Individual/Situational Debate

Question 1

Individual explanation

Answer 1

views each individual as unique and different due to internal factors eg. genetics, personality, individual motivation, religion and should expect everyone to behave differently

Question 2

Situational explanation

Answer 2

behaviour is due to external factos eg. enviroment, situation, authority figures, culture

Question 3

Positions of individual situational debate

Answer 3

Debate over whether our behaviour is more affected by individual factors eg. genes/personality

or whether its more affected by situational factors eg. social context we are in/ culture

Question 4

Strengths of Individual Explanation

Answer 4

+ Useful - treatments to recognise uniqueness eg. psychoanalysis uncovers persons unique unconscious conflicts

+ Conducted on individuals/small group rather than large sample

+If biological factors, can make a study more scientific due to MRIs etc. (objectivity, replicability)

Question 5

Weaknesses of Individual Explanation

Answer 5

• cant be generalised easily (small samples)
• reductionist as individual factors don’t always lead to certain behaviours, ignores situational factors

Question 6

Strengths of Situational Explanation

Answer 6

+ Useful - how environmental factors affect behaviour can be applied to real life as we can change the situation someone is in to change behaviour

+ More generalisable as bigger samples

Question 7

Weaknesses of situational explanation

Answer 7

• reductionist as doesn’t allow for individual differences
• takes away personal responsibility as suggests situational factors in enviro affect behaviour

Question 8

Links to debates

Answer 8

Free will/determinism - behaviour is caused by individual/situational factors outside of our control can be seen as deterministic

Nature/Nature - genetic factors (nature) is individual, environmental factors (nurture) is situational