Thestudy of psychology has been crucial to the understanding of behavior and thehuman mind as early as 1000 B.C. (Rescorla). With its wealth of research andstudies, psychology has provided valuable insights into the human mind and it’s functioning. These insights, however, rely on many models of psychology and require a complete understanding of all psychological models to be successfully applied to the understanding of human behavior. The four main models of psychology are the biological model, the psychodynamic model, the cognitive model, and the behavioral model. Each model brings its own unique view toconcepts in psychology, but more often than not, each model attempts to distance itself from other models as it attempts present itself as the superiormodel. The biological model seems to be the worst culprit of such separation as it relies far too heavily on prescription drugs and medical intervention and ignores other methods of treatment that could be far more efficacious. The separate evolution of these models seems to severely limit the value of psychological research as an integration of all the models could reveal insights valuable to the psychological community. Each model has diverged and converged on its own theories and practices but has done this separately and isolated from one another.
This separation of the psychological models is most clearly demonstrated by the biological model, which relies heavily on biological methods and ignores other valuable approaches to mental disorders. The branch of biological psychology seems to evolve the most separately from the other models as it rarely consults the other models for insights that biology cannot explain. Among the most influential founders...
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Michael is a 56 year old male who lives alone in a small tin shed in the middle of the bush in central Queensland. He has no children, no partner and lives by himself. During the day he spends his time sleeping on the couch or doing chores around the property. If he isn’t asleep, he requires a stimuli to remain occupied. When he was a young boy, he was a very calm child with a great sense of humour. His physical health was perfect with good energy levels. When he was sexually abused at the age of 8, by his grandfather, these characteristics started to change. From the age of 16 he was having regular breakdowns in his thinking and emotional responses. Michael was constantly feeling irritable and having trouble sleeping with frequent nightmares. As the years went by his attitude was extremely negative which led on to him being withdrawn from his family and friends. During his last year of high school, he started to regularly use marijuana. He would experience countless amounts of paranoia episodes where he would hear voices and thought he was being spied on. At the age of 45 he was fin...
Anders Behring Breivik was a Norwegian extremist and a terrorist who had bombed a government building and then shot and killed a number of youths at a camp. His actions were not impulsive, but instead meticulously planned. For years he fostered feelings of hatred and aggression, particularly after his failed businesses and his involvement with the right wing terror organization whose ideology was on anti-Islam and anti-mulitculturism. Breivik perceived that Muslims were invading Europe and conspiring with politicians to take over Norway. Hence, his decision to destroy the present and future politicians of government. Allport (1920), in his theory of Social Facilitation, fleshes out the impression that the presence of others (the social group) can facilitate certain behaviour (McLeod, 2007).
Passer, M., Smith, R., Holt, N., Bremner, A., Sutherland, E., & Vliek, M. (2009). Psychology; Science of Mind and Behaviour. (European Edition). New York.
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
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.
Corsini, Raymond J. (1994). Encyclopedia of Psychology. John Wiley and Sons, Inc: New York, New York.
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
The biological approach to psychology makes the assumption that all behaviours are associated with changes in the brain function and that psychopathology will be caused by a disorder within the brain, neuroanatomy. Many biological psychologists tend to assume that most behaviours, normal and disordered, involve an inherited component from the biological parents. In theory this suggests that all behaviours can be related to changes in brain activity.
The biological approach is useful in regards to treatment. This approach has led to many forms of treatments. The cognitive approach is also useful and has made important contributions to the field of psychology, particularly that for the treatment of depression. The cognitive approach has been applied successfully in therapy. One of the core expectations of the cognitive approach is that mental processes influence our behavior. A further similarity between the two approaches is that both are seen as deterministic approaches. The biological approach believes that behavior is determined by functions of neurons and the structure and functions of the brain. It aims to ‘predetermine’ our behavior so therapy can be developed to aid abnormal behavior. The cognitive approach outlines the importance of schemas and stereotypes. Schemas are seen to be important in an individual’s behavior. We acquire schemas through direct experiences. Another way we acquire schemas is through social interaction. Through interactions we also learn stereotypes. These schemas and stereotypes determine the way we interpret a situation. Furthermore, both the biological and cognitive approaches use scientific methods. Both approaches believe that behaviour should be tested and measured in a systematic
Bio-Psychologists study the principles of biology as it relates to the comprehension of psychology in the field neuroscience that underlies ones emotions, ideology, and actions (Brittanica). Based upon the conduction of research, the relationship between the brain and ones behavior extends to the physiological process in one’s intellect. Scientists are cognizant that neurotransmitters function as a significant role in mood regulation and other aspects of psychological problems including depression and anxiety. A biological perspective are relevant to psychology in three techniques including: the comparative method, physiology, and the investigation of inheritance (Saul Mc. Leod).
The development of psychology like all other sciences started with great minds debating unknown topics and searching for unknown answers. Early philosophers and psychologists such as Sir Francis Bacon and Charles Darwin took a scientific approach to psychology by introducing the ideas of measurement and biology into the way an indi...
Edited by Raymond J. Corsini. Encyclopedia of Psychology, Second Edition, Volume 1. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
Mental disorders which falls under the umbrella of Abnormal psychology can be attributed to the ability to treat and diagnose mental disorders. Based on advances such as the development of the scientific method psychologists are now able to fully and efficiently attribute the causes of mental disorders to physical and unphysical traits. The process i...