Key Perspectives Of Psychology

Key Perspectives of Psychology

Psychology seeks to understand and explain thought, emotion and behaviour through scientific investigation. It studies both humans and animals. It relates to who we are as human beings, our capacity to think, reason and understand how life really works, it even throws light on the stresses we face. As infants we are unable to survive without others, we learn to adapt socially from the moment we are born. As a result of this social interaction we develop a sense of self. We learn to communicate, verbally and non verbally, and develop shared beliefs to create a sense of society and we rely on mutual understanding to co exist.

There are 3 key perspectives, Behaviourism, Psychodynamics and Humanism. Each has
Driven by the pleasure principal, striving for instant gratification or avoidance of pain, it takes no account other 's desires or society’s customs.
The Ego develops in the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. Awareness of ourselves and improper desires develop. Ego reasons with the id to ensure impulses are controlled.
The Superego functions mainly in the unconscious. Consisting of the ego-ideal, telling us the rules of good behaviour, what we should be or do, and the conscience, telling us what is bad according to society, and what not to do or be.
The 5 psychosexual stages: Oral, Anal , Phallic ,Latency, Genital. (Source: http://knol.google.com/k/human-development-theory#)

Adult sexuality does not develop in everyone. Freud believed that to develop a healthy personality, the id, the ego, and the superego must be balanced, and all emotional issues must be resolved at each stage. Psychopathology results if an individual does not pass through the stages and becomes fixated. For example, a person fixated at the oral stage could, among other things, exhibit symptoms of obsessive eating or smoking in adult life, anal fixation, which may be caused by too much punishment during toilet training, has two possible outcomes: the anal retentive or anal expulsive
When Ernst was young he had taken part in sexual foreplay with his nanny, according to Freud this resulted in associating of sexual pleasure with fear of punishment.

It was a face to face analysis and Freud was able to observe any anxieties, there was dialogue where he could immediately probe more deeply at the appropriate times. However, it can be intimidating and difficult discussing embarrassing or frightening issues, and may lead to fabrications or omissions.

Generally, Psychodynamic approach is unscientific. Psychodynamic concepts are highly subjective and cannot be verified. It is impossible to see inside the mind so the theories cannot be proved wrong. These case studies are based on studying one person in detail and even when analysis is done on more than one, his patients have a very narrow age and society range, it is difficult to make generalisations about a wider population. It is also too deterministic and doesn 't give enough credence to free will.
Humanism
This approach studies the whole person, not only through the eyes of the observer but also through the person doing the behaviour. It believes that behaviour is connected to inner feeling and