Behaviourism and Humanism Learning Perspectives The two perspectives of adolescent learning this essay will discuss are behaviourism and humanism. Both of these perspectives search for the reasons humans do things however the contrasts between the two are rather extreme. The behaviourist school of thought considers observed physical behaviour and believes behaviour can be predicted and controlled (O’Donnell et al, 2012, p. 230). Skinner and Watson are the most well known developers of this theory, and in the early stages of behaviourism animal behaviour was studied. Humanism came about as a response to behaviourism; with humanists looking at the whole person and their experience, believing that learning is a part of natural human growth.
Many research studies have been carried out that support both sides of the arguments so it’s difficult to decide which one is a better explanation. Behavioural psychologists believe that our behavioural aspects originate only from the environmental factors of our nurture. So according to nurture debate genes do not control our behaviour but the environment. All behaviours are the result of learning through classical or operant conditioning and social learning. A famous case study on aggression by Bandura (1963) explains that behaviour is learnt by observing others and then imitating it.
Describe and Evaluate the Learning theory of Attachment Learning theory was very popular in psychology in the first half half of the 20th century. In a nutshell, learning theory proposes that all behaviour is learned rather than innate, When children are born, they are like blank slates and everything they become can be explained in terms of the experiences that they have. Classical conditioning involves learning through association. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist, first described this type of learning. He was conducting research on the salivation reflex in dogs, recording how much salivated each time they were fed.
Both B.F Skinner and Harry Harlow’s concepts on learning and attachment respectively, was based on the theory that their investigations and research into behaviours could be applied across species. Both Skinner and Harlow have made important contributions to the understanding on the effects of behaviour. Harlow through his research challenged the opinion of many theorists and psychoanalysts, who regarded attachment mainly as cupboard love or as a function of feeding. Whilst Skinner maintained that a discipline that promoted positive reinforcement with the avoidance of punishment could solve the world’s problems. In many respects Skinner and Harlow’s approaches to study are similar as they both focused on the effects of behaviour; studying non-human animals because they were lower on the evolutional stage, less complex than their human counterparts and not affected by influences of society, culture etc.
Psychoanalytical theories of personality stress the individual’s unconscious motivations which can be identified through dreams, slips of the tongue and fantasies (McCrae & Costa, 2003; 21). “The psychoanalytical theory views personality as biologically based, relatively unchangeable and determined by the need to control sexual and aggressive instincts which are unconscious in nature” (Rust & Golombok, 1989, 131). Sigmund Freud was the founder of the psychoanalytical approach to personality although many academics have expounded on his research since then (Bernstein, 2001; 125). This contrasts with the humanistic theory which was adopted by leading 20th Century psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow (Nicholas, 2008; 226). Robert Ewen suggests that
Behaviorism vs. Psycho-analysis Abstract The most common definition of psychology is the study of mental processes, human behavior, and how they affect an individual’s physical state, mental state, and external environment. The most comprehensive theory developed to explain the given definition of psychology is psychodynamics, a theory of how thoughts and feelings affect our actions. Watson’s failure to focus on the unseen phenomena that is the subconscious and the conscious is what leads to the inevitable fading of his theory among psychologists. This paper argues against Watson’s claims, and for the Psychodynamic theory. “Psychology as the behaviourist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science.
Cognitive behavior therapy is based on the belief that people are born with the ability to have rational and irrational thinking, and it helps clients to accept themselves and their mistakes. They teach the client that they will continue to make mistakes and is a normal part of life. However, the psychoanalytic theory is inconsistent with these views because it is rooted in the belief that our behavior is determined by unconscious forces. Also, that sexual and death instincts are the sources of our actions and our motivation for pleasure and pain. b.)
Freudian psychoanalytic theory, on the other hand, had tended to de-emphasize conscious thought. Advances in behavioral science and experimental psychology had brought up questions of the main assumptions of psychoanalysis, and new theories of the human mind were coming. “There are actually several kinds of Cognitive-Behavioral therapies and they all employ the same general premise: in contrast to the psychodynamic emphasis on insight into unconscious motivation, the cognitive-behavioral therapies emphasize the ability of people to make changes in their lives without having to understand why the change occurs. “ Research into human emotion had found that people’s thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions about events are important in guiding emotional experience (Carson, B.M. 2000).
His theories have many differences to Piaget’s but there are also a number of aspects of their theories which are similar. A. Piaget and Vygotsky had an interest in the study of cognitive development, with a view to explain how, when and why this development occurs, although their views to how this occurs will often differ. A connection between language and cognitive development has been found by both Vygotsky and Piaget; Piaget believed that thought drives language, whereas Vygotsky’s understanding was that language drives thought (Bailey et al 2009). It is also thought by both psychologists that use of speech and language plays an important part in cognitive development. Speech and language, in addition to the concepts used by younger children to order the world, are thought to be used differently than in older children and adults as they will change as they grow and develop.
At first, it was behaviourists in psychology who noted that people learn through observing others around them. Later on, researchers such as Albert Bandura looked at how people interacted and used cognitive processes. He stated: ‘Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action. (Bandura 1977: 22)’ It was discovered that aspects of this observational learning involved an individual serving or catering to a certain behaviour, remembering/memorising it and how it worked for another person and then the individual acting it out to see how it worked for them.