Approaches Master class: Assumptions and evaluations Qs
All assumptions must be:
_ Linked to the individual differences approach
_ Linked to behaviour
NB: NO MORE THAN 6 MARKS CAN BE AWARDED IF THE CANDIDATE HAS NOT PROVIDED 2
APPROPRIATE STRENGTHS AND 2 APPROPRIATE WEAKNESSES
This question requires candidates to refer to the 3 individual differences approach core
studies. The candidate must make it clear why their suggestion is a strength/weakness. The
supporting evidence must actually support the identified strength/weakness i.e. be
appropriately contextualised. Study-specific answers are NOT creditworthy
Social Approach
Assumptions accepted:
-
Studies to use:
Milgram, Piliavin, Reicher &
Haslam
One assumption of the social approach is that other people and the surrounding environment
are major influences on an individual’s behaviour, thought processes and emotions
Strengths accepted:

It helps us understand how behaviour can be influenced by other people and the situation in
which people find themselves...

It can provide explanations for a great many phenomena…
Weaknesses accepted:

It underestimates the influence of individual differences on behaviour…

It often fails to emphasise that human behaviour has not just a cultural but also an historical
context…
Possible answer:
One strength of the social approach is that it helps understand how behaviour can be influenced by other
people and the situation in which people find themselves.[S] For example, Milgram suggested the high
levels of obedience found in his experiment were due not only to the presence of a legitimate authority
figure but also because the study was conducted in a renowned educational establishment.[E] This
indicates that to get desirable behaviour one must ensure the people involved and the situation are
appropriate.[C]
Another strength of the social approach is that it can provide explanations for a great many phenomena.
The big moral question in the middle of the twentieth century was how the horrors of WW2 could have
happened. Was the killing of so many Jews because Germans were particularly obedient to authority
figures?[S] Studies like Milgram’s have shown that, under the right conditions, Americans (and
subsequently other cultures) will obey authority figures even when the command requires destructive
behaviour. [E] His findings therefore not only help explain the obedience of the Germans to Hitler’s
inhumane commands but open up research opportunities to investigate how such atrocities may be
prevented in the future.[C]
A weakness of the social approach is that it underestimates the influence of individual differences on
behaviour. [W] Although Milgram’s study showed that 65% (26/40) of the participants were prepared to
obey the authority figure and give electric shocks up to
450 volts, 35% (14/40) were not prepared to go to such extremes.[E] Likewise, although Milgram
obtained extremely high levels of obedience from his male participants it is generally accepted that
although females are more obedient, they are more caring and empathetic, so would they behave in the
same way?[E] Individual differences in personality as well as upbringing influence behaviour; so
suggesting that behaviour is totally influenced by one’s social environment is reductionist.[C]
A further weakness of the social approach is that it often fails to emphasise that human behaviour has
not just a cultural but also an historical context.[W] Milgram was able to demonstrate that most cultures
throughout the world in the 1960’s were obedient to authority figures. However these results may only
apply to that historical period. Many events in the early 21st Century eg disobedience to police
instructions are regularly cited in the national press; suggest that if Milgram were to conduct his
research in today’s social environment, results may be very different.[E] The social approach therefore
often only provides ‘superficial snapshots of social processes’ (Hayes, 1995), ignoring their development
over time and the broader social, political and historical context that the research takes place in. [C]
Studies to use:
Physiological Approach
Assumptions accepted:
Maguire, Sperry, Dement &
Kleitman
All that is psychological is first physiological – that since the mind appears to reside in the brain, all
thoughts, feelings and behaviours ultimately have a physiological cause.
Strengths accepted:
* It provides strong counter-arguments to the nurture side of the nature-nurture debate…
* Its research methods are very reliable…
Weaknesses accepted:
* It is very reductionist
* Research methods have low ecological validity
Studies to use:
Griffiths, Rosenhan, Thigpen &
Cleckley
Individual Differences Approach
Assumptions accepted:
-
Individuals differ in their behaviour and personal qualities so not everyone can be considered
‘the average person’.
-
Every individual is genetically unique and this uniqueness is displayed through their behaviour.
So everyone behaves differently
All human characteristics can be measured and quantified .The measures gained from one
person are different to those gathered from another
All psychological characteristics are inherited and as everyone inherits different characteristics,
everyone is different and unique
Strengths accepted:
– allows psychologists to learn more about human behaviours because all behaviours, not just average
ones, are studied
– allows psychologists to measure differences between individuals in qualities such as personality,
intelligence, memory etc.
– studies may be high in ecological validity as they often take place in real life environments
– allows both qualitative and quantitative/qualitative data to be gathered.
Weaknesses accepted:
– techniques used are not fully objective and therefore open to bias
– it creates divisions between people because individuals are identified as being ‘different’
– it is difficult to define and measure individual qualities such as personality, intelligence etc
– ethical concerns, generic to the approach, may be raised.
Possible answer:
A strength of this approach is that it allows one to identify differences between individuals, so
comparisons can be made. In the Griffiths study into fruit machine gambling it was shown that regular
gamblers made many more irrational verbalisations than non-regular gamblers suggesting individual
differences influence gambling behaviour. Likewise the Thigpen and Cleckley study identified significant
differences between the three personalities of Eve eg Eve White was found to be quiet and reserved, Eve
Black flirtatious and unreliable and Jane the most balanced of the three. These differences allowed
comparisons to be made between them so that multiple personality disorder could be identified
Another strength of this approach is that it allows psychologists to learn more about human behaviours
because all behaviours, not just average one are studied. In the Rosenhan study, the researchers (the
pseudopatients) were able to study how people who have been labelled insane (not average) are often
treated unfairly by those caring for them eg hospital staff spent as little time as possible with their
patients, tried to avoid conversing with them and avoided eye contact whenever possible. Likewise
Griffiths was able to study gambling behaviour and find that regular gamblers (not average) made more
plays per minute (8) than non-regular.
A weakness of this approach is that the techniques used are not fully objective and therefore open to
bias. In the Rosenhan study pseudopatients gathered their data through participant observation and
then recorded their findings in daily diaries. These are not objective measures and the use of observation
as a research method offers opportunities for behaviour to be misinterpreted. Although pseudopatients
recorded that staff avoided eye-contact as much as possible and linked that to being because they did
not want to converse with insane people, this could actually be because people in general try to avoid
eye-contact when asked personal or awkward questions eg ‘Do you know when I will be discharged?’
Likewise Thigpen and Cleckley claimed that the 3 Faces of Eve were significantly different. However to an
impartial witness, video evidence taken during the 100 hours of interviews, often makes the differences
in the personalities impossible to identify, suggesting that the techniques used to gather data in this
study were open to at least researcher bias
A further weakness of this approach is that it often raises such ethical concerns as consent, deception,
invasion of privacy and psychological stress. Participants (hospital staff) in Rosenhan’s first study were
deceived firstly by the fact that they were unaware that they were involved in a psychological study and
secondly by the pseudopatients faking illness. They may then have become very distressed when they
were told they had wrongly identified sane people as insane and concerned that both their jobs and their
reputations were in jeopardy. This is extremely unethical, after all one would expect people attending a
hospital claiming to hear voices to be genuine. Likewise, although Christine Sizemore (Eve White) was a
willing participant in Thigpen and Cleckley’s study she may well have suffered additional stress through
the intensive 100 hours+ of interviewing, the use of hypnosis, all the physiological and psychological
testing etc. She is likely also at times to have felt an invasion of privacy, particularly once a video of her
interviews had been formulated and sold on the commercial market. However, she gave her consent for
this to happen and has, as a result of the publicising of her case made herself famous – and rich!!
Cognitive Approach
Assumptions accepted:
Studies to use:
Savage-Rumbaugh, Loftus &
Palmer, Baron-Cohen
Internal mental processes such as memory, thinking, reasoning, problem-solving and language, are
important features influencing human behaviour.
Strengths accepted:

It has provided explanations of how specific cognitive deficits influence behaviour….

It shows that animals other than humans are capable of using language...

It provides explanations of many aspects of human behaviour such as the influence of leading
questions on the accuracy of recall….

It has useful applications eg when interviewing witnesses the police should avoid using leading
questions….
Weaknesses accepted:

It is often over simplistic and ignores the complexity of human functioning…

It is unrealistic and ignores biological influences and the grounding of mental processes…

Usually studied through either laboratory experiments or case studies….
Studies to use:
Developmental Approach
Freud, Bandura, Samuel & Bryant
Assumptions accepted:
It assumes there are clearly identifiable systematic changes that occur in an individual’s behaviour from
conception to death.
Strengths accepted:
* Offers and explanation on why individuals of differing ages demonstrate different intellectual abilities,
social skills and emotional responses….
* It adds to the continuing nature versus nurture debate….
Weaknesses accepted:
* It is often claimed to be reductionist….
* Many proposals in relation to age-related development have been shown to be too rigid….
* Relies heavily on the use of children which raise ethical issues.
Possible answer:
differing ages demonstrate different intellectual abilities, social skills and emotional responses. [S] For
example Samuel and Bryant’s showed how as children get older their ability to conserve increases and
that conservational abilities develop gradually with the ability to conserve number developing before
that of mass or volume.[E] Likewise, Freud showed how young boys pass, subconsciously, through
various psychosexual stages of development, one being the phallic stage during which they experience
the Oedipus Complex where a boy has sexual desires for his mother and recognises a competition with
his father. He fears his father will punish him by castrating him. This subconscious complex can become
evident through the development of a phobia – here being bitten by a horse which is seen to represent
his fear of his father castrating him. As they overcome the Oedipus Complex, they identify with their
father who is then no longer deemed a threat and frequently the phobia is overcome. [E]
strength of the developmental approach is that it adds to the continuing nature versus nurture
debate. [S]The study by Bandura shows the influence of nurture on the development of aggressive
behaviour. Those children exposed to the aggressive model reproduced more acts of aggression than
those children exposed to a non-aggressive model or no model at all, suggesting children can learn
(nurture) to imitate behaviour. However, although the children’s natural aggressive tendencies were
controlled for as they were pre-matched for aggression and equally distributed between the groups, one
cannot be certain children in the aggressive group were not naturally more pre-disposed to aggression.
[E] Likewise, although Samuel and Bryant’s study showed conservational skills develop with age,
suggesting this is due to a child’s natural (biologically determined) developing cognitive abilities, one
cannot be certain that the environment (nurture) they were brought up in at home and/or school did not
significantly influence these abilities. [E]
to provide a complete explanation for a complex behaviour by focusing on one single factor.[W] Bandura
in his Bashing Bobo experiment tried to show that children can learn aggressive behaviour simply by
watching and then imitating aggressive behaviour displayed by a significant model. However other
factors are also likely to influence whether or not a child will become aggressive eg biological influences
such as testosterone levels which are known to affect aggression levels. [E] Likewise, Freud tried to claim
that Little Hans’ fear of horses was a subconscious fear of his father as he was experiencing the Oedipus
Complex. This is reducing the development of complex phenomena of phobias down to one basic factor
whereas other influences such as the biological need to survive and the influence of past experiences eg
seeing someone being bitten by a horse, are also likely to influence whether or not an individual develops
such a phobia. [E]
Another weakness of this approach is that because research frequently involves the study of children,
ethical guidelines are often breached. [W] For example, although Bandura needed to use children to
show how easily they can learn to imitate behaviour, many of them suffered distress during the
experiment: one girl was distressed by the behaviour of the aggressive female model and said, “Who is
that lady? That’s not the way for a lady to behave.” [E] The children were also distressed when they were
taken into the second room, allowed to play with attractive toys and then had them taken off them. [E] It
is unethical to cause participants distress and researchers should be aware that children become
distressed more easily than adults. [C]
Behaviourist Approach
Studies to use:
Bandura, Watson & Raynor
Assumptions accepted:
All behaviour is learned from the environment after birth (behaviourism takes the nurture side of the
nature/nurture debate) and so behaviourism is concerned with the environment since we are merely
the total of past experience.
Only observable behaviour not minds should be studied in psychology if it is to be an objective science.
We cannot see other people’s minds and so behaviourists will study only what can be observed.
Strengths accepted:
-
Behaviourism is very scientific...
Strong counterarguments for nature debate
Behaviourism has many practical applications
Weaknesses accepted:
-
Behaviourism ignores innate (genetic/biological) factors (reductionism)
A lot of research relies too much on animal experiments...
Ignore mental processes that are involved in learning
Studies to use:
Psychodynamic Approach
Freud, Thigpen & Cleckley
Assumptions accepted:
Many important influences on behaviour come from a part of the mind individuals have no direct
awareness of, the unconscious.
Personality is shaped by relationships, experience and conflict over time, particularly during childhood.
Different parts of the mind are in constant dynamic struggle with each other (often unconsciously) and
the consequences of this struggle are often shown through behaviour.
The mind is like an iceberg. We have conscious, subconscious and unconscious thought, all of which can
influence our behaviour.
Strengths accepted:
– allows psychologists to suggest causes of mental disorders
– allows psychologists to suggest why individuals behave in ways they cannot easily explain or
understand.
– Allows collection of qualitative data
-Allows psychologists to see how behaviour can develop over time as a result of subconscious forces.
Weaknesses accepted:
-studies which take this approach often use unrepresentative samples
– methodology may not be objective and therefore open to bias
– the perspective is based on concepts that are difficult to test and verify scientifically
– ethical concerns, generic to the perspective, may be raised.
Possible answer:
strength of the psychodynamic perspective is that it allows psychologists to suggest causes for
mental disorders (S). For example, Freud was able to suggest that Little Hans’ phobia of horses was
because he was unconsciously going through the phallic stage of psychosexual development which is
characterised by experiencing the Oedipus complex. His fear of being bitten by a horse was really a fear
of castration by his father (who resembled a horse) who was angry with him for having sexual desires for
his mother (E). One must however be cautious about generalising such findings because this was a study
conducted on only one individual and such symptoms are unlikely to be found in other individuals whose
experiences will be different (C).
f this perspective is that it allows psychologists to suggest why individuals behave in
ways they cannot easily explain or understand (S). Eve White was referred to Thigpen and Cleckley
because she was suffering from inexplicable headaches and blackouts. Over time they were able identify
the existence of two other personalities – Eve Black and Jane – who co-existed in Eve White’s one
physical body and accounted for behaviour she could not understand like finding her wardrobe full of
uncharacteristic clothes (E). Likewise, Freud was able to suggest to Little Hans that the origin of his fear
of horses was because he had a subconscious fear his father would castrate him because he
subconsciously wanted to have sex with his mother, making his father angry (E).
always objective and is therefore open bias (W). For example, Thigpen and Cleckley have been criticised
for becoming too involved with their participant, Eve White, thus misinterpreting some of her behaviour
to support their theory of MPD. The therapists themselves acknowledged that there “was something
distinctively attractive” about Eve Black and they recognised that their role in ‘creating’ Jane since her
emergence were really due to the process of therapy (E). The conclusions of such studies may therefore
be questionable as they may suffer from subjective bias from the researchers making one wonder if such
disorders actually exist (C).
kness of the psychodynamic perspective is that studies that take this perspective often
raise considerable ethical issues (W). For example, Freud and Little Hans’ father may have caused Hans
considerable distress by continually asking him about his fears, phobias, dreams and fantasies (E). Hans
was also deceived because he was not informed that his data was being used to support Freud’s ideas
about psychosexual development and the Oedipus Complex (E). Likewise Thigpen and Cleckley may have
caused Eve White distress when they suggested she had two alters – Eve Black and Jane (E).