Later the behaviourist approach was taken up by B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) who worked out the evolution of human behaviour by observing the behaviour of rats in a maze, where certain actions lead to different consequences.
In comparison, Freud managed to draw his conclusions by discovering that all behaviour is motivated by two basic inner drives: the natural urge to procreate which is known as The Eros or Life Drive, and the natural urge to destroy which is known as the Thanatos or Death Drive. Freud also delved deeper into the mind unlike Watson, to discover that our subconscious is split into three parts. The first is the "ID" also known as our natural drive which seeks constant gratification; the second is the "EGO" also known as our personal set of values developed as children, and finally the "SUPEREGO" also known as set of learned values taken from society and our parents.
Freud also discovered that our adult personalities are defined by five psychosexual experiences that we experience as children. These stages are known as oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Freud believed that if a child is exposed to over gratification in any of these stages, they will grow to have problems in adulthood which can lead to mental illness.
In contrast, Behaviourism as a discipline looks into environmental factors surrounding a person and disregards any actions which may be deemed as hereditary and also uses Conditioning as its major principle.
Another main psychologist who succeeded in developing Behaviourism was Skinner (1904 – 1990). Skinner created the theory of Operant Conditioning as he believed that all behaviour can be controlled by rewards or reinforcement. This is very different from Pavlov’s theory of Classical Conditioning as Skinner is trying to control voluntary behaviour. This is done by giving the subject a positive or negative reaction to an action with the theory that a negative response will discourage the subject to repeat the action.
A major difference between the two theories is the way they carry out their research. Behaviourism uses animals to gain an insight into human behaviour, whereas Psychodynamic uses human subjects to research into the inner psyche.
One of Freud’s most famous experiments was ‘Little Hans’. This was about a five year old boy who was afraid of horses, and was jealous of the birth of his sister. It was thought that Hans’ anxiety culminated from his inner desire to be his mother’s mate. Freud used Hans in order to help develop another of his theories – the ‘Oedipus Complex’ which is a small boy’s inner jealousy of his father and fear of punishment by castration by him. It must be stressed that the turmoil Freud discovered is very much in the subconscious. There is also the Electra complex which is a small girl’s inner belief that she has already been castrated and experiences ‘penis envy’. This was a very complicated conclusion to derive from equinophobia, and has had a number of criticisms such as the discovery that just before the experiment took place, Hans witnessed an accident with a horse which resulted in a man losing his life. Behaviourists would argue that this would have been the root of Hans’s problems and his inner turmoil could be relieved by using techniques to reintegrate the boy with horses.
Both Psychoanalysis and Behaviourism have view on how we develop our gender roles. Freud based his theory on the case studies on five middle class Jewish women, and because of these limited methods Freud's theory has been highly criticised for not being representative, for being too over generalised and also as he was developing this theory in the 1800's it has been commented that it is outdated and no longer relevant to modern society. Even with all this criticism psychoanalysis has been a very good basis for many therapies still used today. There is no scientific proof to support Freud's theory. Freud was one of the first psychologists to demonstrate a link between our minds and physical illness; he was also the first to highlight the importance of our childhood and its development.
Behaviourist theorists put an emphasis that children learn their gender roles through observational learning and reinforcement, by watching and imitating others’ positive behaviour then children are reinforced with positive rewards, therefore wanting to repeat the process. According to behaviourism, fathers treat children differently depending on which sex the child is often being "more instrumental and achievement-orientated" with their sons and paying them more attention (Gross,2005). Children are usually reinforced for different things, girls get rewarded for dependence, emotional expression and empathy, where as boys will be rewarded for independence, self reliance and emotional control. This also aids to forming our gender role at an early age.
B F Skinner used a puzzle box, called a skinner box to prove the theory of reinforcement scientifically he place a rat inside a small box with a lever that when pressed the rat would be rewarded with a food pellet, therefore proving that operant conditioning can be achieved with small animals.
There are many similarities between Psychoanalysis and Behaviourism, both these theories are very deterministic allowing us only to believe our paths are already laid out in front of us and that we are unable to change what we are destined to be, both leave no room for change and state that once our gender role has been created through either theory then it would take therapy to alter it. Freud and Psychoanalysis say that we are controlled by nature with a high nurture influence where as behaviourist only believe that we are controlled by the environment around us, nature. Freud’s case studies on the five middle class "mad" women included little or no scientific evidence to support his theory; the behaviourist theory however is based on scientific experimentation and has plenty of actual evidence to be founded upon. Freud looked into the working of the mind to help develop psychoanalysis trying to see how the mind affected the body, behaviourist would not take into consideration the mind and how it works as it could not be physically observed or scientifically proven.
Gender is developed through many different factors, but primarily through psychological advancement. Although these two theories are conflicting they are also very similar in many ways including the nature influence and their deterministic view. Many people will not believe something until it is scientifically proven and then they will only believe what they can see with their own eyes, so for these people the behaviourist theory would be the most understandable, but psychoanalysis has been very widely used by many people for an extensive number of years and is still being vastly used today. Therefore both these theories are just as credible and understandable for today's society.
Behaviourism is now used commonly to provide techniques to change unwanted behaviour such as phobias, or to help overcome addictions. Its scientific approach is very methodical and it is able to explain and correct undesirable behaviour by leaving a lasting impression upon the subject. This is especially felt in today’s society with doctors and psychologists dealing with children with minor attention disorders.
From psychoanalysis, psychotherapy grew. Psychotherapy is a way of treating psychological or emotional problems, through talking both about the issue and about other issues. The main focus is to talk the patient through their experience hoping to discover the personal feelings, relationships, and events that have created their vegetative behaviour. Freud first used this therapy whilst living in Austria where he was a practicing physician specializing in neurological disorders. When Freud could find no physical cause for an illness, he would experiment with this new therapy and in this way he found it extremely useful. It is now used widely across the world and is even a recommended treatment in the NHS and is also commonly known as counselling.
To conclude this assignment, it is fair to say that neither theory can be deemed as the correct way to help a subject, as both have major areas of disadvantage as well as elements that are useful and effective within today’s society. Psychologists will never be able to come up with a single tried and tested method to treat people due to the fact that every person is an individual with unique needs, so these theories will continue to be expanded and critiqued for many years to come.
Bibliography
Gross, R. (2005). Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour 5th edition. Hodder Arnold Publication
