...The Psychodynamic Perspective: Section C Outline one assumption of the psychodynamic perspective The main assumption of the psychodynamic perspective is that all behaviour can be explained in terms of the inner conflicts of the mind. Describe how the psychodynamic perspective can describe phobias The psychodynamic perspective would explain phobias as being a result of the inner conflicts in the unconscious mind. For example, they would say that a fear of elephants would be a result of something in the unconscious mind. Freud argued that phobias are a displaced fear in the unconscious mind. For example, in the case of Little Hans, Freud argued that Little Hans’ phobia of horses was caused by a displaced fear of his father. Describe one similarity and one difference between any 2 studies that take a psychodynamic perspective. One similarity of the psychodynamic perspective is that both and Freud and Thigpen and Cleckley can be seen as examples of action research. This means that as part of the experiment, the researcher’s purpose is also to change/influence the participant’s behaviour. For example, in Freud’s study, he was working to reduce or remove the fear of horses that Little Hans was experiencing while at the same time, researching the Oedipus complex. Thigpen and Cleckley were doing the same as they were working to resolve Eva Smith’s multiple personality disorder while also researching the same topic. One difference between the psychodynamic perspectives...
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...During the past month or so, we have discussed several perspectives on learning such as Behavioural, Developmental, Psychodynamic, socio-cultural and humanist perspectives. Behaviourism has been an influential theory in educational psychology. Behaviourism was based on the belief that behaviours can be measured, trained and changed. Developmental perspectives is concerned with child development. Psychodynamic perspectives is concerned with the development of ‘self’. It is primarily a study of factors that may affect a child’s behaviour and development such as childhood experiences affecting emotions and behaviour as adults and the various conflicts throughout childhood that affect overall personality. Socio-cultural perspectives studies learning...
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...This includes the following perspectives: psychodynamic, behaviorist, cognitive, and evolutionary (Kowalski & Westen, 2009). Although the biopsychological approach is not considered as one of the four major schools of thought within psychology, it plays an important role in the foundations of psychology. These perspectives focus on a unique viewpoint or approach toward the field of psychology and each brings new ideas and theories to the table. The Psychodynamic Perspective It can be said that Sigmund Freud was the father of the psychodynamic perspective of psychology. Freud developed this perspective based upon the idea that the unconscious self is responsible for certain “underlying wishes, fears, and patterns of thought from an individual’s conscious, verbalized thought, and behavior” (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, p. 13). Essentially, the psychodynamic perspective suggests that people’s actions and thoughts are influenced by unconscious factors that they may not be aware of. The goal of psychodynamic psychologists was to discover how these unconscious factors influence the behavior and mental processes of human beings. Due to the nature of this perspective psychologists relied heavily upon the case study method which permitted observation and analysis of the patient’s dreams, fantasies, and fears. The psychodynamic perspective has been intensely criticized throughout the years because of the nature of the theories provided by this perspective. In fact, it is the most...
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...THE EVOLUTION OF PSYCHOLOGY ASPECTS OF PSYCHOLOGY SSCI206 – 1204A UNIT 1 INDIVIDUAL PROJECT Abstract Understanding how psychology has evolved since its origin is crucial in the overall understanding of the entire subject. There are many perspectives to look at when dealing with psychology. Three of these perspectives will be discussed in this paper; behaviorism, humanistic, and psychodynamic. Although these perspectives are different, there are some similarities between the three. This paper will go more in depth with these three perspectives and explain some of the similarities and differences between each. The Evolution of Psychology The Behaviorism perspective of psychology involves rewards or punishments that are associated with specific behaviors. (Editorial Board, 2011). Behaviorism has had a major influence on psychology. Animal training and parenting techniques stem from this perspective. Today, psychology pays more attention to inner emotions and though in people. There are four methods that include negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. The first, negative reinforcement is strengthening a particular behavior by stopping it or avoiding it altogether. This means taking away something undesirable in order to influence behavior. A parent could use this technique to get their child to clean their room. Depending on the age of the child, the parent could let their child skip naptime once for cleaning their...
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...Psychology as we all know is the scientific study of the behavior of humans and animals. The following paragraphs will compare and contrast Psychodynamic, Behavioral, and Humanistic perspectives of psychology. Each one of these perspectives searches for answers about behavior through different techniques and through looking for answers to different kinds of questions. Due to the different approaches, each perspective form their own assumptions and explanations. Some perspectives are widely accepted while others struggle for acceptance. Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were the key people in developing the Humanistic Perspective, Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson were the key people in developing the Psychodynamic Perspectives and American psychologist John B. Watson was the key person in developing the Behavioral perspective. The Psychodynamic Perspective focuses on unconscious mental activity. This perspective suggests that both normal and abnormal behaviors are determined primarily by unconscious forces (Davis And Palladino). The Behavioral Perspective focus on observable behaviors; but does not speculate about mental processes such as thinking (Davis And Palladino). It also focuses on learning in understanding how various behaviors occur. The Humanistic Perspective focuses on how people can come to achieve their fullest potential as individuals who make choices and who take control of responsibility for their mental, social, and personal experiences. It also emphasizes free will...
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...Theories Comparison and Contrast SSCI206-1205B-32: Aspects of Psychology Brittany Shalice Herrig Abstract The purpose of this paper is to define, compare and contrast three perspectives of psychology. In detail this paper will define and examine the theories of; behaviorism, psychodynamic, and cognitive. This paper will include a description of each perspective and provide an example for each. Included in this paper will be a comparison of the three perspectives. This paper will conclude with an example of how each perspective influences psychology today. Psychology Theories Psychology is the word that is used to define the science of mind and behavior. The word psychology is derived from the Greek word psyche, which means “breathe, spirit, soul” and the Greek word logia, which means the study of something (Nordqvist, 2009). By derivative definition psychology is the study of every aspect of human function and behavior. The human being is extremely complex, evolutionary individual, and new discoveries regarding human development are discovered often. Because of constant stream of new discoveries regarding human psyche, there are many different perspectives that when combined in an eclectic manner provide a unique insight into what makes us, as human beings, so special. The behaviorist perspective is an approach in psychology that proposes that learning comes from either rewards or punishment in association with specific behaviors (Editorial Board, 2011). Ivan Pavlov was...
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...psychology. These are Psychodynamic, Behaviorist, Cognitive and Evolutionary. Each perspective helps to determine a patient’s mental status, but the differences are the way that each perspective suggests to go about discovering these patients’ mental statuses. The Psychodynamic perspective in psychology was developed in the late 1800’s by Sigmund Freud, and it is also known as psychoanalysis. The psychodynamic perspective tells us that most processes, feelings and behaviors that occur within our minds are done without our conscious knowledge. According to Kowalski and Westen (2009), “The psychodynamic perspective rests on three key premises. First, people’s actions are determined by the way thoughts, feelings, and wishes are connected in their minds. Second, many of these mental events occur outside of conscious awareness. And third, these mental processes may conflict with one another, leading to compromises among competing motives. Thus, people are unlikely to know precisely the chain of psychological events that leads to their conscious thoughts, intentions, feelings, or behaviors.” With the Psychodynamic perspective, a psychologist uses the case study method most often to interpret what might be going on in the patient’s mind that they may not be aware of. This means that the best way to use the psychodynamic perspective is for the psychologist and the patient to work one on one. (Kowalski & Westen, 2009) The behaviorist perspective tells us that our...
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...Psychodynamic therapy Contemporary psychodynamic therapy has root in Freudian drive theory, ego psychology, object relations theory, and self psychology. Psychodynamic approach stemmed from the basic tenets of psychoanalytic theories. Thus these approaches appear very similar to one another (Onkun, 1990). The central themes of this approach include unconscious, drive, defense, fantasy, and transference-countertransference (Safran & Kriss, 2014). The goals of psychodynamic therapy range from reorganizing and restructuring of self (or personality) to achieving higher social and occupational functions. Also, this approach aims to help the client to bring suppressed painful and threatening life materials into consciousness. The psychodynamic...
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...Psychological Perspective Paper Introduction Psychology is the study of human and animal behavior. There are various perspectives within psychology and the upcoming paragraphs deal with 6 psychological perspectives: Behavioral, Cognitive, Biological, Developmental, Psychodynamic, Sociocultural and Evolutionary. Psychological Perspectives All six perspectives seek to explore and examine human behavior and makes use of varying techniques in order to do so. Each perspective tries to search for answers to different questions, which exist about behavior. Each of these perspectives is different hence they have there own reasoning and explanation. Among the perspectives of psychology, many have been accepted some whereas others have had difficulty in being accepted. Behavioral Behavioral Psychology is a branch is psychology that claims that all behavior is learned through conditioning. The field is also known as behaviorism. The idea behind it is that all people acquire their behavior by interacting with their environment through classical condition or operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is the involuntary, or automatic, response to a stimulus (i.e. fight or flight response) where as Operant conditioning is that of a learned behavior through positive/negative reinforcement (consequences) or positive/negative punishment. (What Is Behavioral Psychology, 2011) Cognitive Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how...
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...Foundations of Psychology Paper xxx PSY/300 October 24, 2011 Dr. Wilson Foundations of Psychology Paper Since, “psychology was born from the womb of philosophy” (Kowalski & Westen, 2009), any philosophical questions about behavior thought, and feelings, came from using logic and argumentation. As the late ninetieth century came along, a new alternative approach in trying to understand the mind and behavior emerged. This new approach was to study the mind and behavior scientifically. William Wundt, “who founded the first psychological laboratory in Germany, and was also described as the father of psychology, use scientific methods to uncover the elementary units of human consciousness that combine to form more complex ideas” (Kowalski & Westen, 2009). The method Wundt and his students used was called introspection, where observers reported verbally what goes on in their minds when presented with a task to do. After recording his observers responses, Wundt conclusion was that “the basic elements of consciousness are sensations and feelings” (Kowalski & Westen, 2009), and can become a more complex idea if a person focuses attention, and mentally manipulates them. Wundt considered experimentation essential for studying the basic elements of the mind, while other methods, such as, the study of myths and religion requires higher mental process. However it was the next generation, (Wundt’s student) who took a different view of psychology. The student did...
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...There are three different perspectives that could explain why a person has a disorder or does a certain behavior. Those three dissimilar perspectives are called Psychodynamic, Evolutionary, and Behavioral perspectives. What are psychodynamic, evolutionary, and behavioral perspectives? They each have their own meanings and definitions. Psychodynamic perspective means viewing personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences, then Evolutionary perspective is the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection, and lastly Behavioral perspective is the study of behavior and learning. Each of these perspectives have been brought up and tested as theories by different men named Charles Darwin, John Watson, and Sigmund Freud. A disorder that all the perspectives could explain is Substance Use disorder. Psychodynamic perspective can explain substance use disorder along with anxiety very well for a couple reasons. For example, each person has an ego, superego, and most important in this situation an...
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...SSCI206-1205A-21 Dr. Joanna Oestmann American Intercontinental University – Online November 18, 2012 Abstract This paper is going to discuss three of the various perspectives of psychology. It is going to explain their origins, how they are practiced, and have evolved over time. As with any form of science, there are many different theories and perspectives to Psychology. Among these forms are Cognitive, Functionalism, Psychodynamic and many others but the three that are considered to be the 'forces' of psychology are Behaviorism, Humanistic and Psychoanalysis. The Humanistic approach began as a movement in the 1950's meant to take a healthy, or holistic, method to understanding the nature of what it is to be human. This perspective addresses values important to humans: love, compassion, creativity, etc. It is considered the third force of Psychology, the first being Behaviorism and the second being Psychoanalysis. The founders of the Humanistic theory were Abraham Maslov and Carl Rogers. They concerned themselves with the psychological well-being of a person, it focused on being able to realize your full potential or 'self-actualization'. This concept had a huge impact on psychology as we know it today because it concerned itself with areas of human behavior that other theories ignored. "The humanistic perspective values the integrity of each individual" (Editorial Board, 2011). It is believed that you could lose yourself because you become preoccupied with the notion of...
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...the subject to discover what makes the individual tick. Like all scientific studies there must be a foundation for researchers to build their own studies from. Psychology is no different with its major schools being: behaviorist, psychodynamic, cognitive, and evolutionary. The behaviorist perspective is based off the information created by John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner around the early 1950s. This theory is of the belief that there is a “relation between observable behaviors and environmental events or stimuli” (Kowalski and Westen, 2009). Classic conditioning was a method created due to the research of one Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov conditioned his dogs to begin salivating at the sound of a bell. Classic conditioning generally speaking is where the subject has been trained to give certain responses due to certain stimuli (Heffner, 2011). Exhibit A would be Pavlov’s dogs. Skinner later discovered that an individual’s behavior can also be controlled by stimuli from the environment that could either reinforce the response or deal out a punishment. The primary method to researching this perspective has been experimental. It allows researchers to make educated guesses before creating a situation to test their theory. The theory of psychodynamics was created by Sigmund Freud during the late nineteenth century. “Freud believed that the human mind was composed of three elements: the id, the ego and the superego” (Cherry, N.A.). The id was the side of a personality that controlled...
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...that philosophy, biology, and physiology had on the beginnings of psychology as a science. Compare the two early scientific approaches in psychology: structuralism and functionalism. Describe the focus of each of the six contemporary approaches to psychology. Describe the positive psychology movement, and discuss why this movement recently emerged in psychology. Discuss career opportunities in psychology. Profile the main areas of specialization in psychology. Say how studying habits may be optimized. Understand how to be a critical thinker. CHAPTER 1: OUTLINE Psychology is a science dedicated to the study of behavior and mental processes. In this chapter you are introduced to the history of this science, a variety of contemporary perspectives in psychology, the positive psychology movement, and an overview of psychology-related careers. At the end of the chapter, the reader learns about the most effective methods of studying and learning. There are three concepts important to the definition of psychology: science, behavior, and mental processes. Psychologists use scientific methods to observe, describe, predict, and explain behaviors and mental processes. Behaviors are actions that can be directly observed, while mental processes are experiences that cannot be observed directly, such as thoughts and feelings. The history of psychology is rooted in philosophy, biology, and physiology. Rene Descartes and Charles Darwin...
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...the field of psychology than what the public may be aware of. The four main perspectives concerning psychology is divided by schools of thought. Each of the four schools of thought is based on different studies and assumptions where the causes and treatments are concerned, in reference to psychology. The main four schools of thought are psychodynamic, the behaviorist, cognitive, and the evolutionary. The Psychodynamic Perspective The school of psychodynamic was “founded by Sigmund Freud ( HubPages Inc, 2011),” and evolved from Freud’s theories that all people have “powerful unconscious motives that underlie their conscious intentions. (Kowalski, R. & Westen, D. (2009)” A few of the issues that Freud and his followers focused on was repressed issues from one’s past, and helping people bring foreword these past issues so they may be dealt with by using reason, helping people face the nature of their problems. Freud believed that people can be totally unaware of their subconscious motivations and process that affect their conscious thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and intentions. The psychodynamic perspectives believe that how people act is determined by how thoughts and feelings interact in their minds. Freud also suggested that people make unconscious compromises within our competing motives that are the basic of most internal conflicts. The school of psychodynamic use case studies where the information gathered from these studies, after interpreted...
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