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Exploring Psychology Debates: Determinism & Scientific Approach Analysis

Dive into debates in psychology including free will, determinism, nature vs. nurture, reductionism vs. holism, idiographic vs. nomothetic approaches, psychology as a science. Analyze implications and limitations of these perspectives.

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Exploring Psychology Debates: Determinism & Scientific Approach Analysis

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  1. The specification – debates - DO NOW: what do you know already? 3.4.3 Debates in Psychology • Free will and determinism. Hard determinism and soft determinism. • Biological, environmental and psychic determinism. The scientific emphasis on causal explanations. • The nature-nurture debate. The relative importance of heredity and environment in determining behaviour. An interactionist approach. • Holism and reductionism. The strengths and limitations of reductionist and holistic explanations. An interactionist approach. • Idiographic and nomothetic approaches. The strengths and limitations of idiographic versus nomothetic research. • Psychology and science. The features and principles of the scientific approach: a paradigm; the role of theory; hypothesis testing; empirical methods and replication; generalisation. The subject matter of psychology: overt behaviour versus subjective, private experience. • The role of peer review in validating research. Strengths and limitations of the scientific approach in psychology.

  2. Learning Objectives • To understand the layout of the PSYB4 unit • To explore the concept of determinism No wonder he drinks, you never see his dad without a glass in his hand I smoke because I need to, my body needs nicotine… DO NOW: how does what is in the speech bubbles relate to our learning objectives?

  3. PSYB4: Your final exam • 3 sections, 2 hours, 60 marks: • Section A (Approaches in Psychology) Mr B • Section B (Debates in Psychology) Miss E • Section C (Methods in Psychology) Mr B and Miss E • Be aware: A03 skills (your knowledge of research methods / how science works) will always be assessed in all 3 sections of this paper

  4. What support is in place for you? • All past paper questions on shared area already for this unit • Past paper questions, mark schemes and examiners reports collated into a single word document for you • Lunch-time drop-in support on a Monday and Tuesday (Miss Earl)

  5. How the rest of your year looks…. • 4 weeks until Feb half-term (break up 17th Feb) • 1 week off for Feb half term • 5 weeks until Easter (break up 29th March) • 2 weeks off for Easter • 6 weeks until May half term • 1 week – then exam • PSYB4 exam: Monday 18th June (am)

  6. Planning: The bigger picture until Feb half term

  7. Learning Objectives • To understand the layout of the PSYB4 unit • To explore the concept of determinism Any questions?

  8. How is PSYB4 different? • PSYB4 is all about links to what you have learnt before • It will require you to form and structure arguments rather than simply recall learned information • We will move on to structuring your evaluation points to P-E-E-L • The evidence will generally involve things which you are: learning currently (with Mr B) or have learnt already (in PSYB1, PSYB2, PSYB3) • The Link part is about relating everything back to the question in order to form and structure your argument

  9. Specification Content: • Free will and determinism; hard determinism and soft determinism; biological, environmental and psychic determinism; the scientific emphasis on causal explanations • This lesson: definitions of free will and determinism, biological determinism

  10. Determinism Internal Determinism External Determinism Biological determinism Environmental determinism Psychic determinism

  11. Determinism Internal Determinism External Determinism Biological determinism Environmental determinism Psychic determinism

  12. Carousel Learning • We are learning about biological determinism and the various things that this can mean • The information you need is around the room, you should complete your sheets as you move around Don’t forget to mark your group’s progress on the board!

  13. Instinctive Needs • We can generally choose when to eat, drink or sleep • However, these behaviours are essential to our survival, we have no choice, these behaviours are determined

  14. The brain • Different areas of the brain control different things e.g: • The hypothalamus controls water and food intake and aggression • Broca’s area is linked to speech production, Wernicke’s area is linked to speech understanding. Damage to this area (resulting in ‘aphasia’) means that no amount of ‘willing’ can help someone overcome the effect that this has on language

  15. Hormones • Synthetic oestrogen (taken to prevent miscarriage) has been linked to sexual preference • 7/30 adult women whose mothers had taken the synthetic oestrogen reported some degree of same sex or bisexual interest • Compared to…1/30 in a control group whose mothers had not taken synthetic oestrogen • Meyer-Bahlburg et al (1995) said that this could mean sexual preference may not necessarily be the result of free choice

  16. Evolutionary forces: The fight or flight response • A sequence of activity in response to an acute stressor involving the sympathetic nervous system preparing the body for flight (escape) or fight (defending or attacking) • Questionable how useful the response is today • However, these behaviours are determined i.e. we do not choose to freeze in front of an audience

  17. Genes • Twin studies have pointed towards a genetic predisposition in depression and schizophrenia for example: • Gottesman and Shields found a concordance rate of 46% for Schizophrenia in monozygotic twins in comparison to 14% in dizygotic twins

  18. Essay question: ‘Free will is an illusion. What seems to be freely chosen behaviour is really the result of internal and external forces acting upon the individual.’ Discuss this view. Refer to at least one topic area in your answer. (12 marks) • The examiners always look for you to link what you are talking about to a ‘topic’ • This is basically about you interpreting information from the entire course (PSYB1,2,3) in light of your new knowledge and understanding • Try to highlight these whenever they come up and make sure you use them in any essay questions

  19. Reviewing our learning… • Essay question: ‘Free will is an illusion. What seems to be freely chosen behaviour is really the result of internal and external forces acting upon the individual.’ Discuss this view. Refer to at least one topic area in your answer. (12 marks) • Which aspect of the question does our learning today relate to? How can we apply it?

  20. Consolidating our learning… • Essay question: ‘Free will is an illusion. What seems to be freely chosen behaviour is really the result of internal and external forces acting upon the individual.’ Discuss this view. Refer to at least one topic area in your answer. (12 marks) • Write two sentences to summarise your learning today in the context of the above examination question and using PEEL • E.g. One way in which internal forces act upon an individual is (p), elaborate (e), evidence (e) link back to the question (l)

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