Issues and Debates in Psychology: How to answer "Compare..."

A lot of the part b) questions ask you to "compare" research, methods and theories. It's actually one of the easiest forms of question to answer because you can apply the issues you know best to the question, but it can be pretty daunting to think of them at first. 

Good issues to mention are:

• reductionism/holism
• to what extent do the theories/studies support psychology as a science?
• nomothetic/idiographic
• situational/dispositional
• to what extent are they subjective/objective?
• nature/nurture
• ethics
• application of research
• usefulness
• validity
• reliability
• approach
• determinism/freewill
• research methods

Some people use the GRAVER STANDERS acronym to help them but there's a few extra ones above just for good measure.

Personally, I think the most important ones are reductionism, validity, reliability, usefulness and situational/dispositional because you can apply them to most questions, but it's worth learning them all.

With regards to how to answer compare questions, here's an example:

b. Compare techniques for managing stress [15]

Intro: outline the three main approaches (cognitive, behaviourist and social support)

Main body: compare the approaches on the basis of (for example) whether they take a situational or dispositional approach, how useful they are, and how easily they can be applied. Use evidence from studies to support your arguments, and then evaluate one or two strengths or weaknesses. E.g. social support is situational which may be harder to change and may cause additional stress so may not be appropriate, but cognitive therapy is expensive and requires dedication, but the support offered may help to reduce stress more quickly and thus may be more efficient. Make sure you include similarities and differences and evaluate them on this basis. 

Conclusion: summarize the main points from each paragraph