A-Level心理学-年轻人饮酒The Young's Alcohol Consumption。

Revision: Alcohol Consumption amongst Young People

Describe how two approaches might try to explain the subject presented in the stimulus material

One approach would be the behaviorist approach, which claims that all behaviors are accumulated through learning. Under this approach is the conditioning theory which consists of two parts, the first being classical conditioning which claims behavior is learnt through association. Regular alcohol consumption would therefore be carried out, as people would associate something pleasant with alcohol, therefore they would continue to drink. Such associations could be made with laughter and fun, even though this could not be directly due to alcohol, maybe the atmosphere in which alcohol is consumed. Other associations could be feeling more confident and for young people feeling more grown-up. The other section to the conditioning theory is operant conditioning, which explains behavior in terms of reinforcement. For example, if a young person has a drink, and therefore is more socially accepted by his/her peer group, then this positively reinforces the young person to drink alcohol again. Another positive reinforce could be having a good time when consuming alcohol, and so wanting to have a good time again, one would drink alcohol. However, these reinforces could also be negative, as when a person drinks alcohol, they tend to forget other worries, and therefore they are reinforced to drink alcohol to forget problems.

A similar yet different approach is neo-behaviorism, which is associated with the social learning theory. This attempts to explain all behaviors in terms of observation and imitation. Therefore a person learns to behave in certain according to the actions of the people which surround them. For example, if a young person has parents who drink alcohol regularly, the young person is influenced that drinking alcohol in such volume is fine. This also is similar with peer groups, as people tend to be influenced by people of a similar age and sex. People are also influenced by others of whom they admired and respect, therefore according to this approach, the media would play an important role. For example if a young person's favorite actor was involved in an advertising campaign for an alcohol company or was seen consuming alcohol this could encourage the young person to do the same. This can be in terms of vicarious reinforces where you see others being rewarded for certain behavior, seeing someone else having a good time and drinking, would reinforce you to drink.

Assess one of these explanations of the subject presented in the stimulus material in terms of its strengths and weaknesses

Under the behaviorist approach, its theory lends itself to scientific research as the behavior can be easily observed. The associations with alcohol consumption can be recorded easily for example. This approach also has useful implications for treatment as they simply aim to reverse the faulty learning. For example with if a young person was not able to control their alcohol consumption, aversion therapy would be recommended, as a nauseating drug would be placed in the alcohol, therefore the feeling of nausea would be associated with alcohol and the person would stop drinking. This approach can also explain cultural differences in alcohol consumption as the associations could vary between cultures. For example in countries with low underage drinking levels, young people could have been taught to associated alcohol with an unpleasant response such as accidents caused by alcohol consumption.

However limitations exist under this approach as it completely ignores individual differences as the associations or reinforces for alcohol consumption will vary between individuals and this theory tends to generalize these associations across groups. This approach is also reductions as it also ignores internal thought processes, innate biases and views people in a very mechanistic manner and can be seen to reduce complicated processes to simple stimulus-response behaviors. These aspects which are ignored by this theory are highlighted in other approaches, for example in terms of alcohol consumption; the behaviorist approach ignores the fact that alcohol is a drug, which would obviously have physical effects on the human body. This would be the main principal to the biological approach. Although this approach has useful implications for treatment, these treatments can create ethical issues, as with the example given above, the patient would have to go through a traumatic period of nausea due to the method of aversion therapy.

Analyze how one of these approaches might investigate the subject presented in the stimulus material

A behaviorist would be likely to test his or her explanation through the use of laboratory experiments because behaviorists believe that only observable behaviors count, and because they feel it is possible to reduce behavior to simple cause and effect relationships. In terms of alcohol consumption, a laboratory experiment could replicate a situation in which alcohol was consumed or devise an experiment in which the causes for drinking alcohol could be determined. However, in this case, under the behaviorist theory, it could be considered better to use a field or natural experiment. This limits the interference made by the experimenter and the experiment is made easier as it would be extremely difficult to replicate the ambience of the relaxed environments where alcohol was consumed. The observation of behavior is maintained.

　　Evaluate the use of this method of investigating the subject material presented in the stimulus material

The advantages of the experimental approach are one can demonstrate cause and effect relationships under highly controlled conditions. This is important in order to be able to exclude any extraneous variables from this investigation. On the negative side, laboratory experiments are low in ecological validity, results can not be generalized to other people and situations than those used in the experiment. This limits their relevance. However the ecological validity does increase when using a field or natural experiment although the amount of control decreases at the same time. Although this cause and effect relationship can be demonstrated, it can not be determined. For example, the variables, alcohol and depression could be related, however it would not be known whether the alcohol caused the depression or the depression caused the alcohol consumption. It is also possible that a third variable could be involved. A consideration, which needs to be taken into account with any observation, is the definition of the behavior and inter-observer reliability. A further drawback of the experimental approach is that it focuses on a rather narrow set of factors and therefore may appear to account for behavior while in fact it only explains one aspect of this behavior. 

推荐阅读

【汇总】2016年雅思听力考试回忆及真题解析汇总

【汇总】2016年雅思阅读考试回忆及真题解析汇总

【汇总】2016年雅思写作考试回忆及真题解析汇总

【汇总】2016年雅思口语考试回忆及真题解析汇总

若想获取更多详尽出国留学攻略以及雅思备考资讯，可以打开我们【上海新东方雅思网】，涵盖雅思真题机经，雅思写作、口语、听力、阅读以及留学名校介绍等，也许就能找到你真正需要的。上海新东方雅思网在这里预祝各位考生学习顺利，都能考取自己满意的学校。

上海新东方寒假班报名地址
托福	雅思	GRE	GMAT	SAT
基础班	IELTS 5.5分班	基础班	强化班	基础班
强化班	IELTS 6.5分班	强化班		强化班
精讲精练班	IELTS 7分班	精讲精练班	精讲精练班	精讲精练班
点题班	雅思词汇班	模考班	模考班	模考班
更多	更多	更多	更多	更多