Outline the debate about individual and situational explanations in psychology, using an example from the study by Dement and Kleitman (sleep and dreams).

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Oct/Nov 2021). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] The individual explanation states that we behave because of our personality.
2. [1] For example, the participants in Dement and Kleitman had different success at estimating dream duration (D+K example).
3. [1] The situational explanation states that we behave because of the environment we find ourselves in.
4. [1] For example, being in the laboratory may have caused some of the strange dreams (D+K example).
5. [4] People tend to dream more in REM sleep compared to NREM sleep. Around 80% of dreams were recalled when woken in REM compared to 7% when woken in NREM.
6. [4] Direction of eye movement in REM relates to dream content so it is not random. Vertical movement was linked to playing basketball whilst horizontal movement was linked to throwing tomatoes.
7. [4] People may well dream in 'real time';