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This assignment will explain three different psychological perspectives and these are: Behaviorism, psychodrama and social learning. In this assignment this will include the main theorists and apply how and why they work. (Pl): Explain the principal of psychological perspectives. Behaviorism Behaviorism can also be seen as the learning theory. This was introduced by John Watson in the early sass’s. This was mainly his thoughts and ideas. When it comes to behaviorism there are three assumptions that are attached and are developed within behaviorism.
These are; behavior is learnt and also humans and animals learn the same way, this can be seen that the mind is irrelevant. Behaviorism would conclude that a person would behave in some way would be because they learnt it. An individual’s actions would also be seen as them learning it at some point in their life and that’s the reason why we can repeat and copy these types of actions that could come up in later stages of an individual life. In this psychological approach there are two theorists that I will be discussing about and there are, Ivan Pavlov and Brush Frederic Skinner.
Source: Rehashed, E, 2010) Skinner developed the Operant conditioning. Skinner mainly studied how learning could influence our behavior. In order for him to prove his point, he conducted an experiment where he used rats and a box (Skinner box). Inside the box contained a lever. All Skinner was focused on was to change the behavior of the rat. He done this by pressing the lever and it would release food for the rat inside. He was successful in his experiment because as time went by the rats learnt by reinforcing, because the rats because responsive as the lever was open upon them.
The releasing of food is called reinforcement. This is because it is something the rat would like therefore the rat responded to that and also the fact that this was repeated so it also increased the reinforcement. There are two types of reinforcement; negative and positive reinforcement and Skinner used both of these during his experiment. (Source: Davenport, G, 1995) Positive reinforcement is when the behavior is considered good, for example; when Skinner released the pellets each time the rat pressed the lever.
Negative reinforcement is when the behavior learnt ends up removing something unlikable. For example Skinner done this by running electrical current through the box in which the rat was in and this was only De-activated when the lever was pressed. (Source: Davenport, G, 1995) Pavlov on the other hand, developed the theory of classical conditioning. Pavlov believed that we learn through our environment and also through natural stimuli. In Pavlov’s experiment he mainly carried it out on dogs based on food and their levels of salivation.
His experiment was successful because at the end the dogs began to salivate even before tasting the food because they became associated with the vibratory assistant with food and so they became used to that and each time that they saw the lab assistant they Just salivate. Pavlov described this as unconditioned response because the salivation is not learnt and the food was the unconditioned stimulus because it caused the dogs to salivate. Pavlov later on wanted the dogs to copy the response from the unconditioned stimulus. He did this by pairing it to neutral stimulus.
With this experiment He used a bell which rang every time food was given to the dogs. This experiment worked cause later Pavlov found out that the dogs were associating the bell with the food Just like they did with the laboratory assistant. In this case the bell was the conditioned stimulus because the dogs learnt that and the salivation is called a conditioned response. (Source: Davenport, G, 1995) Social learning Social learning is psychological perspective that is believed that we learn from things around us on a daily basis and society.
This theory suggests that people, culture and groups of people can have an effect on our behavior. Theorists in this approach state that we look at hat is going on around us and then we would copy these behaviors and actions. There are five factors in which needs to be taken in consideration before social can occur. Social learning can take place through media (Television especially), family members and games. Before and individual can copy the behavior and repeat it, there will need to be noticed by the individual receiving it.
The individual would have the intention to have an interest in either the behavior or action because this is the only way the behavior would be copied by the individual. The behavior would have to be taken into consideration and then repeated, after that the behavior has been learnt by the individual. (Source: Rehashed, E, 2010) Other individuals Other people can have a major effect on our behavior. Role models are very important when it comes to social learning because we are more likely to do what they do they do so we memories what they do well and then we copy.
This is because we look up to them and it can be very different from copying someone in the street. This is because we would rather imitate our role models because we may think they re the best in everything that they do. Personally my role model is Nelson Mandela because despite all the challenges that he faced through his life has been strong, passionate, worked hard and he stood to what he believed in no matter how much people wanted him dead. Another reason is because he has achieved a lot throughout his life, but unfortunately he’s passed away now even though this doesn’t change my mind.
I want to be able to achieve similar things to him. For this reason I copy his behavior when dealing with certain problems. (Source: Rehashed, E, 2010) Effects of Groups on behavior The effects groups of people can have an impact on behavior because when we are in group we may act differently in order for us to be accepted within the group, but deep down we may feel that we are not ourselves and therefore we ignore our own beliefs. From this we can either take away with us positive or negative behaviors. This was demonstrated by Solomon Sacs, he was a social psychologist in the sass.
He mainly studied majority influence. This is basically when groups of people have an impact on our behavior because we do not ant to stand out from the crowd. (Source: Rehashed, E, 2010) Culture and Society Culture and society are also huge impacts on behavior. Culture can be seen as values, language, and customs as this brings people together. Culture can also be referred to someone being from different country. In the I-J alone there are a lot of socioeconomic groups and they all have different values. For example in the I-J if a 35 years old was still living at home.
The society would look at him as useless and worthless because he is not able to stand on his feet and do something for himself. While on the other hand in other cultures such as such as the Asian cultures this would be considered as a normal thing to do as they believe that it shows respect for your parents and the elders. Albert Bandeau An American psychologist called Albert Bandeau developed the observational learning theory. This is when we observe the behavior of a person and then we memories that behavior. Through this we can imitate and learn positive and negative behaviors.
Bandeau stated that we are more likely to copy those who we are more close to and those that we admire more such as our role models. For example they may have certain characteristics that we may find great therefore we would copy their behavior. This is called modeling. We are more likely to copy behavior that has led to positive reinforcement because we think that it would lead us the same way. We are less likely to copy behavior that may lead to negative reinforcement because we want to keep away from punishments. Source: Rehashed, E, 2010) Self-fulfilling prophecy This is really important in psychology his is when we take our behavior in our own hands. In other words we want people to behave in the way that we behave in. For example, if we behave in respected, calm, and cheerful manner then we will be sure that other people that we meet will behave in the same way towards us and they may even treat us favorably. On the other hand if we were aggressive, quarrelsome then this would be the way in which we would be responded as this is what is being showed to them. In this case we will need to consider our views and the world. Source: Rehashed, E, 2010) Role Theory This is very similar to the self fulfilling prophecy as it allows. The role of theory states that because an individual may come from different ultra, society and background that we may be influenced by others. When an individual is influenced that may try to act and live differently as wherever we go, we are more likely to labeled in the situation that we are in. For example, a subject we may come across a subject to be calm and easy to talk while may think that the head teacher is harder to talk to as we see him to be strict.
Another example, a woman with her kids at the park will be looked as a mother. , whereas when she goes to work she may be a supervisor or a manager and she will have to adopt the expectations to her Job role (Source: Rehashed, E, 2010) Cognitive The cognitive approach is about the information processing. The three stages of memory that this approach looks at are; sensory, short term and long term in getting information and then transferring and storing it and recall in memory.
Jean Pigged and George Kelly were the two main theorists that worked on this perspective. Jean Pigged was the person to make an orderly study of the cognitive development. He was from Swiss. His Theory was based on the cognitive of child development and he observed studies of cognition in children and different takes of development through tests, in order for him to reveal their cognitive abilities. There are four stages of development; Stage one is the sensory-motor from birth till the child is about two.
This is because at this stage the world experienced through motor activity and through the senses. Stage two, (pre-operational) this is from the age of two to seven. This is when language and our memory develop along. At this stage the child will still not be able to conserve. Stage three (concrete operational) is when the child is seven to eleven years old. At this age the child can communicate effectively and they can also understand conversations but they cannot solve problems mentally. Stage four (formal operational) this is from the age of eleven upwards.
At this stage the child will be able to use different ways in order to solve problems mentally. George Kelly is another cognitive theorist. George Kelly believed that humans make sense of the world as series between elements. This is the personal construct because it is about how we interpret mental constructs about elements. We construct when categorizing people and also the situations that we may face. Each of us will develop these and it can from intelligent-dull, friendly-unfriendly, and stable-unstable.
We use these in different cases and this helps us come to a conclusion on what we may face. Our construct system allows an individual to reflect on their efforts in order to make sense of our world. This can grow as well as change and it can make the world more predictable. Construct systems has an influence on our expectations because we may see some important and others not. The reason for this is because we can different our friends because we can see some as ‘cool’ and some ‘uncoil’. When this happens we create ‘Cool-uncoil.
In order for this theory to be educated is for someone to make show the differences between three elements. This can happen when similarities between two friends are shown to the third one. When this happens your main constructs for thinking comes up and you start thinking about your friends. (Source: Rehashed, E, 2010) (source: Neil Martin G et al. 2007) (MI): Assess different psychological approaches to study Behaviorism Perspective Behaviorism is one of the approaches that I will be assessing.
This approach involves the use of animals. This is one of the strength of this theory as it has the scientific background and knowledge because there has been other scientific study to prove the experiment. Watson used rats in order for his theory while little Albert was used to test phobias and fears, so in this case the theory was useful. On the other hand it could also be a weakness because humans and animals do not behave in the same way as humans are more intelligent and we are also educated about what is around us.
The nature in this perspective is missing because we do not inherit phobias or fears and instead we learn them, although the nurture debate in this theory was present because with Little Albert theory at the end he became aware of those phobias and he felt scared and it is the same for the rats as they came out of the box to get the food. The advantage of this behavioral model is that it the reason why a person may experience psychological problems. Http://www. Cosmologically. Org/ behaviorism. HTML This model can also be seen as a problem approach by changing a bad adaptive behavior to a good one.
In order for this work, the individual differences and views have got to be taken into consideration, so that they will be able to adapt to the new behavior. In this case everyone has got to be views differently because everyone’s conditions and problems are different. For example a person who is addicted to smoking would be a councilor to help through step by step. From this they would also be advised correctly. But on the other the psychodrama theory would argue this because this approach believes that it is within the person to smoke and also that the symptoms should not be focused on as it could lead to other causes of illnesses.
While the behavioral approach looks at ways in which could help get the person better. (Source: Rehashed, E, 2010) Cognitive Perspective This is the second approach that I am going to assess. This perspective states that our behavior comes from our thoughts. This approach is evidenced well and it has been proven that an individual’s thoughts can be changed by reinforcing positive thoughts into their minds and this is an effective treatment. This is scientifically proven as it allows it helps with problem solving.
There are also cognitive therapists for treatment. However, if the person is over interested in what they do in mental processing, it could lead to them being addicted and this could lead to them even experiencing some mental illnesses. This approach does not look at the whole person but instead it looks on how the brain processes information, therefore it could be a little unsafe, as ignores everywhere else of the individual’s body. This study can be biased as people get irrigation thoughts that can be causes to disorders.
Another disadvantage is that this perspective only states what is going on and what can be seen and because there is no proof it can be seen as unreliable. Http://psychobiology. Co. UK/2010/07/the-cognitive-approach-2/ (Source: Neil Martin G et al. 2007) (Neil Martin G et al. 2007) Social Learning Perspective The last approach that I will be assessing is the social learning theory. This approach suggests that we learn and copy behaviors around us.
In this case this perspective Bandeau carried out the experiment on how we imitate within the society. In this theory Nature was not present because we cannot inherit behaviorism and the nurture debate is present. This approach does not have a scientific background therefore this is the only weakness that this approach may have. On the other hand Solomon Sacs as well conducted his theory in which was reliable because it showed how our behavior could be influenced by group of people.