Individual (dispositional)- Everything you do is due to your characteristics as an individual.
Eye colour
Intelligence
Gender
Age
Situational- Your behaviour is a product of the environment
and social situations that you are in.
Home life
Upbringing
Environmental conditions
Examples of studies which focus on the
individual//situational debate.
Reicher&Haslam (situaitonal and individual).
Milgram (situational)
Baron cohen (Individual)
sperry
Strengths and weakenesses of the individual/situational debate
Strengths
If we can discover which behaviours are
determined by the situation this may be useful for
society.
If we discover which behaviours are down to the
individual we may be able t find ways of treating them.
Discovering that behaviour may involve a complex interaction
between individual and situational factors opens up new directions
for further research
weaknesses
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.
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.