Individual vs Situational

Individual vs Situational Individual - centred on the person, claiming they behave the way they do because of their personality and choices Situational - behaviour could be described as resulting from group pressure, group membership and the environment 1. Principles and Concepts: 1. The individual vs. situational debate looks at the different explanations for behaviour in regards to a persons’ natural disposition or genetics or their present situation and social factors 2. Different positions within the debate Individual: 1. Centred on one person 2. Behaviour could be a result of personality 3. Behaviour could be a result of genetics a. Both internal factors 4. Looking at behaviour from each individual and their cause of behaviour a. Does not believe that external factors are the cause of behaviours. 5. Claims behaviour can be predicted 6. Physiological a. Genetics b. Structure c. Chemical balance 7. Abnormalities a. Addiction b. Dysfunctional behaviour Situational: 1. Focus on the situation that a person is in leading to the behaviour. 2. People change their behaviour to suit the situation, a. Think social roles 3. Can be used to explain group behaviour 4. New situations may provoke behaviour that has not been previously displayed to occur 5. Social a. Effects of others b. Removal of responsibility c. Environmental factors d. Authority/those in need 3. Research to illustrate different positions within each debate Individual Situational Loftus and Palmer (eyewitness testimony) Grant (context-dependent memory) Moray (auditory attention) Simons and Chabris (inattentional blindness) Kohlberg (moral development) Lee (lying and truth-telling) Sperry (split brain) Casey (delay of gratification) Blakemore and Cooper (early visual experience) Maguire (taxi drivers) Freud (little Hans) Baron Cohen (autism in adults) Gould (bias in IQ testing) Hancock (language of psychopaths) Biological area Cognitive area Individual Differences area Developmental area Milgram (obedience) Bocchiaro (disobedience) Piliavin (subway Samaritan) Levine (cross-cultural altruism) Grant (context-dependent memory) Moray (auditory attention) Simons and Chabris (inattentional blindness) Bandura (transmission of aggression) Chaney (Funhaler) Lee (lying and truth-telling) Gould (bias in IQ testing) Social area Behaviourist perspective Psychodynamic perspective 5. Exam questions Outline one reason why individual explanations of behaviour are useful. Support your answer with evidence from an appropriate core study [4 marks] The individual explanation, centres on a single person, and their behaviours are unique to them due to a combination of biological and experiential factors, such as DNA, cognitions and development. Our individual disposition affects our behaviour and each person has their own unique experiences and history. For example, in Freud’s study of Little Hans his personal experiences and his dysfunctional behaviour (phobia) was documented, along with his interactions with his mother and father which gave a unique insight into his horse phobia and the theorised cause – him being in his Oedipus Complex. This individual explanation was useful as it allowed a unique insight into Han’s dysfunctional behaviour and its possible cause to be gathered. 6. To what extent does the debate link to psychology, areas and key pieces of research (evaluation) Strengths - Individual:  Supports scientific research.  Looks at predisposition to certain behaviour.  Allows predictions to be made.  Studies can be conducted on individuals rather than struggling to gain access to a group Weaknesses - Individual:  Supports reductionist views  Can’t be generalised if research is on individual  Personality traits do not always lead to the same behaviour  New personality traits/behaviours may emerge under certain situations Strengths - Situational:  Provides explanations for group behaviours that may be deviant  Provides evidence that a person is not predisposed to act a certain way  Supports the idea that environmental factors impact on behaviour Weaknesses - Situational:  Studies conducted in this way are hard to replicate as the situation will always be different  Difficult to study due to artificial environments leading to demand characteristics  Does not allow for individual differences  Takes away from personal responsibility