In this essay I am going to contrast and compare three approaches in psychology which are behaviourist, cognitive, and humanist. I am going to show how these psychological approaches contribute to the understanding of the human mind and behaviour.

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In this essay I am going to contrast and compare three approaches in psychology which are behaviourist, cognitive, and humanist. I am going to show how these psychological approaches contribute to the understanding of the human mind and behaviour.

Human mind and behaviour are affected during moments of transition and change. These are moments in which there is an alteration in an individual’s life. They can take a period of time to occur or can take place suddenly. Transitions happen during a period of time. The definition of the word transition confirms it. It is definite as ‘the process or a period of changing from a state or condition to another’ (Hornby, 2005: 1631). To illustrate, there is a period of changes when individuals leave adolescence and become adults. That period of changes is a transition. Changes are more sudden, and when they occur something is changed. The same dictionary gives the following definitions for change: ‘to pass or make sb/sth pass from one state or form into another’ (Hornby, 2005: 243) or ‘to stop having one state, position or direction and start having another’ (Hornby, 2005: 244). These definitions clearly show that a change is instantaneous, occurs in a very short period of time. For example, a sudden death of spouse or other person very close to a certain individual drastic changes the individual’s behaviour and way of life; get married also changes a person’s status instantly from the moment a couple is declared husband and wife they are not single anymore but married.

Both transitions and changes make people experience different emotions. A person may either become stressed or even depressed, have negative feelings of him, or became withdrawn from others. However that way an individual reacts will depend on the transition or change itself, and on the individual whom is going through it. Psychologists believe the way an individual reacts through a moment of transition or change can be explained after an analyse of the individual’s past experiences, knowledge, habits, social life, and culture, and application of an appropriated approach in psychology or a combination of approaches in psychology.

I am going now to write about in what the perspectives consist, their founders, and how do they contribute to the development of the human mind and behaviour. These perspectives have their limitations and advantages so that I’m going to mention them in order to compare and contrast the 3 perspectives. The first perspective I am going to analyse is behaviourism.

Behaviourists believe that ‘psychology should only investigate observable behaviour’ (Hill, G., 1998: 5) because for them we only need to concern ourselves in what is observable and measurable such as behaviour.  They look in what way environment affects behaviour. ‘It purports to explain human and animal behaviour in terms of external physical stimuli, responses, learning histories, and (for certain types of behaviour) reinforcements.’ (http://plato.stanford.edu) Thus, they ignore anything related with mind/mental because it can not be seen. Their theory about to look only at behaviour because it can be studied brings an advantage to their approach for the reason that it is a scientifically proven approach.

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The basis for behaviourist approach itself is seen as a limitation, particularly by cognitive psychologists, because it overlooks emotional aspects, ignores the mental process involved in the process of learning, and disregards any human capacity to think.

The founder of this psychological approach is John B. Watson. He was a total empiricist – he believed knowledge is gained by our environment, since humans at birth are like a ‘tabula rasa’ or blank state in which experience write on to produce a person; and accepted emotions are caused by stimuli which lead to measurable responses that can be scientifically proven.

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Summary The writer has given a good account of three psychological perspectives. It is clear that the writer has an understanding of these approaches and has written the essay in their own words. With some improvement to the introduction, better referencing and taking the comments made on board, this essay could receive full marks. Rating 4*