Anna Freud his daughter expanded on her fathers work and was responsible for child psychoanalysis.
Others who followed the Freud’s ideas such as Erik Erikson (1902-1994) all helped our understanding of identity and personality (and the stages involved), finding other influences to add to the Freud’s work. Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Melanie Klein who also became Neo- Freudians, essentially believed Freud’s thoughts, but thought of other ways of explaining the mind.(Encarta.msn.2005)
Another perspective is the Humanistic approach a 17th century word meaning ‘concerned with human matters’. During the 1950’s, and 1960’s, a school of thought known as Humanistic psychology emerged in reaction to behaviourism and psychodynamics. Where Freud only cared about the darker side of the unconscious and skinner was only interested in the effects of reinforcement on behaviour Influenced greatly by the work of prominent humanists such as Carl Rogers(1902-1987 ,self concept) and Abraham Maslow (hierarchical theory, this perspective emphasizes the role of motivation on thought and behaviour .Concepts such as self actualization (we have a desire for taking responsibility for our own actions ,so we can grow personally with free will.) are an essential part of this perspective( self counselling and basic goodness and respect of humankind ,and it favours nurture over nature, which is all about empathy.( Elliott,A (2007) A Psychological Theory)
A further perspective is the Cognitive approach, which was developed during the 1960’s this was a new psychological approach which began to take hold at this time. It focuses on the mental processes such as memory, thinking, problem solving, language and decision- making, very much like a computer would operate. Influenced by psychologists such Neisser (1967) and Jean Piaget( Stages of cognitive development in children) and Albert Bandura, this perspective has grown tremendously in recent times. They thought you had to have an understanding of people; we need to know what goes on inside their heads. This approach came about due to the dissatisfaction with the behavioural approach which focused on the visible behaviour without understanding the internal process and Stages of cognitive development in children and the links made with computers(This thinking can be traced right back to Plato and Gottfried Leibnitz from psychology’s beginnings with philosophy).
The final perspective we are looking at is the Behavioural approach. This concentrates on the learned behaviours, While Behaviourism dominated psychology early in the twentieth century , it began to lose its hold during the 1950’s .Today ,the behavioural perspective is still concerned with how behaviours are learned and reinforced .Behavioural principles are often applied in mental health settings , where therapists and counsellors use these techniques to explain and treat a variety of illnesses.
John Watson (1878-1958) is the founder of the behaviourist school of thought where actions thoughts and feelings should be viewed as behaviours, as it has to be observable to be considered a theory.( Little Albert experiment.)
Edward Tolman (1886-1959) inspired by William James found stimulus response theory unacceptable (emotion’s beliefs, attitude and mice in maze-cognitive mapping.)
Pavlov (1890-1930) Discovered the conditioning reflex, and developed Pavlov dogs experiment and showing classical conditioning, Pavlov showed the existence of the unconditioned response by presenting a dog with a bowl of food and then measuring its salivary secretions (learning by association)
Thorndike (1898) developed operant conditioning theory and used a puzzle box and cats to understand the laws of learning this was called the” law of effect” based on the Cats timing of rewards and punishments so humans and animals are comparable in their actions( learning from the consequences of behaviour.)(http//www.simplypsychology.org)
B.F Skinner (1904-1990) A radical behaviourist who continued Thorndike’s work by studying pigeons,(the skinner box) he discovered that the pigeons associated the delivery of food with whatever chance actions they had been performing as it was delivered, so they kept performing the same actions.
Edward Tolman (1886-1959) inspired by William James found stimulus response theory unacceptable (emotion’s beliefs, attitude and mice in maze-cognitive mapping.)
In conclusion there are many different ways to think about human behaviour and thought .The many perspectives in modern psychology provide us with a way to approach different problems, and find new ways to explain and predict human behaviour, as well as developing new treatments for problem behaviours within our modern lives and even thou there are differences in each approach, (nature or nurture) they all share some major common ideas and this is to define mans mentality and explain mental illness.(grosser 2010 the science of mind and behaviour)
Psychoanalytical is closely linked cognitive with Piaget’s work on children’s development being very akin to the stage theory that both Freud’s looked at in childhood experiences and they both took a scientific view.(www.trinity.edu)
The main differences and similarities with Behavioural and psychoanalytical theory’s are both believe that current behaviour is determined by past experiences, but where psychoanalytical looks at mental processes , behavioural looks at the subject behaviour and doesn’t care about mental processes(www.simplypsychology.org)
Humanistic shares a link with physcoanalytical as both believe that we all have needs and desires, Humanistic also has a link to behavioural as they both believe that human interests can be infinite.
Each theory has a stage approach to it; including It just that each has a different approach to it. They see Depression, phobias and eating disorders to explain our development. Each theory in its own focuses on the human mind and its reaction to its environment, The general idea of psychology is to study the mind and determine the best way to fix problems that cannot be solved with traditional methods .(Behaviourism) It is just that each has a different approach to it.
Word count
1092
References
McLeod, S. A. (2007). Simply Psychology - Psychology Articles for Students. Retrieved from on 23rd nov 2012
Elliott,A (2007) A Psychological Theory ,Wadsworth,cengage learning 2011.
Jeffrey,N(2009) Psychologyconceptsandapllications,HoughtonMifflin company
Http//www.Encarta,msn(2005) collegedictionary,retrieved on 23rd nov 2012
retreived on the 22nd nov 2012
by
penman123 (student)
