Schools of Thought in Psychology

1. Schools of Thought in Psychology HSB

2. Like all social sciences, psychology has been divided into a number of schools of thought. • Psychoanalytic • Behaviourism • Learning Development

3. Sigmund Freud: founder of psychoanalytic theory Believed that our early childhood experiences are stored in our unconscious mind Although we are normally unaware of these memories, they have a powerful influence on the way we function. These early relationships and/or experiences may have given us a general sense of frustration that has stayed with us throughout our lives. If we lived with a general sense of frustration, our behavior may become neurotic, or abnormal, usually connective with anxiety or obsessiveness. believe that criminal behavior is caused by frustration stemming from early childhood experiences.

4. Psychoanalytic Theory (1890s-1930s) A theory that the mind is divided into the conscious and unconscious mind and that the unconscious mind can be unlocked through dream analysis and hypnosis The Mind The mind is divided into two parts: The conscious (the part that we are aware of) The unconscious (the part we are not aware of). The unconscious mind has more influence than the conscious mind on our personality and behaviour.

5. The Unconscious The unconscious is divided into three parts: The id –pleasure principle The ego-Reality principle The superego- Morality principle Personality development and individual behaviour are governed by how the three parts of the unconscious interact

6. Psychoanalytic theorists believe treating the unconscious mind can alleviate neurosis. Dreams • Using dream analysis and hypnosis, Freud and his followers attempted to unlock the unconscious mind and plunge deep-seated frustrations. • They developed techniques to identify memories stored in the unconscious mind and to interpret their effect on the patient’s behaviour.

7. Freud believes that individual sexual satisfaction or frustration was the key element in personality development.

8. Talk Therapy Talk Therapy The techniques of psychoanalytic theory have been highly influential in psychology. They emphasize individual counseling to explore and explain an individual’s underlying self.

9. Behaviourism(1910s-1950s) Behaviourists, like psychoanalysts, believe that psychologists can predict,control and even modifyhuman behaviours by identifying the factors that motivate it in the first place. Behaviouristsplaced particular stress on the early childhood years, and the rules or practices parents use to raise their children. They believe child-rearing (parenting) methods have a huge influence on the character of individuals even into adulthood. The learner is viewed as passively adapting to their environment.

10. Stimulus-Response Effect Behaviourism Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) Conducted experiments with dogs to show that it was possible to get a dog to associate the sound of a bell with the arrival of food. Showed that pigeons could be trained to peck at a particular coloured disk to get a food reward. Rats received food rewards for pressing a bar in a complicated sequence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMJJpbRx_O8 (1.56)

11. These experiments proved that learning was a stimulus-response effect. If the subject is correctly stimulated it will give the appropriate responses. Rewards Versus Punishment

12. Famous Behaviourist Practitioners John b. Watson Benjamin Spock Recommended an opposite approach to child-raring permissive approach to child-raring, rather than a strict one, would result in successful, well adjusted adults. He encouraged parents to be loving, flexible, and supportive. • founder of behaviourism • Study: used animal experiments to determine whether strict or flexible learning patterns are more effective. Famous experiment was Baby Albert –learned fears. • concluded: children should be brought up using a “scientific” strictly scheduled rules-based model. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt0ucxOrPQE (2:36)

13. The underlying theory of both approaches: Correct child-raring methods will result in well adjusted adults Criticism: Watson and Spock both ignored the influence of heredity in human development. Today: Later theorists concluded that every child is unique and the methods used in children’s upbringing should be tailored to meet individual needs.

14. Learning Theory/Cognitive Psychology • Broad school of thought. • Belief that humans are born with little instinct but much learning potential. • Believe that most human behaviouris learned, especially in childhood and youth. • By controlling the way in which humans learn behaviour, society can have a great influence on the personalities of people in society. Child Development Theorists http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15HncOVohTo (3:25)

15. Alfred Bandura (1925) Showed that learning is more complicated than a mere stimulus-response effect. Experiment:young children were shown films of people hitting or petting a balloon-like doll painted like a clown, called Bobo. The children were then placed alone in the room with Bobo, where they were monitored through a one-way glass. Findings: the children behaviourclosely resembled what they had seen in the film. Conclusions: learning is largely a modeling experience. When humans observe behaviour (either acceptable or unacceptable) they are more likely to practice it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU (1.27)

16. Learning theory has many different approaches and views of learning. Arguments exists on whether learning consists of one or a few elements, or a complicated interplay of a large number of factors.