Models and Methods of Understanding Human Behaviour

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Models and Methods of understanding Human Behaviour There are five basic models in the understanding of human behaviour. These models include: The Biological Model, The Psychoanalytic Model, The Behaviourist Model, The Cognitive-Behavioural Model, and The Humanistic Model. All family support and intervention draws on these models. APPROACHES: 1. Biological: Concerned with the activity of the nervous system, especially the brain, action of hormones & genetics 2. Psychodynamic: Emphasizes internal conflicts, mostly unconscious 3. Behavioural: Concerned with learning, especially each person's experience with rewards and punishments 4. Cognitive: Studies the mechanisms through which people receive, store, retrieve, and otherwise process information. Explores how thought processes lead to feelings and actions. 5. Humanistic: Emphasizes individual potential for growth and the role of unique perceptions in guiding behaviour and mental processes. THE BIOLOGICAL APPROACH Charles Darwin first introduced the idea that genetics and evolution play a role in influencing human behaviour. Theorists in the biological perspective who study behavioural genomics consider how genes affect behaviour. Now that the human genome is mapped, perhaps, we will someday understand more precisely how behaviour is affected by the DNA we inherit. Biological factors such as chromosomes, hormones and the brain all have a significant influence on human behaviour, for example gender. The biological approach believes that most behaviour is inherited and has an adaptive (or evolutionary) function. For example, in the weeks immediately after the birth of a child, levels of testosterone in fathers drop by more than 30 per cent. This has an evolutionary function. Testosterone-deprived men are less likely to wander off in search of new mates to inseminate. They are also
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