Teach/IB/pjn
International Baccalaureate: Perspectives in Psychology
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ISSUES AND DEBATES IN PSYCHOLOGY
There are five major approaches in Psychology:Biological, Behaviourist, Cognitive, Psychoanalytic, Humanist
Over the last few weeks you have learnt something about each of these approaches and at various
points these approaches have been placed in the context of some of the major debates in psychology.
We can sum up the major issues and debates that arise from these different approaches as follows:
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Freewill vs. Determinism
Reductionism vs. Non-reductionism
Structuralism vs. Functionalism
Nature vs. Nurture
Objectivity vs. Subjectivity
Nomothetic vs. Idiographic
The main arguments of these debates are summarised in the following table:-
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Free will
People have the ability to choose their own
course of action, to determine their own lives
- we have the freedom to choose (within
certain limits)
People have responsibility for their actions they are the cause of what they do
Reductionism
Behaviour can be reduced to minute units of
analysis such as stimulus-response
connections, neuron activity, muscle
movements and any larger units of analysis
are pointless.
Explanations of complex wholes in terms of
the units of which those “wholes” are
composed are the only explanations that are
worthwhile
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Structuralism
• Psychology should concern itself with the
elementary processes of conscious experience.
• The structure of consciousness and immediate
mental experience can be broken down into
basic elements
• The elements of conscious experience are
sensations and feelings
• Introspection is a valid way to investigate
conscious experience
Determinism
Behaviour is determined by external events or
stimuli or by internal, unconscious drives
People are passive responders - therefore we
do not have freedom to choose
Behaviour occurs in a regular, orderly manner...