
Nurture - Introduction

• Concerned with the role of the environment.
• The environment shapes all of a persons
  personality and behaviours.
• Phenotype.

47
Nurture Types of Environmental Influence

• External and individual.
• Post-natal.
• Acting on a passive individual.

48
Nurture Levels of Environment

• Lerner (1986).
• The influence of the environment can be narrow,
  such as pre-natal, or more general, such as
  sociocultural environment.

Mothers Psychological State
Postbirth Experiences
Where and when born
49
Nurture Methods of Investigation

• Twin studies Using MZ twins reared apart if
  there is low concordance nurture may play a large
  part.
• Adoption studies If there is a high concordance
  between adoptive parents and low concordance
  between biological parents nurture may play a
  large part.

50
Nurture Strengths

• Takes the environment into consideration.
• Has created useful treatments such as behaviour
  therapy.

51
Nurture - Limitations

• Neglects the biological impact on behaviour.
• Often hard to find twins or adoption studies that
  satisfy the needs of a relevant topic of interest.

52
Nature/Nurture Relating to Topics

• Biological all behaviour is due to innate
  forces (Nature).
• Behaviourist all behaviour is due to
  environmental forces (Nurture).
• Gender Batista Boys hormones overtook
  upbringing (Nature).
• Schizophrenia Family and twin studies show high
  concordance rates (Nature).
• Child Development Harlows Monkeys they
  attached because of external forces (Nurture).