Approaches to Psychology The Different Approaches

Approaches to Psychology

The Different Approaches

• The problems you wish to investigate are tied to a number of theoretical approaches to psychology

• There are six basic approaches to the study of psychology (some psychologists also include a seventh approach)

Seven Approaches

• 1. Evolutionary

• 2. Biological

• 3. Behavioral

• 4. Cognitive

• 5. Humanistic

• 6. Psychodynamic

• 7. Sociocultural

Application

• How do you explain the causes of depression?

• How do you examine the personality of an assassin?

Application #2

• How can we explain the power of cult leaders?

• What social conditions exist that promote the rise of cults?

Application #3

• How could you investigate the causes of mental illness?

Application #4

• How could you explain the reasons for obedience to authority?

Application #5

• How could you achieve a better understanding of why a person would commit suicide?

Application #6

• Where would you look if you wanted to understand how and why some people seem so extraordinary and important in our society?

Overview of Each Approach

• Biological: Focuses primarily on the activities of the nervous system, the brain, hormones, and genetics

• Psychodynamic: Emphasizes internal, unconscious conflicts; the focus is on sexual and aggressive instincts that collide with cultural norms

Overview (cont.)

• Behavioral: Examines the learning process, focusing in particular on the influence of rewards and punishments

• Evolutionary: Investigates how primal survival instincts can influence behavior

Overview (cont.)

• Cognitive: Focuses on the mechanisms through which people receive, store, and process information

• Humanistic: Emphasizes an individual’s potential for growth and the role of perception in guiding mental processes and behavior

Overview (cont.)

• Sociocultural: Explores how behavior is shaped by history, society, and culture

The Evolutionary Approach

• Functionalism

• Why we do what we do

• The influence of Charles Darwin

Natural Selection

• An evolutionary process in which individuals of a species that are best adapted to their environments are the ones most likely to survive; they then pass on these traits to their offspring

James’s Adaptation of Darwin’s Principles

• “The most adaptive behaviors in an individual are the ones that grow stronger and become habitual.”

Key Points in the Evolutionary Approach

• The adaptive value of behavior

• The biological mechanisms that make it possible

• The environmental conditions that either encourage or discourage behavior

The Adaptive Value

• Evolutionary psychology examines behaviors in terms of their adaptive value for a species over the course of many generations

An Example from the Evolutionary Perspective

• Male vs. Female: differences in visual-spatial ability

• Hunting vs. gathering

Other Examples

• Fear of snakes and spiders

• Greater sexual jealousy in males

• Preference for foods rich in fats and sugars

• Women’s greater emphasis on a potential mate’s economic resources

Other Evolutionary Notions

• Mating preferences, jealousy, aggression, sexual behavior, language, decision making, personality, and development

• Critics

The Biological Approach

• Behavior and mental processes are largely shaped by biological processes

• It is not identified with any single contributor

The Biological Focus

• The brain and central nervous system

• Sensation and perception

• Autonomic nervous system

• Endocrine system

• Heredity and genetics

Biological Focus (cont.)

• The physiological basis of how we learn and remember

• The sleep-wake cycle

• Motivation and emotion

• Understanding the physical bases of mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia

Major Contributors

Howard Gardner

• Studied brain damage and neurological disorders

• Created the theory of multiple intelligences

• The different types of intelligence

Hans Eysenck

• Importance of genetics

• Intelligence is inherited

• Personality has a biological component

• Hierarchy of personality traits

Roger Sperry

• Split-brain surgery

• Techniques for measuring the different functions of the hemispheres of the brain

• Application: epilepsy

William James

• Humans are motivated by a variety of biological instincts

• Instincts are inherited tendencies

• The father of American psychology

Masters & Johnson

• Study of human sexuality

• They used physiological recording devices to monitor bodily changes of volunteers engaging in sexual activity

• Insights into sexual problems

Judith Rodin

• Study on obesity

• Genetic predispositions

David McClelland

• Achievement and motivation

• Characteristics of high-achieving people

Stanley Schachter

• Studied eating behavior

• Manipulation of external cues

Elizabeth Loftus

• Study of memory

• Eyewitness testimony

• Myth or repressed memories?

Gustav Fechner

• Psychophysics: the study of the relationship between sensory experiences and the physical stimuli that cause them

• Revolutionized the field of experimental psychology

David Hubel

• Nobel Prize winner (transforming sensory information)

• Implantation of electrodes into the cortex of a cat

Erik Kandel

• Molecular biologist and Nobel Prize winner

• Learning results in the formation of new memories

Hermann Von Helmholtz

• Color vision: color receptors in the retina transmit messages to the brain when visible lights of different wavelengths stimulate them

Paul Ekman

• Emotions and how the human face expresses them

• Human emotions are universal

The Psychodynamic Approach

The Psychodynamic/ Psychoanalytic Approach

• Examines unconscious motives influenced by experiences in early childhood and how these motives govern personality and mental disorders

• Free association and psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud

• The “Father of psychoanalysis”

• The second mind, unconscious

• Repression, free association, dream analysis

• Theory of personality

Carl Jung

• Analytical psychology

• Personal and collective unconscious

• Archetypes

Alfred Adler

• Individual psychology

• Striving for perfection, compensation, and the inferiority complex

• Ordinal position

Anna Freud

• Founder of child psychoanalysis

• Defense mechanisms

Erik Erikson

• A neo-Freudian

• A strong need for social approval

• Psychosocial development and crises

The Humanistic Approach

The “Third Force” in Psychology

• Rejected the views of both behaviorism and psychoanalytic thought

• Free will and conscious choice

The Humanists Revolt

• Humanists felt that both behaviorist and psychoanalytic perspectives were dehumanizing

• Humanists believed that behaviorism and psychoanalysis ignored personal growth

• An optimistic view of human potential

More Differences

• Choices are not dictated by instincts, the biological process, or rewards and punishments

• The world is a friendly, happy, secure place

Carl Rogers

• In the 1940s, humanism began to receive attention because of Rogers

• Human behavior is governed by each individual’s sense of self

• The drive for personal growth

Application of the Humanistic Approach

• Greatest contribution comes in the area of therapy

• Client-centered therapy

Abraham Maslow

• Hierarchy of needs, theory of motivation

• Becoming fully self-actualized

• Emphasis on uniqueness

Albert Ellis

• Creator of rational-emotive therapy

• Self-defeating thoughts cause depression and anxiety

• “I must be loved by all” is an unrealistic notion

Criticisms of the Humanistic Approach

• Not all people have the same needs or meet them in a hierarchical fashion

• The humanistic approach is vague and unscientific

The Cognitive Approach

The Cognitive Perspective

• Studies people’s mental processes in an effort to understand how humans gain knowledge about the world around them

• Cognito = Latin for “knowledge”

• How we learn, form concepts, solve problems, make decisions, use language

What Is Cognition?

• An “unobservable” mental process

• The study of consciousness, physiological determinants of behavior

• 1950s-1960s: new understanding of children’s cognitive development

Advocates of the Cognitive Approach

• The manipulation of mental images can influence how people behave

• The focus is not on “overt” behavior

• The cognitive method can be studied objectively and scientifically

Wilhelm Wundt

• He used “introspection” as a research technique

• He set up the first psychology laboratory

• Voluntarism

Edward Titchener

• Structuralism

• The mind is structured by breaking down mental experiences into smaller components

Jean Piaget

• Child psychologist

• Educational reforms

• Children are not “blank slates”

Noam Chomsky

• Infants possess an innate capacity for language

• Transformational grammar

Albert Bandura

• Social Cognitive Theory: a form of learning in which the animal or person observes and imitates the behavior of others

• Cognitive learning theory/expectancies

Lawrence Kohlberg

• How children develop a sense of right and wrong

• He borrowed from Piaget

• Moral questions

Albert Ellis

• RET/Changing unrealistic assumptions

• People behave in rational ways

• Role playing

Hans Eysenck

• Trait theory and personality development

Aaron Beck

• A cognitive therapist

• Maladaptive thought patterns cause a distorted view of oneself that leads to problems

Stanley Schachter

• “Misery loves company”

• Anxiety and companionship

Howard Gardner

• Multiple forms of intelligence

The Behavioral Approach

What Is Behaviorism?

• Focuses on observable behavior and the role of learning in behavior

• Behaviorism continues to influence modern psychology

• The role of reward and punishment in learning

Applications of Behaviorism

• Aggression

• Drug abuse

• Self-confidence issues

• Overeating

• Criminality

John Watson

• The father of behaviorism

• Psychology should become a science of behavior

• Environment molds the behavior of us all

Ivan Pavlov

• Nobel Prize winner

• Psychic reflexes

• Classical conditioning

B.F. Skinner

• A strict behaviorist

• Operant conditioning: rewards and punishments

Edward Thorndike

• Studied animal thinking and reasoning abilities

• The puzzle box, instrumental learning

• Laid the groundwork for operant conditioning

The Sociocultural Approach

Why Has Psychology’s Focus Been So Narrow?

• Cross-cultural research is costly, difficult, and time consuming

• Psychology has traditionally focused on the individual, not the group

• Cultural comparisons may foster stereotypes

Sociocultural Issues

• Ethnicity

• Gender issues

• Lifestyles

• Income

• The influence of culture on behavior and the mental process

Stanley Milgram

• Classical experiment on obedience to authority

Solomon Asch

• 1950 conformity study showed that people tend to conform to other people’s ideas of truth even when they disagree with those ideas

Harry Harlow

• Challenged drive-reduction theory

• Surrogate mothers

• Contact comfort

Albert Bandura

• Social learning and modeling

• Learning and aggression

Arthur Jensen

• Cultural differences in IQ

• Is IQ inherited?