In John Taurek’s article, Should the Numbers Count?, he presents particular hypothetical trade-off situations from which he considers whether, in itself, the relative number of people involved should be a factor in any specific course of action. In his article, Taurek rejects the aggregation principle (the idea that multiple units can be combined to measure the effect of a particular action), which Jeremy Bentham considers to be a fundamental principle of utility. Taurek presents a multi-stage argument as the basis for rejecting the aggregation principle while ruling out particular extenuating circumstances, thus further defending his thesis. A much more logical line of thinking is that of Jeremy Bentham, who supports the aggregation principle. In considering the aggregation principle as a factor in itself we must, however, closely observe both sides of the argument.
However there are very strong weaknesses that go against his theory. It is conceivable that an intuitive conscience could be misleading and therefore seems to have a similarity to Aquinas’ more logical theory, which believes the conscience to be a device that distinguishes which acts are moral and unmoral. Also people’s ideas of morality Aquinas believed that through reason we can use the conscience as a device for distinguishing
P1 Explain the principal psychological perspectives. Behaviourist approach Your behaviour is learned as the individual is the product of there environment because they are born a blank slate. this theory is part of the extreme nature, nurture debate because theorists believe that individuals where nurtured to become what they are and learn there behaviour for example skills and values through their environment another example of behaviourism is that when the phone rings we know that someone is on the other end, we weren't born knowing that. To make this scientific there needs to be observable behaviour that can be measured. where behaviourism is concerned there many different types of conditioning such as classical conditioning which is the stimulus and response theory this backs up the idea that behaviour is taught which Ivan Pavlov demonstrated in different experiments.
Explain the key characteristics and concepts of: Humanistic theory Psychodynamic theory Cognitive – behavioural theory Humanistic theory The humanistic approach began in response to concerns from Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. They believed that existing theories (psychodynamic) failed to address issues like the meaning of behaviour adequately. However instead of variations of the psychodynamic approach a new approach was created. It was designed to be a non- judgmental, non-directive approach to therapy. It emphasizes the three core conditions- unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence.
Dixon (cited in Hollway, 2007) points out that psychological research treated prejudice as the outcrop of abnormal psychological development. The author went on to mention that according to the work by some writers on the Dogmatic Personality ,prejudice is rooted in abnormal personality development and it is because of this view that prejudice was seen as closely related to cognitive rigidity. Prejudice is also closely linked to intergroup conflict. Intergroup conflict according to Bornstain (2003) generally involves conflicts of interest within groups of people. Bornstain (2003) goes on to point out that intergroup conflicts are rational in the sense that groups do have incompatible goals and are in competition for scarce resources.
Obedience to authority can become dangerous when morality and independent thought are stifled to the point that harm is inflicted upon another person. "The Perils of Obedience," by Stanley Milgram reports on his controversial experiment that tested how far individuals would go in obeying orders, even if carrying out those orders caused serious harm to others. In Ian Parker's article, "Obedience," he introduces the concept of situational forces influencing how one would react in a given situation. He points out that people will behave according to where they are and not necessarily because of whom they are. And in "The Stanford Prison Experiment," by Philip K. Zimbardo, he discusses the results of his controversial experiment designed to examine the ability of individuals to resist authoritarian or obedient roles, if the setting and circumstances required those roles.
Another field of psychological research is cognitive psychology, which studies the processes of thought and knowledge. Research has shown that a person judges a food’s edibility on just the idea of it. For example, if something looks repulsive, but is still edible, most humans will reject that food. This psychology field offers an explanation as to why humans will not eat foods that sound or look disgusting to them despite the fact that they are edible. These three fields of psychology each offer an excellent explanation as to how humans decide what is
Linehan drew from various behavior therapies and Zen principles. The word “dialectic” refers to opposing truths and can be traced to Socratic questioning. DBT focuses on integrating contradicting philosophies and creating a balance between acceptance and change. (Linehan, et al., 2006). Clients are validated for their experiences and feelings, but motivated to change behaviors.
The cognitive approach focuses on the importance of internal processes of the mind – such as thinking. They see our behaviour is a mixture of learning (conditioning) and thoughts. When we have psychological distress, it comes from errors in thinking, such as irrational thoughts or mustabatory thinking, e.g. “I must be the best at everything or I am useless”. The aim of RET is to restructure these irrational thoughts into positive and rational ones to make the person feel better about themselves.
Leanne McCallum 200803953 In “Descartes’ Evil Genius”, O.K. Bouwsma attempts to argue that Cartesian scepticism is incoherent; he does this by constructing his argument through the telling of stories to explain what Descartes was trying to argue, and where he thinks Descartes was wrong. Descartes had three main arguments that he uses to refute the reliability of our senses; firstly the argument from the fallibility of the senses, secondly, the argument from dreams, and lastly, the Evil Genius argument. Bouwsma analysed the ordinary use of language to show the linguistic problems with this philosophical question. He has two “adventures” in which he explains how the sceptical challenge is incoherent.