Comparison Approach Flashcards
(22 cards)
What is Behaviourism?
Behaviourism is a theory that focuses on observable behaviors and the ways they’re learned through conditioning.
What is Social Learning Theory?
Social Learning Theory emphasizes learning through observation and imitation of others.
What does Free Will vs Determinism refer to?
It refers to the debate on whether human behavior is determined by external factors or if individuals have the ability to make choices.
What is Environmental (hard) determinism?
Behaviour is caused by conditioning from the environment.
E.g. Skinner’s positive reinforcement applied to token economies.
What is Soft determinism?
Behaviour is caused by environmental factors but allows for choice through meditational processes.
What is Biological (hard) determinism?
Behaviour is determined by biological influences.
What is Psychic (hard) determinism?
Behavioural changes are caused by unconscious conflicts.
What is Free Will?
The belief that individuals have the ability to make choices, rejecting deterministic theories as inhumane.
What is Environmental reductionism?
Behaviour is explained via stimulus-response links.
E.g. Mowrer’s two-process model for phobias.
What is Machine reductionism?
Behaviour is explained through a computer analogy, where brain functions are likened to a computer’s CPU.
What is Biological reductionism?
Behaviour is explained through genes, neurotransmitters, and biological structures.
E.g. twin studies and dopamine hypothesis.
What does Both refer to in the context of behaviour?
Behaviour is broken into unconscious conflicts and biological drives, while also considering other factors like childhood experiences.
What is Holism?
Understanding behaviour by studying the whole person, as experiences, perceptions, and feelings are interconnected.
What is Nomothetic?
Nomothetic refers to approaches that attempt to generalise laws of behaviour, such as stimulus/response general laws from Pavlov and Skinner’s conditioning.
Examples include Bandura’s Bobo dolls lab study, which is quantitative.
What are the elements of Nomothetic?
Elements of nomothetic include quantitative studies like Godden and Baddley’s divers study and general laws explaining disorders such as OCD and Schizophrenia.
The DSM categorises these disorders.
What is Idiographic?
Idiographic approaches do not establish laws of behaviour as they are based on free will and individual uniqueness.
Maslow believed that laws deny the uniqueness of the individual.
What are examples of Idiographic methods?
Idiographic methods include case studies, such as the case of Phineas Gage and the idiographic case study of Little Hans used in the Oedipus complex theory.
These methods focus on individual experiences.
What is the scientific approach?
The scientific approach focuses on observable stimuli and responses that can be repeated, primarily using lab studies and animal research.
It employs techniques like brain scanning, which are observable.
What are the limitations of non-scientific methods?
Non-scientific methods cannot be empirically tested, rely on subjective interpretation, and often result in bias through case studies.
Concepts like the superego are not operationally defined, making them unscientific.
What is the Nature vs Nurture debate?
The Nature vs Nurture debate discusses whether behaviour is learned (nurture) or innate (nature).
For example, Mower’s 2 process model illustrates the nurture perspective.
What does the Nature perspective entail?
The Nature perspective suggests that behaviour results from innate factors, such as Bowlby’s monotropy theory, which emphasizes evolution.
It posits that biological drives and instincts can be influenced by childhood experiences.
What does the Nurture perspective entail?
The Nurture perspective indicates that behaviour is shaped by environmental experiences, despite having innate desires like self-actualisation.
It suggests that while we have innate desires, they are influenced by our surroundings.
