Psychological Perspectives Essay Example for Free

Psychological Perspectives Essay Behaviourist approach-we can understand any type of behaviour perspective by looking at what the person has learnt, including personality, confidence, optimism or pessimism. Classical conditioning and Pavlov’s dogs. Pavlov was working with dogs to investigate their digestive system Pavlov attached a tube to the dogs mouth was the sliver comes from. This was then attached to a monitor in whom the monitor would monitor how much sliver was used during salivation. Salivation was a automatic response that is unconditioned (not learnt). Food leads to this almost automatically (unconditioned stimulus). Pavlov decided he wanted to find out how much the dog salivated when associated with different noises before giving him food. Pavlov put up a wooden wall so the dog could not see the food, he then rang a bell the dog began to salivate. Over the day the dog then began to associate the bell with the food a salivated as soon as he heard the bell. It had learnt the conditioned response of salivation to the conditioned stimulus of the bell. Operant conditioning and skinners rats. This was to discover the key principles of new learning behaviours. The rat was first places in the box with a lever which when pressed it released a food pellet in to the box. At first when the rat got in to the box it sniffed around and at some point it pressed the lever, discovering that the pellet was dropped. The rat then repeated this performance and learned that pressing the lever is automatically followed by the pellet being dropped. ( the consequence) The pellet is seen as reinforcing, this means something that the rat would like to have more of. There are two types of enforcement negative and positive reinforcement. Skinner then investigated negative reinforcement by running a low electrical current on the floor of the box, the current would be de-activated when the lever was pressed. The behaviour of pressing the leaver was then negatively in reinforcing. For example humans used pain killers as a negative reinforcement because if you use them the pain then tends to go away. Social learning approach Social learning is what affects a person because of a certain individual or a group of people. This could lead to negative behaviour which could be smoking, drinking and drugs. These could be influenced by friends, parents or a guardian and also from the environment they live in. Albert Bandura proved this because he observed this by doing the bobo doll experiment which was children watching a adult kick, punch and sit on the doll. The children then were allowed to go in a play with the doll and they did what they had observed. But also in the room there was other items that they could play with so they could chose to be aggressive or not but they chose to play with the doll, when they were playing with the doll some got guns involved and pretended to shoot it, which the adult never did. The children also used aggressive language towards the doll, this showed that because they had observed the adult being aggressive towards the dolls the children copied. Bandura also believed that behaviour can be learnt from the following principles observational learning, this is watching someone else perform a behaviour such as smoking, drinking, wearing a cycle helmet, they can be learnt but does not have to be reproduced unless the person is motivated to perform the behaviour. A role model which is an individual that inspires others as they could be prestigious, attractive, have a high status and they may copy their behaviour. Modelling which is the process of basing behaviour for example dressing the same as someone who they may admire. Availability the behaviour to be learnt must be available this could be performed somewhere for the individual to see this could be on TV, the computer, games, there peers and family members. Attention the behaviour must be noticed or we will not be able to learn it, if someone is feeling unwell they may not pay attention which could be a problem because you will not remember the procedure. Retention is behaviour that must be retained which is that the person must be interested enough and old enough to retain the information in their memory. Reproduction the individual must be capable of performing the behaviour. Motivation behaviour will be learnt and then performed. Humanistic approach Maslow was a psychologist that believed we were all seeking to become the best that we possibly can be physically, spiritually, emotionally and intellectually, he called this self-actualisation. He also made the theory known as hierarchy of needs this explains that every human requires certain basic needs to be met before they are able to move on to the next stage. He also believed that all our energies will be focused on the stage that we are at, until the basic needs are met we will not focus on our emotional needs and to feel self-esteem which is how valuable we may feel, for someone who has a high self-esteem they will believe that that they are loved and are loveable and also that they feel important and valued. For someone who has a low self-esteem they could feel worthless and that they have no value to anyone and may feel unloved and that they are not unlovable. Self-concept is developed at an early age and it is the way we see ourselves, for example if someone was a child got told they were silly they are more likely to be that way were if a child is praised they will be behave and will have a positive self-concept. Rogers was interested in concept of self, it is the way we view ourselves which includes physical and biological attributes like being male or female, short or tall. He believed that we also hold a concept of our self which represents as view of how we should be and as we would like to be, when there is incongruence between our self and our ideal self we can become unhappy and troubled. (betec level 3 health and social care book 1) Biological approach The maturational theory is that a child would be born with a set of genetics which are passed down through their parents, which are cognitive, physical, and other developmental processes which unfold over time. It is a theory that states that development is to nature not nurture. Gesells theory was that he believed that the development happened the way it was suppose to, this was from developing in the womb until birth. After birth he believed that this is when the child’s genes started to develop them into the person that they were meant to be. He also believed that the environment supported them developing their skills, talents, personality and also their interests but what was the main thing that helped the child develop was the maturational process. The importance of genetic influences on behaviour is that genes affect someone’s behaviour in a numerous of ways. A dominant gene can cause disorders like Huntington’s disease which can be passed on through a parent. Other disorder could be cystic fibrosis which both parents need to carry the gene in order for their child to get it. Disorders can be passed down but are not genetically determined which can lead to the person developing the disorder for example breast cancer can be passed down if one of the family members carry the gene. Psychodynamic approach focuses on unconscious thought processes, the patient will explore the unresolved issues and the conflicts that they have had in in the past which are believed to affect them in their present life. The therapies focus on relieving and resolving the unconscious conflicts which are motivating their symptoms. Freud first developed the vital ideas which bring about the approach as a whole particularly the idea that understanding behavior requires insight into the thoughts and feelings that motivate our actions. Freud also describes conscious mind, which consists of all the mental processes of which we are aware. For example, you may be feeling hungry at this moment and decide to get something to eat. Eriksons theory differs in a number of important ways. Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of predetermined stages. Unlike Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages, Erikson’s theory describe the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan.