G544 Issues and Debates

Individual vs Situational Explanations of Behaviour

What is the debate?

Which do you agree with?

January 20131. Briefly outline what is meant by individual and

situational explanations of behaviour. (4)2. Describe two pieces of research that support a

situational explanation of psychology. (8)3. Discuss the strengths and limitations of

situational explanations of behaviour. (12)4. Compare methods used to study individual and

situational explanations of behaviour. (8)5. Discuss the usefulness of research that

emphasises individual explanations of behaviour. (8)

Individual explanations

Situational explanations

Study: Brief explanation of how it links to the debate:

Describe two pieces of research that support a situational explanation of psychology. (8)

EXT: which studies support the Individual explanation?

Discuss the strengths and limitations of situational explanations of behaviour. (12)

Individual Situational

Strengths

Weaknesses

NB: you must use evidence to back your points up and include ‘howevers’.

Compare methods used to study individual and situational explanations of behaviour. (8)

Discussion: how would we go about answering this?

Example paragraph:

Methods used

P

E

C

10 mins AT 12 mins

Discuss the usefulness of research that emphasises individual explanations of behaviour. (8)

Hand in please.

Timed Question

Compare the debate with other debates

How does this debate link with other debates???

G544 Section BEthics

Homework

This is to broaden your understanding of the debate in the wider context.

Extension Material

Fundamental Attribution Error Remember this:

We tend to attribute more significance to situational factors when considering the causes of our own behaviour but attribute more significance to personality characteristics when considering causes of the behaviour of others!

Problems with personality tests1. Personality is difficult to operationalise2. We cannot be sure any measurement is valid 3. Fundamental attribution errors4. Tests are all different as they are based on

different theories e.g.: projective tests are based on psychodynamic theory, the Myers Briggs test is based on a theory of Carl Jung. So the quality or value of the test will depend on the value, importance or quality of the theory.

5. Test are often not generalisable to all people in all situations (for example an Eysenck test which shows you are an extrovert might predict you would be a good manager in some jobs like retail but not necessarily a good manager in another job like head of school etc).

6. There is disagreement over whether research shows that behaviours based on personality tests can be often predicted

Mischel 1968 Mischel did a literature review of the

research into personality tests and predictability of behaviour.

He did correlational analysis between types of behaviour and predictability of that behaviour and found a positive correlation of between .02 and 0.4 which is quite low!

He said the role of personality in behaviour was small and therefore the greatest variability of behaviour depended on the situation.

Funder 2001 Said that a correlation of 0.4 was not low

and amounted to a prediction that personality would affect behaviour about 70% of the time!

He also said people choose their situations. For example an introvert might choose to work in a library. This will then, in turn affect their behaviours.

The Interactionist Perspective Arguing ‘is it personality or the situation’

causing behaviour is too simplistic. Both arguments are reductionist.

There is a complex interaction between the demands of a situation and the personality traits of the individual.

Individual differences and personality

Some individuals may show more consistent personality traits, so may be more influenced by these traits!

Some personality traits will only emerge in some situations!

Some individuals will be more affected by the environment in which they are in than their personality traits!