The Two Perspectives of Michael

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The Two Perspectives Of Michael Michael is a 33 year old male who lives in Johannesburg, who from the age of sixteen can remember having feelings of persistent sadness and anxiousness. In which both of his parents suffered the same fate in their teenage ages. This essay will use the Biological and Psychodynamic perspectives to understand Michael’s behaviour from different perspectives. This essay will also look into the different perspective and try link them to Michael’s behaviour patterns. 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. Secondly physiology “how the nervous system and hormones work, how the brain functions, how changes in structure or function can affect behaviour” (McLeod, S. 2007). Thirdly Investigation of inheritance, what an animal inherits from its parents, mechanisms of inheritance (genetics). For example one might want to know whether high intelligence is inherited from one generation to the next. Biological brought scientist like James Olds, with the help of Hess's technique for probing the brain and Skinner's for measuring motivation, have a series of experiments. Where they had located an area in the lower part of the mid-line system where stimulation caused the animal to avoid the behaviour that provoked the
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