This essay will in turn look at the behaviorist, Psychodynamic, and
Humanistic approaches to Psychology. It will evaluate the assumptions
and contributions for each approach.
Behaviorists emphasize the relationship between the environment
surrounding a person and how it affects a person’s behavior. They are
primarily concerned with observable behavior, as opposed to internal
events like thinking and emotion. This is a criticism of the
behaviorist approach; it is seen as mechanistic and oversimplified,
because it ignores mental processes or reinterprets them as just types
of behavior. John Watson saw emotions as the secretion of glands and
thinking as the movement of our vocal chords without actual speech.
However studies have been carried out and it has been found that
people can still think even when their vocal chords are paralyzed.
Behaviorists make the assumption that in humans; virtually all
behaviors are caused by learned relationships between a stimulus that
excites the sense organs and a response which is the reaction to the
stimulus.
John Watson was strongly influenced by the work of Pavlov on classical
conditioning. Pavlov trained dogs to salivate whenever he rang a
bell. An unconditioned Stimulus (the bell) leads to an unconditioned
Response (salivation). When the unconditioned stimulus is paired with
another Stimulus (food), this stimulus will eventually produce the
response on its own and is then called the conditioned stimulus which
produces a Conditioned response. Behaviorists propose that phobias
come about in a similar way, for example, somebody who is
spider-phobic, might have learned to be scar...
... middle of paper ...
...
This essay has evaluated the assumptions and contributions of the
behaviourist, psychodynamic and humanistic approaches to psychology.
The behaviourist approach focuses on the behaviour of people and seeks
to explain behaviour as being learnt. The psychodynamic and humanist
approaches are more concerned with the emotional aspects of people’s
lives rather than their behaviour. The psychodynamic approach places
importance on childhood experience. The humanist approach places more
emphasis on the importance of our self image.
Bibliography
Basic Psychology by Henry Gleitman (First Edition)
Psychology, third edition by Cardwell, Clark and Meldrum
Psychology – A New Introduction by Richard Gross, Rob McIlveen, Hugh
Coolicun, Alan Clamp and Julia Russell (Twelfth Edition)
Class lectures and handouts
Classical conditioning lead Watson to the discovery of behaviorism. Ivan Pavlov discovered classical condition meaning that control of a stimulus-response reflexive relationship. “Watson assumed that human behavior and the behavior of animals were both governed by the same law of nature” (Jensen, 1). He demonstrated on his experiment with Albert that human emotional response could be
In 1913 a new movement in psychology appeared, Behaviorism. “Introduced by John Broadus Watson when he published the classic article Psychology as the behaviorist views it.” Consequently, Behaviorism (also called the behaviorist approach) was the primary paradigm in psychology between 1920 to 1950 and is based on a number of underlying ‘rules’: Psychology should be seen as a science; Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable behavior, as opposed to internal events, like thinking and emotion; People have no free will – a person’s environment determines their behavior; Behavior is the result of stimulus resulting in a response; and All behavior is learned from the environment. How we process these stimuli and learn from our surrounds
Psychology began as the study of the soul. Plato believed the soul was an individual’s belief they are separate from, but also connected to their physical and social environments. Aristotle believed the soul was a set of psychological attributes which he referred to as the ‘mind’ (Garcia-Valdecasas, 2005).
Various perspectives on behavior have changed the face of psychology over the centuries. Some of the most influential of these theories on behaviorism were made by John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, and Edward C. Tolman. The manner in which behavior is modified has become a growing debate in the aspect of which technique is more reliable and effective. The theories from these three men have become a foundation for many different schools of thought throughout modern psychology. Through their research, many modern psychologists have grown a better knowledge on why people react and behave during certain situations or in different environments. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the various theories of Watson and Skinner to that of Tolman.
The field of psychology is a discipline, originated from many branches of science. It has applications from within a complete scope of avenues, from psychotherapy to professional decision-making. The flexibility and versatility of this field reflects its importance and demands in-depth analysis. Psychology was a division of philosophy until it developed independent scientific disciplines. The history of psychology was a scholarly study of the mind and behavior that dates back to the beginning of civilization. There are important details from previous theory psychologist, research have contributed to behaviorism approaches and have contributed towards specific current behavioral practices. Contemporary behavior therapy began to emerge into distinct practical and core learning theories concerning the needs and knowledge engaging cultural and professional differences.
The psychodynamic theory encompasses both Freud and Erikson. Freud believed the three components of personality were the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is responsible for all needs and urges, while the superego for ideals and moral. The ego moderates between the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. However, Erikson believed that personality progressed through a series of stages, with certain conflicts arising at each stage. Success in any stage depended upon successfully overcoming these conflicts. The advantage to psychodynamic is that it encompasses the individual, meaning that the theory looks at personality from childhood all the way into adulthood. The disadvantages of this theory are that it cannot be tested validly. Therefore,
This essay will first explore what classical conditioning is by using Ivan Pavlov’s famous experiment with dogs to explain how it works. It will then go on to describe how classical conditioning led to more research by Edward L. Thorndike and B.F. Skinner in the study of instrumental behaviour (Gleitman et al. 2011). It will also mention briefly what similarities can be found between operant and classical conditioning before explaining in detail what operant conditioning is (Skinner’s experiment with the operant
Watson, J. B. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. The American Psychologist, 55(3), 313-317. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/
Psychoanalysts focus on the unconscious mind as the sole problem of all things. It has to do with your Id, the part of ourselves that contains our unconscious desires and immoral thoughts, our ego, our reality, and lastly our super ego, our ideal moral self. The part of ourselves that encourages us to do the right thing is the super ego. (Psychodynamic Theories of Personality, 5). If something is found to be affecting you in a wrong way, then it has to do with the Id controlling you or it could deal with the stages of personality that Freud came up with. The stages are: oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital. (Psychodynamic Theories of Personality, 8) Our case is of a 14 year old freshman named Jodie. She has been feeling hopeless and depressed since her mother passed away. She has been experimenting with illegal drugs and alcohol. She used to have good grades and a good GPA, but now she is failing over half of her classes. She also is not communicating with anyone in her family. Jodie is the oldest child of three and has the responsibility of taking care of her two younger brothers. Unfortunately now she neglects them. She leaves them home alone to take care of themselves. She does not feed them or watch over them. She has
In this assignment I am going to introduce and unpack cognitive behavioural theory and psychodynamic theory. This will include the history of each theory and the theorists that discovered and developed both. I am going to link each theory to where they fit in Payne’s Triangle of Social Work as well as compare and contrast each theory. Both Cognitive behavioural theory and psychodynamic theory both support the purposes of social work in which I will cover beneath. This assignment will also include criticisms of both theories as well.
Foundational thought is concerned with the theories of knowledge that are based on a certain belief. In psychology, the fathers of psychology made a great contribution to the thoughts and knowledge they made and they are behind the knowledge of psychology in place. Many fathers of psychology have made a remarkable contribution to the subject although their arguments are facing criticism by modern psychologists.
The first core concept suggested by the web article depicts human development forming from the interplay of an individual’s biology and experience. Early scientists in this particular field created testable hypotheses to understand the dynamic interaction between the nature-nurture phenomenon. Nobel Prize winner Ivan Pavlov’s and North American scientist B.F. Skinner’s research in behaviorism contain principles in classical and operant conditioning which can help further explain this occurrence.
Behaviorism is an approach to psychology based on the proposition that behavior can be researched scientifically without recourse to inner mental states. It is a form of materialism, denying any independent significance for mind. Its significance for psychological treatment has been profound, making it one of the pillars of pharmacological therapy. One of the assumptions of behaviorist thought is that free will is illusory, and that all behavior is determined by the environment either through association or reinforcement.
In handling his students’ inappropriate behavior, Mr. Swan should follow this approach. If the students continue to talk loudly, use tools inappropriately, and hit at each other, he should use a punisher. These behaviors could include the verbal or nonverbal communications for the purpose of stopping behaviors or even a detention. When the students start doing well, they should be reinforced and rewarded for doing good. Reinforcement improves student motivation and it will be effective in helping Mr. Swan handle these students’ inappropriate behaviors.
Behaviorism is the point of view where learning and behavior are described and explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships. Behaviorists agree that an individual’s behaviors is a result of their interaction with the environment. Feedback, praise and rewards are all ways people can respond to becoming conditioned. The focus is on observable events instead of events that happen in one’s head. The belief that learning has not happened unless there is an observable change in behavior. “The earliest and most Ardent of behaviourists was Watson (1931; Medcof and Roth, 1991; Hill 1997). His fundamental conclusion from many experimental observations of animal and childhood learning was that stimulus-response (S-R) connections are more likely to be established the more frequently or recently an S-R bond occurs. A child solving a number problem might have to make many unsuccessful trials before arriving at the correct solution” (Childs, 2004).