the areas and perspectives evaluations Flashcards
the social area
principle: other people will affect our behaviour and how we act differently when others are present
concepts: response to authority, diffusion of responsibility, bystander apathy, altruism
studies: Milgram, Piliavin
strengths: confidentiality, high population validity
weaknesses: deception used, ethnocentric
the developmental area
principle: we change over time and what happens in childhood impacts us as adults
concepts: observation and imitation, morality
studies: bandura, kohlberg
strengths: high internal reliability as highly
weaknesses: small sample sizes, breaks protection from harm
the cognitive area
principle:behaviour is affected by mental processes, info is inputted and then later retrieved like a computer
concepts: cocktail party effect, reconstructed memory
strengths: standardised, not ethnocentric as humans have same mental processes
weaknesses: both self report so reduced accuracy, lab experiments lower ecological validity
the individual differences area
principle: explains why people behave differently to each other, often focuses on ‘abnormal’ behaviours such as mental illnesses
principle: psychosexual development theory
studies: freud, gould
strengths: can be useful for suggesting health conditions
weaknesses: both self report, case studies limit generalisability
the behaviourist perspective
principle: all people born tabula rasa
concepts: social learning theory, classical conditioning, operant conditioning
studies:bandura
strengths:useful in discouraging negative behaviour
weaknesses: low population validity as often not large sample
the psychodynamic perspecctive
principle: our behaviour is due to our unconscious thoughts and we cant control it
concepts:the 3 parts of personality (ID,ego,superego), defence mechanisms
studies: freud
strengths: case studies allow detailed info on participant
weaknesses: relies on self report so reduced accuracy, low construct validity
