Schools of Thought in Psychology

HSB

Like all social sciences, psychology has been divided into a number of schools of thought.

• Psychoanalytic

• Behaviourism

• Learning Development

Sigmund Freud: founder of psychoanalytic theory

• Believed that our early childhood experiences are stored in our unconscious mind

• Although we are normally unaware of these memories, they have a powerful influence on the way we function.

• These early relationships and/or experiences may have given us a general sense of frustration that has stayed with us throughout our lives.

• If we lived with a general sense of frustration, our behavior may become neurotic, or abnormal, usually connective with anxiety or obsessiveness.

• believe that criminal behavior is caused by frustration stemming from early childhood experiences.

Psychoanalytic Theory (1890s-

1930s) A theory that the mind is divided into the conscious and unconscious mind and that the unconscious mind can be unlocked through dream analysis and hypnosis

The Mind

Unconscious

Conscious

The mind is divided into two parts: The conscious (the

part that we are aware of)

The unconscious (the part we are not aware of). The unconscious mind has more influence than the conscious mind on our personality and behaviour.

The Unconscious

The unconscious is divided into three parts: • The id –pleasure principle• The ego-Reality principle• The superego- Morality

principle

Personality development and individual behaviour are governed by how the three parts of the unconscious interact

Ego: referees between the two and deals with external reality.

Id: wants instant self-

gratification(sexual,

nutritional, etc.)

Superego: strives to act in

a socially appropriate

manner (morals).

Dreams• Using dream analysis and

hypnosis, Freud and his followers att empted to unlock the unconscious mind and plunge deep-seated frustrati ons.

• They developed techniques to identi fy memories stored in the unconscious mind and to interpret their eff ect on the pati ent ’s behaviour.

Psychoanalyti c theorists believe treati ng the unconscious mind can alleviate neurosis.

Freud believes that individual sexual satisfaction or frustration was the key element in personality development.

Talk Therapy The techniques of psychoanalytic theory have been highly influential in psychology. They emphasize individual counseling to explore and explain an individual’s underlying self.

TALK THERAPY

Behaviourism (1910s-

1950s) Behaviourists, like psychoanalysts, believe that psychologists can predict, control and even modify human behaviours by identifying the factors that motivate it in the first place.

Behaviourists placed particular stress on the early childhood years, and the rules or practices parents use to raise their children.

They believe child-rearing (parenting) methods have a huge influence on the character of individuals even into adulthood.

The learner is viewed as passively adapting to their environment.

 Stimulus-Response

EffectIvan Pavlov (1849-1936)

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Conducted experiments with dogs to show that it was possible to get a dog to associate the sound of a bell with the arrival of food.

Showed that pigeons could be trained to peck at a particular coloured disk to get a food reward. Rats received food rewards for pressing a bar in a complicated sequence.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMJJpbRx_O8 (1.56)

Behaviourism

These experiments proved that learning was a stimulus-response effect. If the subject is correctly stimulated it will give the appropriate responses.

Rewards Versus Punishment

Famous Behaviourist Practitioners

John b. Watson

• founder of behaviourism

• Study: used animal experiments to determine whether strict or flexible learning patterns are more effective. Famous experiment was Baby Albert –learned fears.

• concluded: children should be brought up using a “scientific” strictly scheduled rules-based model.

Benjamin Spock

• Recommended an opposite approach to child-raring

• permissive approach to child-raring, rather than a strict one, would result in successful, well adjusted adults.

• He encouraged parents to be loving, flexible, and supportive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt0ucxOrPQE (2:36)

The underlying theory of both approaches:

Correct child-raring methods will result in well adjusted adults

Criticism: Watson and Spock both ignored the influence of heredity in human development.

Today: Later theorists concluded that every child is unique and the methods used in children’s upbringing should be tailored to meet individual needs.

Learning Theory/Cognitive Psychology• Broad school of thought.

• Belief that humans are born with little instinct but much learning potential.

• Believe that most human behaviour is learned, especially in childhood and youth.

• By controlling the way in which humans learn behaviour, society can have a great influence on the personalities of people in society.

Child Development Theoristshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15HncOVohTo (3:25)

Alfred Bandura (1925)

Showed that learning is more complicated than a mere stimulus-response effect.

Experiment: young children were shown films of people hitting or petting a balloon-like doll painted like a clown, called Bobo. The children were then placed alone in the room with Bobo, where they were monitored through a one-way glass.

Findings: the children behaviour closely resembled what they had seen in the film.

Conclusions: learning is largely a modeling experience. When humans observe behaviour (either acceptable or unacceptable) they are more likely to practice it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU (1.27)

Learning theory has many different approaches and views of learning.

Arguments exists on whether learning consists of one or a few elements, or a complicated interplay of a large number of factors.