Psychology: Comparison of Approaches

Is behaviourism…

• nature or nurture?

• holistic or reductionist?

• idiographic or nomothetic?

• deterministic and if so, what type?

• accepts or rejects scientific methods?

• nurture

• reductionist

• nomothetic

• hard determinism

• accepts scientific methods

Is social learning theory…

• nature or nurture?

• holistic or reductionist?

• idiographic or nomothetic?

• deterministic and if so, what type?

• accepts or rejects scientific methods?

• nurture

• reductionist

• nomothetic

• reciprocal determinism

• accepts scientific methods

Is cognitive…

• nature or nurture?

• holistic or reductionist?

• idiographic or nomothetic?

• deterministic and if so, what type?

• accepts or rejects scientific methods?

• nurture AND nature

• holistic

• nomothetic and idiographic

• soft determinism

• accepts scientific methods

Is biological…

• nature or nurture?

• holistic or reductionist?

• idiographic or nomothetic?

• deterministic and if so, what type?

• accepts or rejects scientific methods?

• nature

• reductionist

• nomothetic

• hard determinism and genetic determinism

• accepts scientific method

Is psychodynamic…

• nature or nurture?

• holistic or reductionist?

• idiographic or nomothetic?

• deterministic and if so, what type?

• accepts or rejects scientific methods?

• nature AND nurture

• holistic

• idiographic

• psychic determinism

• rejects scientific methods

Is humanism…

• nature or nurture?

• holistic or reductionist?

• idiographic or nomothetic?

• deterministic and if so, what type?

• accepts or rejects scientific methods?

• nurture

• holistic

• idiographic

• not deterministic (free-will)

• rejects scientific methods

Can the behaviourist approach be used for psychological treatment?

Yes!

It is used to treat anxieties and phobias by using counter-conditioning.

Eg) A person has a phobia of balloons. If they repeatedly associate the balloon with a positive unconditioned stimulus (like parties and cake), the balloon will become a conditioned stimulus. The conditioned reaction will be happiness and pleasant feelings.