Issues and Debates - Learning and Biology Flashcards
REDUCTIONISM
Describe the application and implication of the debate to your Classic Studies.
Watson and Rayner: investigated the cause of behaviour as classical conditioning and association - ignoring other aspects of learning such as operant conditioning and biological reasons for fear, such as evolutionary theory. Useful - we can predict causes of behaviours such as fear and treat them, as we can establish cause and effect. But less useful as reductionist = low validity.
Raine: ignores nurture and focuses on biological causes of behaviours such as aggression. Not holistic = less useful, but can accurately measure one cause = valid/scientific. Less reductionist as it focuses on several areas of the brain and not just one.
REDUCTIONISM
Describe the application and implication of the debate to your Contemporary Studies.
Becker: collected quantitative and qualitative data from the eat 26 questionnaire - which makes it less reductionist as it considers both factual numerical data, as well as the thoughts/opinions that may have affected eating behaviours. Reductionist as it uses native Fijian females (average age 17yrs) so findings are restricted to adolescent girls so we cannot establish how other genders and ages will be affected by the media in terms of eating behaviours. Simplifies complex eating disorders to observation and imitation.
Brendgen: less reductionist as it is longitudinal and looks at changes in behaviour over time. It also focuses on both genetics and environment - so not just one cause. However it is reductionist as it says all aggression has a physical cause.
REDUCTIONISM
Describe the application and implication of the debate to your named studies.
Bandura: explains behaviours are learnt through observation and imitation of role models, ignoring individual differences such as personality. Good practical application = can introduce age restrictions on violent games/films to reduce imitated aggression. Less reductionist = looks at 4 stages: attention, retention, reproduction and motivation and acknowledges that people will pay attention to different details and people will have different motivations to imitate behaviours.
Leve: less reductionist as it looks at both genetics and environment as causes of behaviour, so doesn’t simplify it to one. However it is highly valid as it uses high controls - ensuring the adopted children were adopted within 3 months of birth, so we can assume that behaviour is mainly due to being around adoptive parents as there is little time spent with birth parents.
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Describe the positive and negative implications of the debate to your Classic Studies.
Watson and Rayner: one 11 month year old boy = low generalisability, lab experiment = low ecological validity, Watson was not visible when the noise was made (ensures he is only scared by noise) = high controls, stolid and unemotional child = generalisable to most children that age, standardised procedure = high reliability.
Raine: quantitative data gathered from brain scans = high reliability, control group matched to offenders (age, sex and schizophrenia) and all kept medication free = high controls/validity, 39males and 2females = population validity of prison, performance task during brain scan = low ecological validity.
