Individual Vs Situational debate

Definitions
1. Individual (dispositional)- Everything you do is due to your characteristics as an individual.
  1. Eye colour
  2. Intelligence
  3. Gender
  4. Age
2. Situational- Your behaviour is a product of the environment and social situations that you are in.
  1. Home life
  2. Upbringing
  3. Environmental conditions
Examples of studies which focus on the individual//situational debate.
1. Reicher&Haslam (situaitonal and individual).
2. Milgram (situational)
3. Baron cohen (Individual)
4. sperry
Strengths and weakenesses of the individual/situational debate
1. Strengths
  1. If we can discover which behaviours are determined by the situation this may be useful for society.
  2. If we discover which behaviours are down to the individual we may be able t find ways of treating them.
  3. Discovering that behaviour may involve a complex interaction between individual and situational factors opens up new directions for further research
2. weaknesses
  1. It can be difficult to separate the effects of a situation from the disposition of the person so how can we highlight cause and effect.
  2. Rather than individual or situational factors being exclusive alternatives, there may be a complex interaction between the two. Relying on just one or the other will be reductionist.

Resource summary

	Created by Becca Gaden about 10 years ago