Describe the assumptions of the major theoretical orientations in psychology, i.e. Psychodynamic, Behaviourist, Cognitive and Humanistic The purpose of this essay is to describe, explain and analyse the major psychological approaches and highlight their strengths and limitations. But what psychology is about? There are many ways to try answer the question. However, the most straightforward answer is that psychology is about understanding people; how they think, what they say and why they do what they do.
From early psychology in the 19th century, the behaviorist school of thought ran concurrently and shared commonalities with the psychoanalytic and Gestalt movements in psychology into the 20th century; but also differed from the mental philosophy of the Gestalt psychologists in critical ways. Its main influences were Ivan Pavlov, who investigated classical conditioning—which depends on stimulus procedures to establish reflexes and respondent behaviors; Edward Thorndike and John B. Watson who rejected introspective methods and sought to restrict psychology to observable behaviors; and B.F. Skinner, who conducted research onoperant conditioning (which uses antecedents and consequences to change behavior) and emphasized observing private events . In
All definitions are correct in their own rights but as simple definitions can sometimes be misleading as through out history, Psychologists have not only disagreed about designation of psychology but what and how it should be studied. These approaches are often referred to as 'perspectives'. Each has a very different way of explaining human behaviour and makes different assumptions about the processes behind this behaviour. There are 5 major perspectives in Psychology offering different explanations as to why humans behave in the way they do. By comparing and contrasting two of these approaches the behaviourist and the biological approach it will highlight the different aspects to each approach.
Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the human mind. Minds however are not observable yet science is based on observation. Discuss the implications of this dilemma for psychology and explain how different ‘schools’ have nevertheless attempted to study the human mind. The word ‘Psychology’, broken down is: ‘psyche'-mind, ‘ology’- study, overall meaning the ‘study of the mind’ (American Psychological Association). Psychology is the scientific observation and analysis of the pattern between, the human mind and its functions to determine behaviour, which helps in gaining empirical evidence that can be useful to everyday life and its individuals (American Psychological Association 2013).
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.
How does social learning theory explain the development of offending behaviour and how useful is this explanation? It is possible to explain the development of offending behaviour in several ways. The two major approaches including, first, genetic explanations which posit that aggressive or antisocial behaviours are an outcome of markers of a certain genetic makeup, passed down from parents (Braungart-Riekerm et al, 1995). While, the behaviourist approach argues that the development of offending behaviour is a consequence of conditioning or social learning (Patterson, 1982). Although each of these explanations has merit, genetic explanations have been criticised for its failure to clearly show how disparate behaviours can be seen as expressions of a single genotype and that existing evidence suggests there are more complex issues involved than is implied by a person’s genetic makeup (Renken et al, 1989).
As a result there are a variety of theories of personality which try to describe the cause and effect of the human personality. This essay will briefly compare and contrast two of these theories which include the psychoanalytic and humanistic theories of personality. It is important to have an in-depth understanding of the various types of theories with respect to personality because such a discourse enables psychologists to discover more about social behaviours in daily life (Fiske et al, 2010; 365). Both theoretical viewpoints, while being substantially different from each other, do share some common comparisons as we shall examine below. 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).
He believed that people develop constructs as internal ideas of reality to help them understand the world around them and that the way the world is viewed is based on individual experiences, interpretations and observations. This essay will also look closely at the work from Hans Eysenck and Stanley Rachman on Trait Theory (1965) and Phillida Salmon (2003) who developed George Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory further by relating it to teaching. It will also discuss the interrogative themes of Power Relations, Situation Knowledge and Agency Structure. The strengths and weaknesses of both approaches will be critically compared along with looking at the contrasts of both hoping to offer an explanation to the above statement ‘The traits that we think we find in others represent our personal construction of them’ (Butt, 2012, p.53). Theories of personality were developed around a century ago in three different strands known as clinical, psychometric and experimental traditions, although all separate they seek to explain behaviour and the individual differences in the way people react to the same situation.
This essay will also outline the Biological and Psychodynamic perspective in detail and also compare and contrast the two perspectives as well as highlighting the major strengths and weakness of each. The Biological perspective believes human and animal behaviour is the result of internal physical chemical and biological processes. Biology is the defined as the study of life (from the Greek bios meaning ‘life’ and logos meaning ‘study’). A Biological perspective is relevant to the study of psychology in three ways (Comparative method, physiology and investigation of inheritance). Firstly the Comparative method different species of animal can be studied and compared.
Instrumental Conditioning Mandana Smith PSY/550 May 21, 2012 Maya Aleksic, Ph.D. Instrumental Conditioning Terms such as operant or instrumental conditioning lead individuals to the Skinner box. Classic experiments conducted by Skinner while training pigeons and rats to press levers to obtain food as their reward. Experiments such as Skinners chose outputs suited to pair with consequences. Upon completion of training, subjects display behaviors, such as, pressing the lever without rewards as association was memorized, (Terry, 2009).