Psychology as a diverse and applied discipline studies the mental functions and behaviour organisms through various perspectives. This essay examines two of these perspectives, namely the Psychoanalytic and the Behaviourist perspectives. A detailed description of these two perspectives will be provided including the major proponents of the theories, key concepts used to understand and interpret human nature, the major causal factors of human behaviour, the principle focus and methods of discovery used to investigate human behaviour as well the major strengths and limitations of each perspective. This essay will explore how both the behaviourist and the psychoanalytic perspectives are able to describe Thabani’s behaviour.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
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Psychoanalysis focuses predominantly on Thabani’s childhood and the various losses and abandonments that he experienced. His current anxiety and depression would be linked to the loss of his primary attachment figures. The loss of his father at a very young age has resulted in Thabani being unable to have a fatherly figure within his life. Furthermore, the loss of is mother to illness caused severe distress for the young boy. The emotions and fears linked too these traumatic losses would link to his unconscious mind therefore altering his behaviour. In addition, Thabani has experienced deprivation throughout his life. He grew up in a shack, he was deprived of parental figures and he often went to school hungry. Psychoanalytic theorists would explain, that these deprivations, experiences and unconscious thoughts are driving forces behind Thabani’s strange behaviour. It is evident, that the loss of contact between Thabani and his grandmother has caused great anxiety. Weakness of this unscientific approach is that it is reliant on accuracy of the interpretations of the therapist and openness of Thabani to receiving these interpretations. Furthermore, the unconscious is unseen and can therefore not be studied …show more content…
Consequently, people are viewed as responders rather than being self- directing or mentalistic. Behaviourists purport that people can only make responses that they have learned, and they make them when the stimulus conditions are suitable. The stimulus response paradigm is therefore the basic pattern of all human learning. People respond in predictable ways to any particular stimulus depending on what they have learned through experience (Thompson & Rudolph, 2000). Skinner viewed the human being as an organism who learns patterns of behaviour, catalogues them within a repertoire, and repeats them at a later date (Thompson & Rudolph, 2000:217). More specifically, the human being learns a specific response when a rewarding conditions follows the action. The behaviourist’s focus is in the science of behaviour as it relates to biology. As human behaviour is learned, any or all behaviour can be unlearned and replaced by new behaviour. The behaviourist focuses on observable events that, when they become undesirable, can be
“One On The Nature of Humans: Sigmund Frued.” Contemporay Psychoanaltic Studies 12. (2010): 73-88. Academic Search Complete. Web 30 April 2014.
In psychoanalysis the therapist takes on the role of the expert, listening and interpreting Ana’s free associations from her unconscious process. The therapist role is to discover what is real and what is not real. The therapist is not to have an agenda and to remain passive and only engage when interpreting something Ana has stated (Murdock,
The psychoanalytic perspective grew out of subsequent psychoanalytic theories (1901, 1924, and 1940) following decades of interactions with clients with the use of an innovative procedure developed by Sigmund Freud that required lengthy verbal interactions with patients during which Freud probed deep into their lives. In a nutshell, the psychoanalytic perspective looked to explain personality, motivation, and psychological disorders by focussing on the influence of early childhood experiences, on unconscious motives and conflicts, and on the methods people use to cope with their sexual and aggressive urges. The Biological perspective on the other hand looks at the physiological bases of behaviour in humans and animals. It proposes that an organism’s functioning can be described in terms of the bodily structures and biochemical processes that cause behaviour. This paper attempts to examine the similarities and differences between the psychoanalytic perspective and the biological perspective with the key focus on the core assumptions and features of these perspectives as well as their individual strengths and weaknesses.
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
Despite the fact that the psychoanalytic approach is the most controversial interpretation of literature, it proves to be utterly intriguing. In stories such as this, the sexual undertones are clearly evident, and thus substantiate the intricacies behind the approach. Perhaps it is a bit untraditional. However, this investigation remains both thought provoking and brilliantly compelling.
When this story is viewed through Sigmund Freud’s “psychoanalytic lens” the novel reveals itself as much more than just another gory war novel. According to Sigmund Freud psychology there are three parts of the mind that control a person’s actions which are the id, ego, and superego. Psychoanalysis states that there are three parts of the human mind, both conscious and subconscious, that control a person’s actions. The Id, ego, and
... are determined by the stimuli in the environment we are in. Behaviourists believe that all behaviour is learned and in turn can be unlearned by pinpointing the stimulus which is provoking the behaviour and changing the individuals learned response towards it.
Behaviourism is where a person learns through responding to stimuli so as to optimise their own situation. This means that humans have a need to learn so by adapting to a changing environment around to be able to survive. For instance a learner who has some sensory impairment will adapt their own learning styles to accommodate for this barrier by adapting method and using experience they are able to achieve the same learning outcomes as other learners.
To supplement such deficient, both psychoanalytic and humanistic psychologies have provided their perspectives on it. Psychoanalytic Perspective = = = =
The first theory Psychodynamic theory presented by Sigmund Freud, is based on how a person’s self-awareness and understanding of the past on present behavior. Psychody...
Behaviorists believed that actions were responses to stimuli that were learned. The basic concept was that positive responses would be triggered by good stimuli while negative responses would could from bad stimuli. Actions that would produce positive results tended to repeated, while those that led to negative results tended to be avoided.
The aim of this essay is to clarify the basic principles of Freud’s theories and to raise the main issues.
Behaviorism is a learning theory or a developmental theory that measures observable behaviors that are produced by the learner’s response to stimuli. On one end of the spectrum behaviorism is known as an attitude. At the other end, it is known as a doctrine. According to the behavioral views of human development, behaviorists argued that to focus attention on unobservable constructs, such as emotions, thoughts, or the unconscious, was an unscientific approach.(Craig & Dunn, Ex.: 2010)
Personality is an individual’s characteristic pattern of feeling, thinking and acting. Psychodynamic theories of personality view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious mind and unconscious mind, including associated motives and conflicts (Myers & Dewall, pg# 572, 2015). These theories focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences. Psychodynamic theories are descended from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, which is his ideology of personality and the associated treatment techniques. Psychoanalysis attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. This theory also includes the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions. He proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality. Freud’s historically significant psychoanalytic theory became part of the human cultural legacy.
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).