APPROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGY :APPROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGY


Issues to Consider :Issues to Consider A brief history of psychology before psychology the emergence of psychology early schools of psychology Theoretical approaches Behaviourist Psychodynamic Humanistic Cognitive Physiological Social Constructionist


A Brief History of Psychology :A Brief History of Psychology ‘Psychology has a long past, but its real history is short.’ Ebbinghaus (1908)


Before Psychology :Before Psychology Does psychology go back to the Ancient Greeks? Certainly it was shaped by Enlightenment philosophy (e.g. Descartes, Locke, Hobbes) However, others also asked about human nature, for example theologians and educators These questions were all forms of reflexive discourse Psychology emerged as a new kind of reflexive discourse, using science to find answers


The Emergence of Psychology (1) :The Emergence of Psychology (1) Psychology is usually described as beginning with the opening of an experimental lab by Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig in 1879 However, it’s more realistic to see psychology as emerging gradually over the course of the 19th century Psychology emerged as a logical progression from attempts to use science to answer questions about human nature


The Emergence of Psychology (2) :The Emergence of Psychology (2) Psychology had a number of forerunners These included advances in understanding the brain and in experimental physiology Other forerunners included faculty psychology and phrenology


The Emergence of Psychology (3) :The Emergence of Psychology (3) Scientific psychology became possible with the acceptance of evolutionary thought, particularly Darwin’s The Origin of Species This located humanity within the animal kingdom, and hence in the realm of natural science Evolutionary thought led particularly to forms of adaptational psychology, individual difference psychology, and comparative psychology


The Early Schools of Psychology :The Early Schools of Psychology Psychology quickly diversified from the late 19th century, leading to a number of distinct schools: Structuralism, which investigated the structure of the mind Functionalism, which investigated the adaptive functions of the mind Behaviourism, which emphasised the role of the environment in guiding behaviour Gestalt, which emphasised holistic aspects of mental processing Psychoanalysis, which emphasised the role of unconscious forces in shaping behaviour


Theoretical Approaches :Theoretical Approaches Since the 1950s, psychologists have adopted a number of diverse approaches to understanding human nature and behaviour These different approaches include: Behaviourist Psychodynamic Humanistic Cognitive Physiological Social constructionist


Ways of Explaining :Ways of Explaining Different approaches exist because there are different ways of explaining phenomena For example, emotions can be explained in terms of the thoughts associated with them or the physiological changes they produce Psychologists try to explain psychological phenomena from a range of different perspectives, and so use different approaches As an example, what are some different ways in which we might explain shaking hands?


The Behaviourist Approach :The Behaviourist Approach Key features: Rejects the investigation of internal mental processes Emphasises the investigation of observable behaviour Emphasises the importance of the environment Behaviour is the result of learned associations between stimuli and responses to them The main theories are of classical (Pavlov) and operant (Skinner) conditioning


The Behaviourist Approach :The Behaviourist Approach Evaluation: Its practical focus has led to useful applications It has influenced theory development, e.g. in the area of learning It developed a standard scientific methodology, through the use of hypothesis testing and experimental control It’s criticised for being mechanistic (ignoring mental processes) and overly environmentally determinist (it ignores biology)


The Psychodynamic Approach :The Psychodynamic Approach Key features (1): Mind has 3 parts: conscious, unconscious and preconscious conscious: thoughts and perceptions preconscious: available to consciousness, e.g. memories and stored knowledge unconscious: wishes and desires formed in childhood, biological urges. Determines most of behaviour Personality has 3 components - id, ego & superego id: unconscious, urges needing instant gratification ego: develops in childhood, rational. Chooses between id and external demands superego: conscience, places restrictions on behaviour


The Psychodynamic Approach :The Psychodynamic Approach Key features (2): Freud’s ‘mental iceberg’ view of the mind


The Psychodynamic Approach :The Psychodynamic Approach Key features (3): Psychosexual stages of development Develop through stages in childhood Oral (0–18 months) Anal (18 months–3 years) Phallic (3–6 years) Latent (6 yrs–puberty) Genital (puberty onwards) At each stage, libido is focused on different part of body Failure to progress (fixating) causes neuroses


The Psychodynamic Approach :The Psychodynamic Approach Key features (4): Ego mediates conflict between id, ego, superego defence mechanisms include repression, displacement, denial, reaction formation repression pushes stuff into unconscious, but it exerts influence from there, may cause problems Cure neuroses by bringing material from unconscious to conscious free association dream analysis


The Psychodynamic Approach :The Psychodynamic Approach Evaluation: Significant impact: theories of personality, motivation, development therapeutic techniques in clinical and counselling psychology captured the popular imagination, providing an accessible framework for everyday understanding Unscientific? methodologically poor untestable (e.g. concept of denial) Limited impact on scientific psychology


The Humanistic Approach :The Humanistic Approach Key features (1): Rejects determinism, and emphasises free will Rejects the positivism of science (investigating others as detached objective observers) Investigates phenomena from the subjective experience of individuals An emphasis on holism: the need to study the whole person


The Humanistic Approach :The Humanistic Approach Key features (2): People strive for ‘actualisation’ Rogers: the self-concept consists of a perceived self and an ideal self. Psychological health is achieved when the two match Maslow: people have a hierarchy of needs. The goal of psychological growth is to meet the need to achieve self-actualisation


The Humanistic Approach :The Humanistic Approach Evaluation: Considerable influence on counselling development of client-centred therapy helped establish counselling as an independent profession development of research techniques to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment Unscientific Limited impact on mainstream psychology Limited evidence for theories


The Cognitive Approach :The Cognitive Approach Key features: The main approach to experimental psychology in cognitive psychology, which investigates memory, language, perception, problem solving but also used for other areas, e.g. social, developmental Emphasises active mental processes the brain is seen as an information processor, using the analogy of mind to computers mental processes are based on discrete modules Uses experimental methods, but also computer modelling and neuropsychology


The Cognitive Approach :The Cognitive Approach Evaluation (1): Has had a significant impact across experimental psychology Has led to useful applications, e.g. cognitive therapy Has introduced a range of rigorous research methods can compare results from different methods, and so have more faith in research findings


The Cognitive Approach :The Cognitive Approach Evaluation (2): Lacks ‘ecological validity’ based on artificial laboratory research but do the results apply to the ‘real world’? Has no overall framework there are separate theories in different areas, but there is no one framework for explaining cognition Doubts about the underlying metaphor is the mind really like a computer?


The Physiological Approach :The Physiological Approach Key features: Investigates: brain function in healthy and impaired individuals brain chemistry and psychology, e.g. serotonin & mood genes and psychology, e.g. twin studies & intelligence The common assumption is that biology underlies behaviour Reductionist and deterministic reductionist: explanations at a more basic level deterministic: behaviour directly determined by biology


The Physiological Approach :The Physiological Approach Evaluation (1): Productive has provided explanations in a range of areas of psychology, e.g. mental health, individual differences, social behaviour has provided therapeutic interventions, e.g. drug treatments for depression Popular has caught the public imagination genetic theories provide an accessible framework for understanding ourselves


The Physiological Approach :The Physiological Approach Evaluation (2): Overly reductionist it seems to replace explanations at a psychological level Problems with evolutionary explanations they ignore or underplay the effects of the environment they may ‘naturalise’ behaviours that should be discouraged, e.g. sexual violence there is often limited evidence for evolutionary theories


Social Constructionist Approach :Social Constructionist Approach Key features: Challenges mainstream psychology methodologically, in that it is anti-scientific politically, in that it is anti-status quo Believes we construct our view of the world through social interaction Believes our constructions affect our actions e.g. construction of ‘female’ affects view of female behaviour Investigates our constructions of the world through the analysis of language


Social Constructionist Approach :Social Constructionist Approach Evaluation: It emphasises the complexity of human behaviour It has close links with other disciplines, e.g. sociology Its challenge to the status quo has led to change, e.g. in views of homosexuality It is anti-scientific and overly subjective The theories it produces are constructions of the psychologist