Approaches Of Psychology And Psychology

The Behaviourist approach believe that human beings are able to learn all types of behaviours through the environment they grow up in, its believes that we learn these behaviours through using theories, such as, Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning and Burrhus Frederic Skinner’s Operant Conditioning.

This essay will be looking at four psychological approaches. These are the psychodynamic approach, the humanistic approach, the cognitive approach and the behaviourist approach. Furthermore this essay will be describing and evaluating a psychologist's theory for each approach. The psychodynamic approach will be looking at Sigmund Freud's (1856-1939) theory of personality and the humanistic approach will be looking at Abraham Maslow's (1943) hierarchy of needs theory . The cognitive approach will be looking at a cognitive theory of memory, this being the multi-store model by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). The cognitive approach will also be looking at a cognitive theory of forgetting, this being trace decay first proposed by Edward Thorndike (1914). Finally, the behaviourist approach will look into an example of classical conditioning in humans (first proposed by Burrhus Frederic Skinner, 1940-90), this being the acquisition of phobias, and also an example of operant conditioning in humans (first proposed by Ivan Petrovich Pavlow, 1849-1936), this being the acquisition of language.

“The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone.” (B.F. Skinner). Behaviorism is the study of behavior and how it can change when the patient is introduced to a stimuli. Little Albert was an 8 month old orphan who was taken to be experimented on. He was introduced to a small white fluffy mouse, and whenever he touched the mouse he would hear a loud noise. Trained to not touch the mouse, he obtained an irrational fear of all things white and fluffy. Although there were advantages and disadvantages, the study on Little Albert was an unethical experiment, because Little Albert was taught to have an unnatural fear, he was only eight months old when he was tested on, and he was taken away before his fear could be removed.

Behaviourists focus on the influence of the environment, they chose not to be concerned with the internal mechanisms that occur inside the organism, they believe that your behaviour depends on what factors are present in the environment at any given time. Another big contributor to this approach is Ivan Pavlov who was made famous for conditioning in which he used dogs in an experiment.

Therefore, it is not necessary to invent hidden processes of learning (e.g.. Freud) to explain why behavior happens. The behaviorists believed that behavior is caused by environmental events (stimuli, reinforcers). With this idea, it cannot be controlled. Behaviorism is deterministic, as we do not control our own actions, and so therefore cannot be responsible for them. However, it becomes possible for others to control our behavior by manipulation of environmental events (Vancouver 2001). Behaviorism assumes that human behavior should be studied using the same methods applied in the physical sciences - that assuming psychology should restrict itself to studying only those things that can be studied directly. In this way, it means that anything that cannot be observed cannot be studied and that w cannot fully explain human behavior and the complications behind it. Williams (2002) added that although stimuli, response and reinforcement are essential in behaviorist explanation of behavior, they are

There are many different sub - fields of psychology, however it is possible to draw similarities and differences to all aspects of these fields. The main fields deal with the different approaches used by various psychologists throughout history. Whilst there are no 100% correct theories in Psychology to help to

Behaviorism concerns primarily with observable behavior, rather than thinking or feeling. It focuses on external/observable behavior that can be measured objectively.

According to behaviourism, behaviour can be studied in a systematic and observable manner with no consideration of internal mental processes. As human beings we are driven to understand who we are and how the facets of our own personality make us unique individuals. Behaviourists believed that we are born with a handful of innate responses known as stimulus response and that all of our complex behaviours are through learning by interaction with the environment

It emphasizes on observable behaviors rather than on unconscious inner states. Behaviorist believe that human behaviors are molded by experience and that we are the result of what we have learned from our environment. The behaviorist approach gives two ways as to how people learn from their environment: classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is when two stimuli (environmental factors) are linked together to produce a new learned response. Operant conditioning is learning from the consequences of behavior. A lot of the studies in behaviorism consist of controlled experiments as it is believed that behavior can be reduced to learned stimulus-response units. Behaviorism assumes that humans are born with a blank slate and are therefore born equal. They believe that it is environmental factors that make us different as opposed to biological factors. Behaviorist believe that cognitions, emotions, and moods are too subjective and that only observable behaviors should be studied. They believe that any person could be trained to perform any task with the right

The behaviourist perspective believes in nurture and that all behaviour is learnt from environmental influences and experiences, due to this they reject the idea of free-will. They have a strong belief in scientific methodology and that only observable behaviours should be studied as behaviour can be objectively measured using scientific experiments. There are three keys strands of the behaviourist perspective, Classical conditioning, Operant conditioning, and social learning theory.

It proposes two main processes such as Cassical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov) which is about learning by association, and Operant Conditioning (B.F Skinner) about learning from the consequences of our behavior. This approach mainly carries scientific methodology including controlled experiments and measurable behaviour. Behaviorism rejects the idea that people have free will, and has been criticised that underestimates the complexity of human behaviour. This approach doesn't concern too much about why human behaves in a way they do but place more emphasis on how to deal with the issues raised by a behaviour.

Psychology can be defined as the systematic study of mental processes, couple with behaviors, and experiences (Kalat, 2011). There are many ways in examining, mental processes and behaviors among people, and therefore psychologist uses different perspectives to understand how human beings, think, act, and behave. Some psychologist uses one perspective to analyze behaviors, and other uses a multidimensional approach. Carter & Seifert (2013) identified 7 major perspectives that are used to study people’s behavior, and mental processes. These perspectives are the biological, evolutionary, psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, and the sociocultural perspective.

The behaviourist perspective is a scientific approach within psychology which claims that we are blank slates at birth and all human behaviour is learnt.Behaviourism was developed by John Watson in America in the early 1900s, (Cullis, T1999). Behaviourists focus on external conditions, learning and experience

“Behaviorism is predominantly concerned with evident and measurable aspects of human behavior. In defining behaviour, behaviourist-learning theories emphasise changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response links made by the learner. Behaviour is directed by stimuli. An individual selects one response instead

Behaviourism is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviours are attained through conditioning. Behaviourists believe conditioning occurs when we interact with the environment and that the environment we are in determines the way we respond to a stimulus. The behaviourist approach believes we learn behaviours through association between response and consequence. For instance, by touching a hot iron you will feel pain. Therefore, we learn from this, and know not to touch a hot iron as we associate feeling pain as a consequence of this action. There are two forms of conditioning within the behaviourist approach; classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Behaviourists believe that individuals are born without built-in mental content, known as a ‘blank slate’ and that all behaviours arise from experience or perception.