Strengths and Weaknesses of the Learning Perspective

Psychology- Strengths and Weaknesses of the Learning Perspective Strengths: Determinism- Refers to the view that all our behaviour is caused by some environmental factor. Our behaviour is determined by outside factors; therefore it is not free will. Allows the study of nurturing. For example, Operation Head start was an enrichment programme in the US. It came about as a result of a political movement to help disadvantaged children. For example, those who lacked some of the early benefits, such as health and intellectual stimulation were disadvantaged even before they began school. Small gains in IQ were spotted against the control group, however these were short lived and the financial costs exceeded over 150 million dollars. Use of scientific methods e.g. experiments- Controlled conditions and focuses on observable and objective behaviour. It can also lead to cause relationships in the variables being looked at. However, it is not the real world conditions. Animals cannot be generalized to humans. Another Strength is…Cultural differences This can provide us with an explanation on how new behaviour is acquired. It also explains why some people show aggression and others don’t. This supports the idea that behaviour is a result of nurture rather than nature. Mead (’35) looked at cross-cultural studies, where there is an expectancy to find variations in levels of aggression due to the different practices in the different cultures. Margaret mead looked at the following three tribes in New Guinea. The Mundugumor ' found to have been cannibals who killed any outsiders of their tribe. The Arapesh ' both the men and women were non-aggressive in their treatment towards others. The Tchambuli ' the men were found to be dulgent while the women were aggressive. However, the overall conclusion its that some aspects are biologically determined. This is because men were always relatively more aggressive than the women. This is due to