Individual vs Situational Explanations of Behaviour G544 Issues and Debates Individual vs Situational Explanations of Behaviour

What is the debate? Which do you agree with?

January 2013 Briefly outline what is meant by individual and situational explanations of behaviour. (4) Describe two pieces of research that support a situational explanation of psychology. (8) Discuss the strengths and limitations of situational explanations of behaviour. (12) Compare methods used to study individual and situational explanations of behaviour. (8) Discuss the usefulness of research that emphasises individual explanations of behaviour. (8)

Individual explanations

Situational explanations

EXT: which studies support the Individual explanation? Describe two pieces of research that support a situational explanation of psychology. (8) Study: Brief explanation of how it links to the debate: 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’.

Methods used Compare methods used to study individual and situational explanations of behaviour. (8) Discussion: how would we go about answering this? Example paragraph: P E C

Timed Question 10 mins AT 12 mins Discuss the usefulness of research that emphasises individual explanations of behaviour. (8) Hand in please.

Compare the debate with other debates How does this debate link with other debates???

Homework G544 Section B Ethics

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

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 tests Personality is difficult to operationalise We cannot be sure any measurement is valid Fundamental attribution errors 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. 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). 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!