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Summary Alevel psychology issues and debates revision notes
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detailed but concise notes on the issues and debates topic. includes ao1 and ao3
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Issues and DebatesFree will and Determinism
This debates revolves around the extent to which our behaviour is the
result of forces over which we have no control or whether people are
able to decide for themselves whether to act or behave in a certain way
Free Will
A01 – free will suggests that we all have a choice and can control and
choose our own behaviour. This approach is all about personal
responsibility and plays a central role in Humanist psychology. By arguing
that humans can make free choices, the free will approach is quite the
opposite of the deterministic one. Psychologists who take the free will
view suggest that determinism removes freedom and dignity and
devalues human behaviour. To a lesser degree, cognitive psychology
supports idea of free will and choice. In reality, although we have free will
it is constrained by circumstances and other people e.g., shopping and
money.
A03 – strengths: emphasise the importance of the individual and studying
individual differences. It fits society’s view of personal responsibility,
break the law, punish. Limitations: free will is subjective, it is impossible
to scientifically test the concept, few people agree that behaviour is
always in complete control of the individual.
Determinism
A01 – the determinist approach proposes that all behaviour is
determined and thus predictable. Some approaches in psychology see the
source of this determinism as being outside the individual, a position
known as environmental determinism. Other see it coming from inside,
biological determinism. Environment – idea that our behaviour is caused
by some sort of outside influence. Skinner argued free will is an illusion,
behaviour is determined by past experiences. We think we are free, but
this is because we are not aware of how our behaviour is determined by
reinforcement. Biological -our biological systems govern our behaviour.
, Psychic – Freud believed childhood experiences and unconscious
motivations governed behaviour, free will is an illusion. Hard
determinism: free will is an illusion. Soft: people have a choice but that is
constrained by external factors e.g., poor not mean steal but more likely
to take that route.
A03 – strengths: scientific, cause and effect relationship, plausible
evidence for back up of behaviour (reverse engineering). Limitations :
reductionist, does not account for individual differences, hard suggests
criminals cannot be held accountable for their actions.
Nature & Nurture
The central question to which our behaviour is determined by our biology
or the influence of environmental factors.
Nature
A01 – nature is the view that all our behaviour is determined by our
biology and gene. This is not the same as the characteristics you are born
with because these may have been determined by your prenatal
environment. In addition, some genetic characteristics only appear later
in development as a result of the process of maturation. Evolutionary
explanations of human behaviour, assumption is that any particular
behaviour evolved because of its survival value e.g., Bowlby attachment
theory.
A03 – strengths: Bowlby explanation of attachment does not ignore
environmental influences as it generally true for evolutionary
explanations. In the case of attachment Bowlby proposed infants’ strong
attachment to responsive one, experience of sensitive caregiving leads to
a child to develop that others will be equally sensitive. Limitations:
problem of transgenerational effect, those that appear to be an effect of
nature ut are really nurture e.g., women during pregnancy, child suffer.
Nurture
A01 – nurture is the opposite that the view all behaviour is learned and
influenced by external factors such as environment. Empiricists that
believe all knowledge gained through experience. Behaviourism, all
behaviour learned through environment. SLT, bobo doll.
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