Unit 3- Key Evaluations (Health and Criminal)

- Evidence to Support

-Evidence to Oppose

- Practical Application

- Reductionism

- Research Methods

-DREEEAAMS

-PEEL

Weaknesses

• Cannot test ethically, as this may induce behaviour which would not have occured otherwise. 
• Evidence which exists lies in education and not within crime. 
• Will only work if expectations are not too different to the induviduals view of themselves. Low Self Concept. 
• Social Learning Theory may be a more plausible explanation. 

Strengths

• Wider effect on society of labelling. 
• Jahoda- provides evidence with criminal Psychology. 
• Evidence in education is still valid to support the Self Fullfilling Prophecy. 
• Correlational Studies show the effect of a self fullfilling prohecy. 

Weaknesses

• Cause and Effect relationships are hard to establish due to many other factors involved in criminal behaviour. 
• Charlton provides evidence against the role of SLT and the media, as it promoted pro social behaviour, not anit- social behaviour. 
• It doesn't explain induvidual differences, like why some people are criminals from role models but others are not. 
• There are issues with Bandura's research as evidence to support the theory. 

Strengths

• Practical application of social learning theory in the real world. Changes in role models. 
• Shows why criminal behaviour may run within families. 
• Bandura provides evidence, as he found children imitated aggressive behaviour from thier same sex role model. 
• Williams provides evidence for the fact that TV/media role models influence agressive behaviour. 

Weaknesses

• Ennet et al. - Shows that SLT is more likely to support not taking drugs, rather than being a negative influence. 
• Ignores biological factors, so is therefore reductionist.
• People continue to take drugs despite the naty initial effects, meaning there are other facotrs which contribute. 
• Issues with cause and effect, we can measure social learning theory effectively. 

Strengths

• Wider exploration of behaviour as it used 3 areas (classical, operant, SLT) to explain sustance misuse. 
• Explains culutral differences. 
• SLT is well accepted throughout all of psychology. 
• Explains psychological dependance, with classical conditioning, and context dependancy. 

Weaknesses

• Brain is too complex to study. Research evidence is useless as it doesnt encompass this complexity. 
• PET scans, which are used to study the explanation lack ecological validity. 
• We cannot generalise reults from animal studies.
• It is reductionist as it ignores the influence of the environment. 

Strengths

• Explains withdrawl, tolerance, dependance as they are all biological processes. 
• Evidence from animal studies which show biochemical changes supporting the model. 
• Correlational studies show there is a change in brain chemicals when drugs are used. 
• PET scans provide evidence for brain changes.