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A key requirement of the AQA A-Level Psychology specification is the ability to compare and contrast the major psychological approaches. This lesson provides a systematic framework for comparing the approaches you have studied, focusing on their key assumptions, methods, and positions on the major debates in psychology.
| Dimension | Behaviourist | Social Learning Theory | Cognitive | Biological | Psychodynamic | Humanistic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View of human nature | Humans are passive; behaviour shaped by environment | Humans are active; learn through observation and cognitive mediation | Humans are information processors | Humans are biological organisms | Humans are driven by unconscious forces | Humans are inherently good; strive for growth |
| Determinism vs Free will | Environmental determinism | Soft determinism (reciprocal determinism) | Soft determinism (schemas influence but do not dictate) | Biological determinism | Psychic determinism (unconscious drives) | Free will |
| Nature vs Nurture | Nurture | Nurture (with some acknowledgement of nature) | Both (schemas from experience; biology via cognitive neuroscience) | Nature | Nature (instincts) and nurture (childhood experience) | Nurture (conditions of worth) but emphasis on free will |
| Reductionism vs Holism | Reductionist (stimulus-response) | Less reductionist than behaviourism | Reductionist (machine reductionism) | Reductionist (biological reductionism) | Relatively holistic (considers multiple interacting forces) | Holistic |
| Scientific status | Very scientific (lab experiments) | Scientific (lab experiments) | Scientific (lab experiments, brain imaging) | Very scientific (objective measures) | Unscientific (case studies, unfalsifiable) | Unscientific (subjective concepts) |
| Idiographic vs Nomothetic | Nomothetic (general laws) | Nomothetic | Nomothetic | Nomothetic | Idiographic (individual case studies) | Idiographic |
| Position | Approach(es) | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Hard determinism | Behaviourist, Biological | Behaviour is entirely determined by external (environmental) or internal (biological) forces; individuals have no genuine choice |
| Soft determinism | Cognitive, SLT | Behaviour is influenced by internal/external factors but individuals have some degree of choice (e.g. reciprocal determinism in SLT) |
| Free will | Humanistic | Individuals are free agents capable of making genuine choices about their behaviour |
| Psychic determinism | Psychodynamic | Behaviour is determined by unconscious forces, childhood experiences, and instinctual drives |
Exam Tip: In a comparison question, always link the approaches explicitly to the debates. For example: "The behaviourist approach is environmentally deterministic because it argues that all behaviour is shaped by conditioning, whereas the humanistic approach emphasises free will, arguing that individuals have genuine choice and agency."
| Position | Approach(es) | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | Biological | Behaviour is primarily determined by genetics, neurochemistry, brain structures, and evolution |
| Nurture | Behaviourist, SLT | Behaviour is learned from the environment through conditioning or observation |
| Interactionist | Cognitive, Psychodynamic | Both nature and nurture contribute to behaviour (e.g. schemas are shaped by experience; Freud acknowledges both instincts and childhood experience) |
Reductionist approaches break behaviour down into simpler components:
Holistic approaches consider the whole person:
| Behaviour | Best Explained By | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Depression | Cognitive + Biological | Beck's cognitive triad (negative schemas) explains the thinking patterns; low serotonin explains the neurochemical basis; CBT and SSRIs are both effective treatments |
| Aggression | Biological + SLT | Testosterone (biological) and observational learning (Bandura's Bobo doll) both contribute to aggressive behaviour |
| Phobias | Behaviourist + Psychodynamic | Classical conditioning (Little Albert) explains the acquisition of fear; Freud offers an alternative unconscious explanation (Little Hans) |
| Attachment | Biological + Psychodynamic | Bowlby's evolutionary theory of attachment (biological) and Freud's emphasis on early relationships (psychodynamic) |
| Schizophrenia | Biological | Strong evidence for genetic factors (twin studies), dopamine hypothesis, and effectiveness of antipsychotic medication |
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