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Introduction

________________ Psychological perspectives for Health and Social Care In this assignment I will be talking about the principle of six psychological perspectives. The behaviourist perspective: The main assumption of this perspective is that all behaviour is shaped and learned by the environment. It is when people are being controlled by their environment and particularly that individuals are the reason of what we have learnt from their environment. This perspective helps us understand any type of behaviour by looking at what the person has learned. Classical conditioning is one of the theories of learning in the behaviourist perspective. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) developed this theory. Pavlov tested his theory by training a dog to learn that his food is ready whenever he hears a bell. He did this by using an unconditioned response (which was the dog?s salivation) and an unconditioned stimulus which was the food. He then trained the dog to learn that the bell was associated with food thus the dog salivated every time he heard the bell. So now the conditioned response was the dog?s salivation and the conditioned stimulus was the bell. Operant Conditioning is another theory of the behaviourist perspective and it was developed by B.F Skinner. He mainly used to work with rats and pigeons to learn some of the key principles of learning new behaviours. He did an experiment of lever pressing behaviour using a famous device called a ?Skinner box?. ...read more.

Middle

and he developed treatment known as psychoanalysis and the theory of psychodynamic psychology. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) adapted parts of Freud?s approach and he was a key follower of Freud. Freud supposed that our feelings, memories and past experiences are all locked up at the back of our mind which he calls the ?Unconscious? mind and we cannot access the contents of this but they can leak out often; this could be at the tip of our tongues or in our dreams. Freud believed that the things we are ?conscious? about is like the tip of an iceberg; the small part that we are aware of. The part that we have access to from the ?unconscious? part of the mind, Freud called this the ?Pre-conscious? where we can still retrieve it even though it is not in the conscious part of the mind. Importance of early experiences: Freud demonstrated a developmental theory of psychosexual stages. He believed that at each stage of psychosexual development, our individual?s energy focuses on one of the body that is relevant at that stage. We move onto the next development stage if the need of that current stage is met. But if there is a problem about the needs of that stage and it isn?t met, and then you may be fixated at that stage for example, having a habit of sucking your thumb or biting your nails. ...read more.

Conclusion

This theory believes that maturity is due to nature and not nurture. Arnold Gesell believed that according to the order of the maturational processes, development occurred in that process. An example of this is that when a child is in the womb it goes through stages before it is fully developed e.g. development of the brain, heart begins to form etc. Genetic influences on behaviour: Behaviour can be affected in many ways because of your genes. This is because your parents may have passed down a disease from them and which may be in one of your genes such as cystic fibrosis, hallucinations, severe confusion etc. which have effects on your behaviour. Whichever disorder that has been passed down to your genes cannot be affected by the environment and it will affect your behaviour as you develop. The influence of the nervous system and endocrine systems on behaviour: Hormones can also have an effect on behaviour as they are biochemical substances and are released into the blood stream; which has a deep effect on behaviour. Melatonin is a type of hormone which acts on the sleep mechanisms; therefore it helps blend the stages of activity and sleep. Testosterone is a sex hormone and it is released in the testicles which can cause someone to be aggressive. Oxytocin is a hormone which acts on organs and is released by the pituitary gland which stirs the production of milk and female orgasms. ...read more.

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