Issues and debates (BEHAVIOURISM)

Question 1

Free will vs determinism

Answer 1

Strong determinism of the behavioral approach as all behavior is learned from our environment through classical and operant conditioning. We are the sum total of our previous conditioning.
Softer determinism of the social learning approach theory as it recognises an element of choice as to whether we imitate a behavior or not.

Question 2

Nature Vs nurture

Answer 2

Behaviorism is very much on the nurture side of the debate as it argues that our behavior is
learned from the environment.
The social learning theory is also on the nurture side because it argues that we learn our
behavior from role models in our environment.
The behaviorist approach proposes that apart from a few innate reflexes and the capacity
for learning, all complex behavior is learned from the environment.

Question 3

Holism Vs reductionism

Answer 3

The behaviorist approach and social learning are reductionist; they isolate parts of complex
behaviors to study.
The behaviorists take the view that all behavior, no matter how complex, can be broken
down into the fundamental processes of conditioning

Question 4

Idiographic Vs nomothetic

Answer 4

It is a nomothetic approach as it views all behavior governed by the same laws of
conditioning.
However, it does account for individual differences and explain them in terms of difference
of a history of conditioning.