Evaluating The Approach Flashcards
What is DRAINS?
Determinism vs Free will
Reductionism vs Holism
Applied successfully
Idiographic vs Nomothetic
Nature vs Nurture
Scientific vs non scientific
What does determinism mean ?
Behaviour is determined by internal and external factors acting on a person over which we have no control.
What does free will mean?
Free will proposes we have choice and that we are free to choose our behaviour. A person is responsible for their own actions.
What is reductionism ?
Reductionism means explaining a behaviour by reducing it down to its constituent parts.
Taking a complex phenomenon and reducing it to simpler parts.
What is holism ?
Holism looks at higher level explanations; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
What does applications mean?
Applications are where psychological knowledge has been used for some purpose. Psychological knowledge has traditionally been used in therapies, but it has also aided in education and many other fields.
What does idiographic mean?
Idiographic - Psychologists want to discover what makes each of us unique.
Looks at individual differences.
What does nomothetic mean ?
Nomothetic - Psychologists are concerned with what similarities we share with others. They like to establish ‘laws’ or generalisations.
What does nature mean ?
Nature - Psychologists emphasise the importance of innate factors (genetics) over social factors (environments)
What does nurture mean?
Nurture - Psychologists emphasise the importance of social or learning factors over innate factors.
What does scientific mean ?
Scientific – where research has been carried out in a controlled, objective, replicable way; hypothesis formed and tested.
What does non scientific mean ?
Unscientific – where the concepts investigated by the approach are unfalsifiable, or the methods used are subjective.
