Psycological Perspectives Unit 8.1

What is Psychology?
Psychology is the scientific explanation into how the mind works and how and why we behave the way we do.
Over the years many have debated what they believe defines our behaviour. Many theorists have different perspectives on psychology and through research and studies such as experiments; each theorists have been able to conclude particular perspectives: We Observe Things around Us

Develop a Theory

Understand Explain Predict

(Above is the stages a theorist takes).

* Behaviourist – is an approach that looks into what an individual does, what action we take rather than what we think or feel. Everything we do is a result of what we have learnt. Burrhus Frederick Skinner was a theorists who stated that we was all born blank slates, he was particular interested in the study of how children learn behaviour. People were to learn best when rewarded known as positive reinforcement such as a reward like a treat and fear for anything with a bad impact known as a negative reinforcement. A negative reinforcement doesn’t necessarily mean you will be punished, a negative reinforcement can be an unpleasant experience for example you may be a D mark on an exam, it is not the best grade so you use this negative experience to push yourself to work harder in order to achieve an A grade in your next exam. * Another theorist was John. B Watson who experiment was with Little Albert, a small baby, he predicted that loud noises were what would affect a person’s behaviour through fear. He stood behind little albert and struck a steel bar with a hammer which naturally frightened little albert and immediately he started to cry, he then found something that little albert enjoyed which was a white furry rat, whilst playing with the rat, Watson sneaked up behind Albert and struck the steel bar again, again Albert began to cry, after a few attempts Albert then began to cry at just the sight of the rat as Albert referred to the rat as a frightening experience.
The experiment was influenced by Ivan Pavlov work and this experiment was known as conditioning, for example of the Albert experiment these were the stages in which the theory was stated: 1. The fluffy white rat was a stimulus 2. The loud noise from the steel bar was an unconditioned stimulus 3. Albert’s reaction when he cried is an unconditioned response
After conditioned 4. The fluffy, white rat was a conditioned stimulus 5. Albert’s fear of fluffy, white rats was a conditioned response 6. A resulted in Albert being afraid of anything that resembled the fluffy, white rat.
Ivan Pavlov did the first experiment on classical conditioning on dogs when originally doing a digestion process with the dogs. His work has influenced many psychologists around the world and classical conditioning is used in many studies in phycology.
In relation to a health and social care environment, behaviourism is used in nursery’s in order to teach children by using rewards which in return will help them develop skills for instance, when introducing toilet training to toddlers, if a child uses the potty the nursery will reward them with a stamp or sticker to let the child know that is good behaviour so the child then wants to continue using the potty in return for rewards and eventually they will automatically be used to the potty as they will have be learnt to be potty trained.
All behaviourism theorists have used similar experiments and have concluded that behaviour is learnt from rewards whether they be positive rewards or negative rewards. * Humanistic – looks into a person’s aspirations, where and what they want to be and they will, with their ambition achieve and in return will fulfil our needs and desires.
This approach doesn’t look at problems in the past that may excuse our behaviour but concentrate on the future in what we choose to be.
Self actualisation – is the idea that if we have a positive self-concept of who we are, meaning that we know who we are and where we want to be in the future then we as an individual will fulfil wholeness in our lives.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs – within our life we need particular comforts and security to help us achieve growth in life. We all need food and shelter, a person needs to feel valued and we need friends. A psychologist named Abraham Maslow stated that some people need more than others and that we have a ‘hierarchy of needs’.
There are six levels to what Maslow stated we need in order to be complete. He also stated that we need in order to fulfil our needs by starting at the lowest level. * Self actualisation –is when we have fulfilled our needs and have gained all of the basics. * Self esteem - Once we feel loved, we need to feel that we are worthwhile people * Love needs- we need to feel secure=, we need to feel loved and love others. * Belongingness - we need to feel secure and belong within a family and feel belonged in other groups we may form * Safety needs – we need to be safe and to avoid any harm or pain. * We need basics such as air, water and food
Highest Level

To be at the highest level, it doesn’t mean to be perfect or some kind of celebrity but we need to feel confident and comfortable and that we have achieved through reaching our goals that we have set out for ourselves in life. For example you may at 25 have the dream to have a family, be in your own home and be in a respectable job by the age of 50, and if at 50 you have a family, a family home and a good job then you have reached self actualisation not because you have luxuries but because you are and what you wanted to be.

Although most of us have the basics such as physiological needs, safety needs and belongingness, most of us won’t reach the highest level on the hierarchy level as we don’t always reach fulfilment due to set backs in life that may not be in our control. Difficulties such as financial problems, the recession or relationship difficulties. These are a few common setbacks that many have had to deal with and have not felt complete because of them. But there are those who don’t even have the basics such as homeless people who don’t even have access to food and shelter, these groups don’t even come onto the hierarchy table.

Carl Rodgers was a Humanist he developed person-centred counselling. This approach helps people deal with emotional and social problems. The councillor uses a non-direct approach unlike other councillor, instead of guiding a patient and looking into their unconscious mind to see where their problems lie, they get the patient to find their answers and let the patient express their thoughts and feelings which allows the patient to take control over their own lives.
There are no special techniques used with person-centred counselling other than the use of creating a bond between councillor and patient which in return will gain trust and understanding. The three key features in developing a positive relationship in regards to person-centred counselling are: * Unconditional positive regard – (acceptance) councillor will show warmth and respect. Councillor will not judge and will make a patient feel comfortable. * Empathy – councillor will see your view, they will listen and understand and they will use body language to suggest interest such as eye contact and other signals that show care and consideration. * Genuineness – is when a councillor acts themselves rather than a robot, reading off a script on what to and not to say. A person will trust and respect a councillor far more for being themselves as in return a patient will feel confident and comfortable in being open with you on thoughts and feelings.

* Social Learning – Alfred Bandura believed that human behaviour was determined from who an individual learned from, and that observation learning known as modelling was a reason to a person’s behaviour as well as the learner knowing the consequences of the outcome. Likely models to observe would be parents, friends, and celebrities all that a person was inspired by. * If the outcome was a positive outcome the learner was likely to repeat the behaviour. Bandura though human experiments were the most positive so he did the Bobo Doll experiment, a Bobo Doll was a large inflatable, balancing doll that if you tried to knock down would bounce back up, he gathered a group of nursery children and used one women model, he got the model to hit the Bobo Doll aggressively whilst being on a video tape which was shown to the children in three separate groups, each group seen a different outcome as one video shown the model receiving a reward of sweets after the Bobo Doll attack and the second showed the model being punished with a smack after the attack and the third was shown no reward and no punishment. He then gathered all the children and put them into the playroom were the Bobo Doll was and watched to see how all would react to the Bobo Doll. 90% of the children all attacked the Bobo Doll as the woman model did. * 8 months later he brought the same children back to the playroom with the Bobo Doll and still 40% of the children attacked the Bobo Doll. Bandura concluded the reinforcement of the Bobo Doll had no effect on the children but it was the observing of the women that had an effect. Bandura stated that there are four stages to the Social Learning theory: * Attention – paying attention to a model if something of interest grabbed a person’s attention. * Retention – remember the behaviour we have seen * Motor reproduction – we would need to be able to reproduce what we have learnt * Motivation – we need to be motivated to be able to repeat what we have learnt.
Our behaviour varies from who we interact with, what environment we are in such as:
Peer Group – which is our friends and we imitate people who we admire as friends would form a group culture.
Groups – friends / family/ colleagues – we can all behave differently around particular groups, such as you may be reserved around colleagues yet you may be outgoing with friends.
Culture – some of our behaviour can be due to our culture/ beliefs such as religious beliefs or a family generation/ tradition. For instance a Muslim boy may behave in the way his Muslim father behaves as behaviour can be particular in some Religions. Another reason for culture behaviour could be if a family have a tradition to encourage each generation to be doctors or within the medical profession so each generation is involved in studying medical. but having high expectations can put a lot of pressure on a person and can be overloading for a person as they may struggle to keep family members happy, this can lead to depression and change a person’s behaviour.
Television and The Media - is a major impact on behaviour within our modern society, both positive and negative effects are opposed onto a person. A child can watch a favourite character being violent and the character having no negative reinforcement so they copy an act of behaviour they may have seen.
Role Theory – is how we behave in what is expected of us in particular situations or environment, for example a friend is in need for support so we act as a caring individual so we can meet their needs and as our duty as a friend. Another behaviour change can be if we were a teacher, teaching young children, we would have to change our behaviour so that we come across as responsible adults so that we become the right role models to children.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy – otherwise known as stereotyping or labelling, it is a perspective that states that if a person has a negative attitude about themselves or a person has a negative attitude towards another person then a negative result will occur. For example a young 18 year old boy likes to wear tracksuits with a hood; he’s from a deprived area and doesn’t speak professional vocabulary. He wants to do well at college, his career ambition is to be an accountant but his tutor thinks otherwise, she presumes he’s a chav who is just at college to claim free learners support funds and is wasting her time so she never supports him through the course, he senses her feelings towards him and starts to lose confidence in himself. He believes if a teacher thinks he will fail they he most likely will fail. Therefore he lacks confidence in himself, resulting in lack of study meaning he failed.

* Psychodynamic – the theory started from a theorist named Sigmund Freud who in 1886 treated patients at his clinic for nerve and brain damage. Overtime he developed a theory on how much a person is actually aware of in their mind.

* Conscious Level – in our conscious mind we have our thoughts and feelings that we are unaware of * Pre-conscious Level – we may not be aware of our thoughts but we can bring them to our conscious mind * Unconscious Level – ‘hidden thoughts’ – here is where all thoughts and feelings come from, we store all the bad things in our unconscious mind and are unaware of them.

Freud was particularly interested in our unconscious mind and stated that feelings and thoughts from the past that we are unaware of resurface when we are in need for those particular feelings and thoughts and helps us to effectively cope or manage a situation.
He was particularly interested in how personalities formed in the early stages such as the ages five and six years old as this was the age that he believes is when our personalities form, whereas other theorists argue that personalities are formed later on in life.
Erik Erikson a German psychologist came to the conclusion that personalities change throughout life stages and he split life stages into categories.
Age 0-1 – a child learns to trust and if mistreated can become insecure
Age 1-3 children try to act independently; they will start to develop the feelings of doubt and shame, so if they are shouted at for having a toilet accident they can feel shame.
Age 4-6 children are now learning to liaise with others but if a person was to state that they are a nuisance, a child will feel guilt.
Age 7-12 a child begins to learn skill that they need later in life such as education.
Age 12-18 children are working out who they want to be by experimenting on different roles.
19-25- individuals can relate to others through intimate relationships if they don’t a person can become lonely and selfish.
26-40- individuals may have families and concentrate on the next generation
Age 40+ we can reminisce on life and feel positive in what we may have achieved if not we look back and regret.

* Cognitive / Information Processing – is the theory on how people think, what they do and how they feel.
Many of us think on senses such as sight, smell, hear and taste. Each sense can determine what we think.
Jean Piaget and the development of children thinking, Piaget was one of the first psychologists to show that children’s thinking is developed from a young age through to adult life, for instance
Babies think if they close their eyes and can’t see you then they think that you can’t see them either. They haven’t learnt as yet the idea of object permanence. If a young child was to look at a picture they would only notice a particular interest and wouldn’t take notice to detail, eventually around the age of seven they will take more notice to detail. Piaget’s stated that in the early stages their four stages:
Age 0-2 (sensorimotor) uses sensory and movement to explore but at this stage they have not yet developed object permanence.
Age 2-7 (preoperational) children use mental pictures; they haven’t yet developed logic and tend to think about themselves.
Age 7-11 (concrete operations) children thinking becomes less ridged and more logical.
Age 11-16(formal operations) they can create their own ideas that is not focussed just on themselves.
Piaget stated that children are active learners you can’t tell a child what to do, only guide them support them and allow them to figure things out for themselves.

George Kelly and Personal construct theory.
Kelly was a theorists who states that that we have categories in our minds, categories of pro’s and Con’s such as likes and dislikes. As we are individuals our thoughts such as likes and dislikes will be different to others for example you prefer tea and your friend prefers coffee. With these constructs a person learns to make sense on experiences.

* Biological Perspective (‘Nature not nurture’)
Is about how the brain links to a person’s behaviour. If focuses on genetic links and mental functions.
Arnold Gesell was a theorist who thought of the ‘maturational’ theory, maturation which describes the process of change whether that be the process on development from crawling, walking and running or changes within our body changes such as from being a baby, to toddler, to child, to teenager to an adult.
According to Arnold Gesell, changes are biologically programmed and come out as a result of our genes’. All maturation changes are standard changes that most of us will go through, they will be predictable in stages and will be natural, nobody and nothing can influence a change.

We can predict the development norms as for example it is common for a child to start walking around 12 months of age and be toilet trained around the age of 18months.
CRAWL WALK TALK Many argue Gesell theory of development as his observation was carried out on only white children, middle class and from the same geographical location.

Importance of genetic influences on behaviour
Links behaviour to what we may have inherited through our gene pools. ‘runs in the family’ is a common phase you will here through life as many believe their behaviour is down to their biological parents and siblings, but it can be impossible to link some behaviour to genetics as behaviours within a biological family can be identical due to the social learning theory.
Studies have been carried out, that have shown links between intelligence and genetically genes. There have been outstanding similarities in the link of identical twins in an IQ test and similar results from other siblings, but the best results have come from identical twins that have shown like for like IQ test and like for like behaviours. But again some believe it is mostly down to the social learning theory as identical twins are taught at the same time, usually dressed in the same way and spoken to the same way, meaning their results in repeated behaviour is of the same. There have even been studies to prove that there are genetically links in studies of twins that have been separated at birth have still had the similar IQ test. Obviously social learning and environment have an effect on a person’s intelligence and behaviour but genetically there is a link to show a positive proof in similarities of behaviour match.

The influence of the nervous system on behaviour
Is how behaviour is determined by the functions of the brain? The brain is the nervous system which has two parts: * The central nervous system which is the areas of the brain and spinal cord. * Peripheral nervous system which is the sensory and motor nerves

There are many areas in the brain that have roles within our behaviour and if a particular part of our brain were to be damaged our behaviour would be affected.
This is a system that carries chemicals around the body such as hormones. Many hormones have an influence on behaviour such as: * Testosterone is a male hormone which helps develop a man’s sexual characteristics and sex drive, too much testosterone is said to cause aggression. * Oestrogen Proesterone is a female hormone that helps the development of woman sexual characteristics and too much or too little can cause depression.
Although the endocrine system can affect behaviour through chemical imbalances, there are medicines to help improve the control of hormones in order to improve behaviour.

I personally believe each theory has a valid point, I believe we are born blank slates as stated in behaviourism and throughout life we learn through social learning theory from others that we are inspired by environment and biological can both have an effect on your behaviour.