Examples Of Psychological Perspectives

The sociocultural perspective focuses on the impact of social and cultural context on an individual. The theory stresses the interaction between developing people and the culture in which they live. This theory suggests that human development is largely involved with social process (“Contemporary Psychology: Sociocultural Perspective,” n.d.). That can produce variation or proliferation without any seemingly significant changes in complexity. Through time, producing a form of structure can be qualitatively different from the ancestral form. For example, if someone grew up kissing each other goodbye, they will most likely pass that onto your children.

Have you ever wondered why do we do things that we do? Why do we act in a certain way? What compels us to follow a path or formulate habits? One perspective among many others is the sociocultural perspective. A sociocultural perspective is an approach to understand why humans behave the way they do. It seeks to understand human behavior and personality development by examining the influence of rules of social groups on individuals who are members of those social groups. Sociocultural approach is an emerging topic that looks at the important contributions that society makes to an individual. The sociocultural approach is based on the assumption that our personalities, beliefs, attitudes and skills are learned from others. It refers to a point of view that is built upon the idea that society and culture are major factors that influence personalities. This approach believes that people are heavily influenced by their social environment. What makes and defines us as individuals is the application of sociocultural approach. For example, if you look outside the window and see a man talking to a tree, what conclusions will you draw? You may think the man is a lunatic and needs some kind of medication. But would your opinion change if you knew that the man was Native American and Native Americans believe in a spiritual philosophy that trees can speak if you listen to them. So you see, the context of culture makes a huge difference in how you ascertain someone’s behavior and that’s

Classical Conditioning. Due to Pavlov’s success, Watson was inclined to do his own experimentation. His most famous, yet controversial, being on “Little Albert.” “Albert” was a child conditioned by Watson to be afraid of rats. Essentially, Watson would create a loud, banging noise. This would eventually lead to the fear of not just rats, but all fuzzy animals (John Watson - Little Albert, 2008).

Little Albert an 11 month old boy was chosen as the participant. Watson identified that a white rat did not provoke any fear response in Albert, so it was a neutral stimulus. Little Albert was then exposed to the white rat, but every time he reached out to touch it Watson would make a loud noise. Albert would get frightened and start to cry. After repeating this several times, Albert started getting frightened just by seeing the rat. Just like the bell in Pavlov's experiment, the white rat had become a conditioned stimulus to Albert. Watson therefore concluded that even complex behaviour such as fear was a learned response.

His most famous experiment is the Little Albert experiment. He gave a little boy by the name of Albert a white furry rat. He let Albert love and play and get attached to the rat. Later on, he would give the rat to Albert and when he went to touch it, Watson would play a loud sound, frightening the child. He continued this until one day he gave Albert the rat without playing a loud noise. Albert was still frightened of the rat. This is the same thing they did to the children in Brave New World to condition them to not like or want books or nature.

The behaviourist perspective is an idea that we can understand any type of behaviour by looking at what the person has learner. This includes personality traits such as shyness, confidence, optimism or pessimism. Behaviourist psychologists explain all human behaviour as resulting from experience. Two key psychologists are Pavlov and Skinner, although these two theorists believed that different processes were involved, they both explained all types of behaviour as being the result of learning. This is everything from shyness to aggression and happiness to depression.

Douglas Merritte, better known as Little Albert was 9 months when he participated in a study along with John Watson. Watson exposed Little Albert to a white rat and furry objects, who before not feared rats and furry objects. As he played with the rat, Watson made a loud noise with a hammer. After numerous of trials, Watson introduced the rat and the furry objects to Little Albert who began to cry in fear of the loud noise. When the rate and furry objects were placed in front of Albert he cried, although there was no noise. Something that was first enjoyment to him has become fear to him. The bad thing about this experiment is that Watson created a child with a previously nonexistent fear. It has been said that Douglas known as Little Albert

Psychology explores human behavior and the human mental process figuring ways to improve the thinking and attitude of an individual’s existence. Sometimes, different techniques are used and tried to properly resolve the problem within the multitude of possible behavioral issues. Moreover, Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, developed many theories, psychodynamic therapy, for clinically treating people with mental health problems through their unconscious mind; Then, Sigmund Freud’s theories or therapy, rather, diverged into other types of therapies such as Biological Psychology or Cognitive Psychology. No doubt, there are various perspectives, both strong and weak, in the field of Psychology using different techniques on different

According to the famous “Rats maze” experiment, Watson began by challenging the underlying assumption of instinct (Berntson and Cacioppo, 2000). Watson and Morgan (1917) are considered to be

Watson and Rayner set out to substantiate his theory by recruiting a subject, who basically stayed in a hospital attached John Hopkins University, and the conducting an experiment on the chosen infant. Their aim was to classically condition the infant to fear a white laboratory rat. The infant, Albert B. or “Little Albert”, was a physically healthy and emotionally stable 9-month old boy (Watson & Rayner, 1920, p. 1). He was described as a very relaxed baby who hardly ever cried. In the emotional tests, before conditioning, Albert was exposed to a series of objects, which included fire, cotton wool, a monkey, a dog, a white rabbit, a mask with hair, and a white laboratory rat. He had not shown a scared or nervous response toward these neutral stimuli, and particularly adored the white laboratory rat. (chaopret 7, p. 239).

The four major perspectives of Psychology are: Biological, Learning, Cognitive, and Sociocultural. First, is the biological perspective which relates to bodily events that affect the behavior, feelings, and thoughts. During the biological perspective electrical impulses shoot along the nervous system and hormones flow through the blood stream alerting the internal organs to slow down or speed up. The biological perspective affects the nervous system, hormones, brain chemistry, heredity, and evolutionary influences. A child who has been exposed to abuse may also grow up to abusive which is an example of the biological perspective. Second, is the learning perspective which the environment and experience affect the behavior of humans or animals. The environment either rewards or punish that maintains or discourage behaviors. Behaviors are based on acts and events taking place within the environment. Environmental influences, observations and imitation, beliefs, and values affect the learning perspective. A violent role model can influence a child to behave aggressively is an example of the learning perspective. Third, is the cognitive perspective which is the psychological approach that emphasizes mental process in perception, memory, language, and problem solving. The cognitive perspective shows how thoughts and explanations affect their actions, feelings, and choices. The cognitive approach is one of the strongest forces in psychology. A violent person may be quick to

The Little Albert experiment has become a famous case study that has been discussed by a plethora of professionals in the psychology industry. In 1920, behaviorist John Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner began to conduct the first experiment that had been done with a child. Watson and Rayner chose Albert because they thought he was stable; he was accustomed to a hospital environment due to his mother’s career as a wet nurse, he was healthy and showed little emotion. Stability played a major factor in choosing Albert for this case study because Watson wanted to ensure that they would do as little harm as possible with the experiment. The conditioning of Albert began with a series of emotional tests that became part of a routine in which Watson and Rayner were “determining whether fear reactions could be called out by other stimuli than sharp noises and the sudden removal of support” (-----). Watson’s method of choice for this experiment was using principles of classic conditioning to create a stimulus in children that would result in fear. Since Watson wanted to condition Albert, he used a variety of objects that would otherwise not scare him. These objects included white rat, dog, blocks, rabbit, fur coat, wool and a Santa Claus mask.

For the second stage, a white rat was used as Watson’s CS, the CS must be a neutral stimulus that initially has no effect on the UR. Little Albert showed no phobia towards the rat before conditioning occurred. By pairing the US with the CS, the infant learned to associate the loud noise of the hammer and metal bar with the white rat. After strengthening the association between the US and the CS by repetition, Little Albert eventually became fearful and upset when only presented with the once neutral stimulus, the white rat. This response was the CR which marked the completion of step three. Little Albert was now afraid of the white rat because it triggered his fear of the loud noise. Classical conditioning can be used to prove many forms of behavior between subjects when looking at the the right unconditioned/ conditioned stimuli and unconditioned/ conditioned responses. The theory of classical conditioning can be used to explain the development of distrust and trust issues in the relationships between people.

The Behavioral Perspective: This perspective is based on environmental rewards and punishers to encourage or discourage behaviors. This is usually notes through direct observation of the particular act in the specific environment. Social cognitive learning is used to further explain values, expectations, and intentions of the individual. This theory was the main stream behaviorist theory for over 50 years, as it focuses on precision and objectivity. It is thought to have advanced science as a whole and has given psychology some of the most accurate and detailed finding to date.

Behavioral perspective is how we learn observable responses. The behavioral perspective is all about acting throughout life as a result of some form of motivation or incentive. It relates to a reason that an individual acts or reacts to something. This is the perspective that helps explain the physiological need of any living organism.