Behaviourist Perspective Case Study

Psychological Perspectives

Task 1 AC 1.1

The Behaviourist perspective

The behaviourist perspective was a dominant approach in psychology for the first half of the 20th century and has left psychology with some useful techniques.

The main assumption of the behaviourist perspective is that all behaviour is learned and shaped by the environment.

The behaviourist perspective also argues that in order for psychology to be scientific it should focus on observable behaviour which can be objectively measured rather than on things like mental processes which can only be inferred. These can only be inferred as the mental process is something which cannot be measured or observed, so anything that is connected to the brain and isn’t to do with the actual

Classical conditioning explains how people learn behaviours through association and operant conditioning explains how the consequences of behaviours shape behaviour.

Classical conditioning is related to learning by association, and refers to the conditioning of reflexes. During Pavlov’s experiment, it was determined that new external stimuli such as sights as sounds, with the original stimuli could be associated with reflexes.

Operant conditioning involves learning through the consequences of behavioural responses. Skinner adapted the principles which were investigated by Thorndike, to explain how many aspects of human behaviour are acquired.

There is also a type of learning called social learning which other behaviourists believe is connected to the behaviourist theory. An example of this is in the Bandura et al. Study. In this study it is demonstrated how aggression is learned and shaped by role models.

The psychodynamic theory

The psychodynamic perspective was originally developed by Sigmund Freud but includes ideas from many other people who have developed Freud’s

The id is the combination of pleasure seeking desires and we are born with it. The ego develops later and it controls the desires of the id. The superego is the moralistic part of personality which develops as a child interacts with significant others such as its parents. The superego can be seen as the conscience. It is the role of the ego to maintain a balance between the id and the superego.

Freud believed that children pass through five stages of development, known as the psychosexual stages because of Freud 's emphasis on sexuality as the basic drive in development. These stages are: the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency period and finally the genital stage.

The phallic stage, from three to five years old was the stage where the child 's sexual identification was established. During this stage Freud hypothesised that a young boy would experience what he called the Oedipus complex. This would provide the child with highly disturbing conflicts, which had to be resolved by the child identifying with the same-sexed