Human Behaviour 1, Explain the various approaches to psychology and the people who pioneered them

AS and A Level Miscellaneous

Lizzie Brownrigg

Human Behaviour 1

Task 1 - Explain the various approaches to psychology and the people who pioneered them

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and it’s activities, both normal and abnormal. (Collins Dictionary)

There are four main approaches to psychology. These are:

Behaviourist
Psychoanalytic
Humanistic
Cognitive

The behaviourist approach

This approach is said to have been started by Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), J.B. Watson (1878–1958), and B.F. Skinner (1904–1990). This theory argues that all human behaviour is caused by something else. This means that ‘behaviour is just a response to a stimulus’. They also believe that behaviour can be scientifically tested under reproduced conditions. This was the first ever serious attempt to make psychology into a proper science.

Behaviourism does not concern the mind, consciousness or thoughts. It is only concerned with actions. Below are famous studies that impacted on the behaviourist approach and who pioneered them.

Pavlov

Pavlov discovered Classic conditioning. During his research he discovered that the presence of the lab technician that fed the dogs (he experimented on animals) that the dogs salivated more, even when the technician wasn’t going to feed them. This lead to an experiment in which he rang a bell every time the dogs were fed, then eventually the dogs began to salivate more just at the bell being rung, despite their food not being present. The dogs had associated the sound with their food.

B.F. Skinner

Later discovered another type of conditioning. Operant conditioning. This study meant that a pigeon learnt to peck a leaver in order to get a reward (a seed). Classical condoning involves no link between the dog’s response and a reward. For example, the dog does not get food because it salivates. Operant conditioning links the response, the pecking of a lever, to a reward. The animal therefore must do something to get the reward.

J.B. Watson

Attempted to show conditioning in human beings, in 1923 he trained a child to be terrified of furry objects by clanging a metal bar behind the child every time it held a furry toy. This would not be ethical nowadays.

Analysis of the Behaviourist approach

Against

It sometimes can oversimplify people and look at them like animals
Can and has lead to inhumane experiments
Could lead to brainwashing and indoctrination or children and adults.

For

Shows how important the environment is when studying human behaviour.
Has lead to improvements in housing and ...

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J.B. Watson

Analysis of the Behaviourist approach

Against

It sometimes can oversimplify people and look at them like animals
Can and has lead to inhumane experiments
Could lead to brainwashing and indoctrination or children and adults.

For

Shows how important the environment is when studying human behaviour.
Has lead to improvements in housing and education.
Shows that sometimes people are not completely responsible for their actions and cannot be blamed.
It encourages crime prevention and positive crime reduction or youth diversion schemes.

The Psychoanalytic approach

Formed mainly be Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Most of his studies where based on the mentally ill. He did not study people in a scientific way, and he never experimented with animals. He came up with the term ‘free association’. For this experiment, he gave his patients words, and they had to tell him the images, memories and ideas that it created for them. He called this ‘psychoanalysis’, the sorting out of the mind.

Freud’s main theory was that a-lot of human behaviour came from negative childhood events, which the child’s memory had repressed. However, these came out in later life as mental problems. Freud divided the mind into 2 sections, the conscious and the unconscious. The conscious mind was the thoughts and ideas and memories that are aware of. The unconscious mind is the stuff that we have forgotten or repressed. Freud believed that mental problems where the result of the unconscious mind stirring up the conscious mind. He believed that he could cure mental illness, if he could reveal the hidden memories of the unconscious mind, to the conscious mind of the patient.

The Psychoanalytic approach differs to the behaviourist, because Freud believed that it was possible to understand human behaviour, but also to understand the mind itself. Freud also came up with many other ideas and theories. Such as:

Instinct

Eros - The urge for sex, the life force
Thanatos - The death wish
Libido - The urge for bodily pleasure

Infantile sexuality

Oral sex, e.g. thumb sucking
Anal Stage, e.g. retention

Phallic Stage - awareness of penis
Oedipus Complex - The secret wish of the male child to kill his father and have sex with his mother.
Castration Complex - Irrational fear of castration
Penis envy - The desire of young girls to be boys

Freud believed all these existed in the under fives and that, in repressed form, they could cause mental problems later in life.

Structure of the mind

Id - The sexual energy hidden in the unconscious mind
Ego - The self we know
Super ego - The conscience, guarding the ego from the Id

Mental Illness

Freud saw this as a power struggle between the three parts of the mind. The super ego tried to fight the Id in ways that were destructive to mental health, they included -

Repression - Pushing the desires forcibly back into the unconscious mind
Sublimation - Changing bad desires into something more socially acceptable
Fixation - Obsessively stuck at one of the stages of infantile sexual development.

Analysis of the Psychoanalytic approach

For

Freud stirred dup a-lot of interest in psychology.
Many of his theories are accepted, even though they are impossible to prove.
Psychologists started studying sex, instead of pretending it didn’t exist
It had a huge effect on the Arts, the media (e.g. advertising) and also the way we think about other people.
His ideas have become very important to criminal psychology

Against

Psychoanalysis can be damaging to the patient and their families.
Most of Freud’s theories are linked with sex and so he is said to have been obsessed with the topic
Other psychologists think that Freud was unscientific
There isn’t much solid proof that these theories can help cure mental illness.
His theories are sexist; they focus mainly on men and undervalue or ignore women. This is called being Phallocentric.

Task 3 and 4

Within the public services, psychology is used on a daily basis. It benefits the organisations and the individuals that work for them. These are the main importances:

Improving leadership
Dealing with conflict
Creating a positive working environment
Dealing with stress
Improving communication
Work force motivation
Developing self esteem
Professional development
Personal development
Customer satisfaction

The Army and the Police

All jobs have some degree of stress factor. Work-related stress accounts for over a third of all new incidences of ill health. Each case of work-related stress, depression or anxiety related ill health leads to an average of 30.2 working days lost. A total of 13.8 million working days were lost to work-related stress, depression and anxiety in 2006/07.

Reducing stress in all employees can positively effect the following:

Employee commitment to work;
Staff performance and productivity;
Staff turnover or intention to leave;
Staff recruitment and retention;
Customer satisfaction; and
Organisational image and reputation.

In 2006 these figures where relased from the homeoffice about the Police Force –

250,000 days were lost in 2004/05 from stress-related illness.
The cost is put at between £20 million and £60 million a year.
Out of a total of 160,000 police officers, and average day stress-related illness was estimated at 1,086 officers. This would account for the size of police forces in Wiltshire or Warwickshire.
An average of two days off a year were due to stress. However, a psychologist said that this was likely to be higher, as illness could be linked to stress.
Worst affected police forces were Leicestershire, Northern Ireland, Dorset, North Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.
The cost was around £40 million a year.

These where identified as the main causes for the stress

Lack of control
Overwork
Insufficient resources
Long working hours
Confrontation and challenge
Impact of workload on family life
Negative perception of the police force perpetuated by the media
Dealing with traumatic incidents
Resolving conflicts
Possibility of physical danger
Unsocial shift work
Perceived bureaucratic obstacles: paper work, interdepartmental politics

So, when stress is reduced, all employees’ work will be more efficient. Other factors have been tackled to help reduce stress in the police force. Such as
Workplace temperature (workplace regulation act 1992)
During working hours, the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings shall be reasonable. The temperature in workrooms should normally be at least 16 degrees Celsius unless much of the work involves severe physical effort in which case the temperature should be at least 13 degrees Celsius. Police stations always make sure their working temperature is correct and comfortbale for their employees and visitng members of the public.
Lighting
the majority of a Police officers work takes place indoors, at their police station. Many hours will be spent using computers and looking at notes. This means that their employers must ensure that they are exposed to the correct lighting to prevent straining and damaging their eyes.
Space
lack of space can be a huge cause of stress if you feel you don’t have enough privacy. Psychologists where employed to advise on a comfortable layout for police stations that would maximise efficiancy.
Shift work
sparks and Cooper (1999) discovered that the longer hours people work, they less effectice and use they become. Also the divorce rate was higher amongst night workers. Forthis reason, police duties are done in shifts, and nights are done in rotation so that everyone takes a turn, and does not work too many nights in a row.

Army – Prospect of going to war
The prospect of going to war is a major source of stress in the Army. Being away from their loved ones and familiar places can become a major anxiety even before they leave. The psychoanalytical appracoh is used to deal with type of worry. The soldiers are told to dicuss their problems and fears with eachother and not keep things hidden