AS and A Level Psychology (9990) Psychological Approaches
Behavior, Cognitions, and emotions can be explained by genes, hormones, and chemicals.
Strengths 💪 | Weakness 🍰 |
---|---|
Objective/Straightforward - It only looks at genes, hormones, and chemicals. | Reductionist - It will overlook other approaches and only look at genes, hormones, and chemicals. |
Application - Humans are all biologically the same. Therefore, if a psychologist sees something that can be applied to Americans, that theoretically can be applied to any person worldwide. |
Behavior and emotions can be explained through cognitive processes like attention, language thinking and memory
Strengths 💪 | Weakness 🍰 |
---|---|
Objective - It uses scientific methods | Interpreting data - It is subjective because there might be multiple ways to explain it, in other words, it depends on your opinion. |
Deals with the mind, which may be central (critical) towards human Psychology | Reductionist - Reduces everything in your brain and your cognitive processes |
Builds models to analyze data | Makes the assumption that all input from people is equal, and doesn’t consider individual differences. |
We are a blank slate (Tabula Raza), so everything about us is learned
Behavior can be explained through the consequences of actions
Learning occurs through observations and their consequences
Strengths 💪 | Weakness 🍰 |
---|---|
Objective - Focuses on observable behaviors | Reductionists - Will put methods and overlook every other approach |
Creates a model for universal learning | Assumes we are tabula Raza, blank slates, and that everything about us is learned. |
Provides explanations about how to prevent and unlearn diseases | |
Research on animals can be later used on humans |
We are influenced by social factors, and contexts
People can be changed/influenced through social and environmental factors
Strengths 💪 | Weakness 🍰 |
---|---|
Able to discover norms of behavior within the unwritten rules of society. | Maybe ethnocentrically biased as social studies typically focus on one’s culture. This means the studies done in one country won’t necessarily apply worldwide because they have other cultures. |
Tends to be Holistic investing different levels of explanations and approaches. |
Behavior, Cognitions, and emotions can be explained by genes, hormones, and chemicals.
Strengths 💪 | Weakness 🍰 |
---|---|
Objective/Straightforward - It only looks at genes, hormones, and chemicals. | Reductionist - It will overlook other approaches and only look at genes, hormones, and chemicals. |
Application - Humans are all biologically the same. Therefore, if a psychologist sees something that can be applied to Americans, that theoretically can be applied to any person worldwide. |
Behavior and emotions can be explained through cognitive processes like attention, language thinking and memory
Strengths 💪 | Weakness 🍰 |
---|---|
Objective - It uses scientific methods | Interpreting data - It is subjective because there might be multiple ways to explain it, in other words, it depends on your opinion. |
Deals with the mind, which may be central (critical) towards human Psychology | Reductionist - Reduces everything in your brain and your cognitive processes |
Builds models to analyze data | Makes the assumption that all input from people is equal, and doesn’t consider individual differences. |
We are a blank slate (Tabula Raza), so everything about us is learned
Behavior can be explained through the consequences of actions
Learning occurs through observations and their consequences
Strengths 💪 | Weakness 🍰 |
---|---|
Objective - Focuses on observable behaviors | Reductionists - Will put methods and overlook every other approach |
Creates a model for universal learning | Assumes we are tabula Raza, blank slates, and that everything about us is learned. |
Provides explanations about how to prevent and unlearn diseases | |
Research on animals can be later used on humans |
We are influenced by social factors, and contexts
People can be changed/influenced through social and environmental factors
Strengths 💪 | Weakness 🍰 |
---|---|
Able to discover norms of behavior within the unwritten rules of society. | Maybe ethnocentrically biased as social studies typically focus on one’s culture. This means the studies done in one country won’t necessarily apply worldwide because they have other cultures. |
Tends to be Holistic investing different levels of explanations and approaches. |