Freud’s theory suggests he was favourable to the nature side of the debate and suggested the mind was like an iceberg with only a small amount visible, that is our observable behaviour and the part submerged being the unconscious mind has the most influence on our behaviour. Freud created three main methods of accessing the unconscious mind, free association, dream analysis and slips of the tongue. He thought the unconscious mind consisted of three components; the id the ego and the super ego. The id includes two main instincts, Eros that is the life instinct that involves self-preservation and sex which influences the libido energy force. Thanatos is the death instinct whose energies are not as strong as Eros is channelled away from ourselves and into aggression towards others.
The id and the super ego are relentlessly fighting each other. The ego tries to resolve these conflicts. If these conflicts are not resolved, we tend to use defence mechanisiums to ease our anxieties. Psychoanalysis can help to resolve these conflicts.xxxxxxxxxxxx
The behaviour concept is environmentally deterministic making their beliefs at the nurture end of the scale. Bandvarus investigation and rise of his social learning theory could be seen to have the same principles of classical and operant conditioning.
Russian psychologist Pavlow studied classical conditioning by looking into natural reflexes and neutral stimuli. He managed to condition dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell and food through repeated association of the sound of a bell and food. The principles of (CC) have been applied in many therapies. These include systematic desensitisation for phobias (step by step exposed to feared stimuli at once). Also an aversion therapy for socially undesired behaviours and bad habits (individual associates and disliked response to the habit through repeated pairing).
CC behaviour only deals with involuntary behaviour where as operant conditioning deals with voluntary behaviour.
Skinner felt that some behaviour could be explained by a person’s motive. Therefore behaviour occurs for a reason and the three main behaviour-shaping techniques are: - positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment.
Many of the behaviourist studies have been on animals so making it hard to generalise to humans and it also cannot explain the speed we pick up language.
There are many different perspectives in psychology to explain our behaviour. No one approach has explanatory precedence over the rest. Only by looking at all the different aspects in psychology which sometimes contradict one and another (nature, nurture, debate overlap each other or build upon each other, can we understand and create effective solutions when problems arise.