Comparing the Approaches | AQA Psychology | A-level

everyone welcome back to Bear it in mind this video is going to cover ways to compare each of the approaches in Psychology there is a specific requirement on the a-level specification for you to be able to compare any of the approaches with another this can come in the form of short questions like this one or in an essay type question like this one which asks you to compare the cognitive and psychodynamic approaches I'm going to show you three categories you can use to compare any of the approaches and I'll talk about a free resource I've made for you later in the video so look out for that let's Dive In one of the best ways to start to compare the approaches is by using your knowledge of the debates there is a specific topic on the a-level course called issues and debates that looks at each of these in depth if at the time you're watching this video I have managed to make all of the videos for issues and debates and you want to go and watch them to help your understanding a link will appear up here for you to click on now these are the debates in Psychology in summary the Freewheel and determinism debate is about the extent to which our behavior is caused by forces outside of our control and how much choice we have over our Behavior the nature and nurture debate is about the extent to which our behavior is from inborn biological factors and how much our behavior is learned from the environment the holism and reductionism debate is about whether the best way to explain behavior is by breaking Behavior down to a single component part or whether human behavior is best explained holistically in other words human behavior is more than the sum of its individual Parts the idiographic and non-athetic debate is about the extent to which human behavior is best investigated by in studying the individual and how we're all unique or best investigated by studying how we are similar so that general laws of behavior can be found to save you a lot of time I've created a document that outlines where each of the approaches relates to these debates with specific examples so if you'd like a copy of that there is a link in the description it's important to note that when you are asked to compare this means similarities as well as differences between them but the aim is not just for you to be able to describe any comparisons but where possible to try to use those comparisons to make a judgment about the approaches so here is a typical comparison style question outline the behaviorist approach compared the behaviorist approach with the biological approach for this type of question six of your marks simply comes from outlining the behaviorist approach so describing how they stayed all all behaviors learned from the environment through the processes of classical and operant conditioning which you can illustrate through the research of Pavlov and Skinner the remaining 10 marks come from your comparisons now a really important Point here is that if you write any evaluation points in this essay that are not a comparison unsurprisingly you won't get any marks so you can't write a strength of behaviorism as this or a limitation of behaviorism is this it has to be all comparisons so firstly let's compare the behaviorist approach and the biological approach with each of the debates in terms of the nature and nurture debate the behaviorist approach falls on the nurture side of the debate because they explain human behavior in terms of the environmental factors that are involved behavior is the result of learning according to behaviorists we are tabula rasa Latin for Blank Slate I.E the human mind comes into the world with no innate inborn ideas it's our experiences in this world that shape us for example OCD could be explained in terms of classical conditioning where an association has been made between a neutral stimulus and a feared object an unconditioned stimulus in contrast a biological approach falls on the nature side of the debate because they explain human behavior in terms of innate inborn factors it is our biology that explains our behavior for example for OCD the biological approach would consider genetic variations such as with the Compton searching or in an imbalance of certain neurotransmitter levels therefore it could be argued that both the biological and behaviorist approaches can be criticized for over emphasizing one side of the nature and nurture debate and fail to explain how both can be involved research today points to the fact that human behavior is not about whether it's nature or nurture but about the relative contribution of both I.E how both are involved for an example of that relating to OCD check out this video where we explore that further in terms of the Free Will and determinism debate they are both deterministic but in different ways the behaviorist approach is environmentally deterministic because they state that human behavior is the result of or we might say caused by classical and operant conditioning that you have received what BF Skinner would call your reinforcement histories there is no free will in choice in fact BF Skinner argue that Free Will is an illusion you think you are making choices but you are unaware of the previous ways you have been conditioned the biological approach is biologically deterministic because they state that human behavior is caused by innate biological factors that include genetics and neurotransmitter levels for example criminal behaviors caused by a variation with the maoa gene or the abnormal activity of the prefrontal cortex notice how the behaviorist approach is deterministic because you your behaviors caused by external factors that are outside of your control whereas the biological approach is deterministic because your behavior is caused by internal factors that are outside of your control so they're both deterministic so what well that means we can criticize both the behaviorist and biological approaches for removing moral responsibility from a person because if a person's Behavior truly is caused by factors outside of their control then their behavior cannot be their fault now let's do the same for the holism and reductionism debate in terms of this debate they are both reductionist but in different ways the behaviorist approach is environmentally reductionist because they break human behavior down to simple stimulus and response associations for example phobias are explained through classical conditioning in terms of how a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditional response the biological approach is biological reductionist because they break human behavior down to specific biological processes in terms of genetics or neurotransmitters for example with phobias they would break it down to biological preparedness this means that we may have an increased likelihood of developing certain phobias because of a specific variation in our DNA which predisposes us to this fear therefore it could be argued that both the biological and behavist approaches can be criticized for their reductionist position because they lose their meaning and context in which behavior occurs approaches that adopt a holistic view consider how a complex behavior-like fears are best understood by exploring how a range of factors when combined produce a picture that is greater than the sum of all the smaller parts lastly in terms of debates we can compare them in relation to the ideographic and non-athetic debates in terms of this debate they are both non-athetic the behavist approach investigates human behavior to identify general laws of behavior for example Ivan Pavlov's Research into classical conditioning was a laboratory experiment that gathered quantitative data from which the general principle of how Behavior can be learned through Association was established for another example BF skin is Research into operant conditioning using the Skinner box also gathered quantum quantitative data of the behavior of the runs from which the general principle of how Behavior can be learned and repeated through consequences was established in the case of the biological approach they've investigated human behavior using a non-athetic approach that looks for ways in which human behavior is similar between humans this has led them to propose general laws in relation to which specific parts of the brain may be involved with specific functions or how certain imbalances of neurotransmitters can impact people's behavior however by adopting these non-athetic approaches to investigate human behavior they lose the value and insight that can come from adopting an idiographic approach this is because ideographic approaches are more interested in studying the subjective experiences of individuals and as a result can be argued to gain more depth and insight into human behavior and therefore are more valid and applicable to the individual than a general law might be so now you can see how we can use each of the debates to make comparisons between the appropriate coaches you certainly don't need to write about all the debates in one particular answer it's always helpful to vary the type of evaluation you write another way we can compare the approaches is by considering the research methods they use to study human behavior in the case of the behaviorist and biological approaches we can do this in two ways firstly they both adopt highly scientific research methods that involve lab experiments this is a strength because they avoid the subjective interpretation of behavior by only studying objective behaviors they can directly observe also the research of behaviorists like Pavlov and Skinner as well as the biological approaches methods of measuring hormone levels all the activity of the brain means that they have high control of the variables this means that they are able to control for extraneous variables and can then establish cause and effect additionally the level of high control enables them to replicate their research to check the reliability of the findings therefore both approaches can be praised for their research methods which give psychology scientific credibility secondly however both the behaviorist and biological approaches can be criticized for studying animals to learn about human behavior this is seen in the use of dogs by Ivan Pavlov and rats by BF Skinner in their Research into conditioning the biological approach takes the view that humans are descendants from other animals and therefore it is possible to study human behavior through studying animals however many have questioned the extent to which animal behavior can be generalized to human behavior and as such limits both the approach's ability to explain behavior final helpful category in which to compare the approaches relates to how they might go about treating human behavior or the way they can be practically applied in other words how useful the application of their theories and ideas have been so in the case of the behaviorist and biological approaches both have value in their treatment of mental disorders for example the principles of classical conditioning have been successfully applied to the treatment of phobias through a process called systematic desensitization this aims to counter condition the Learned fear through the gradual exposure to the feared object whilst associating it with a positive experience if you're interested in finding out more about how this works check out this video on treating phobias and in the case of the biological approach they have successfully contributed to the treatment of many conditions such as depression and OCD through the use of drug treatments to correct the imbalance of neurotransmitter levels in the brain however the biological approaches use of drug treatments often comes with side effects and often are only a short-term solution which means it could be argued that whilst both approaches have contributed to help people suffering with certain mental disorders their behaviorist approaches treatments are superior because they come with fewer problems so you may be thinking right now it would be great to see a fully written essay for a comparison question like that behaviorism and biological one well I've done just that for you it's realistic to what could be written in the time available in the exam you'll find a link to that in the description below where you can download a copy there are many other types of comparison question that could come up including this tricky one which many students found challenging when it last came up in the exam if you find it helpful for me to make more videos like this one where we compare these other approaches let me know in the comments below if you need more information on any of the approaches don't forget to check out the approaches playlist linked below I hope you found this video helpful and we'll see you in the next one

Channel: Bear it in MIND

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Keywords: approaches, aqa psychology, psychology, approaches in psychology, comparing the approaches, comparing the approaches psychology 16 marker, behaviourist approach, biological approach, debates in psychology, nature vs nurture, free will vs determinism, holism vs reductionism, idiographic vs nomothetic, bear it in mind, A-level psychology, tutor2u psychology, psychboost, psychology revision, approaches revision, comparisons approaches psychology

Id: qlt_zPzDIxI

Length: 12min 27sec (747 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 08 2022