Is Psychology more than just theories, experiments and case studies?

Is Psychology more than just theories, experiments and case studies?

Before going through the whole topic, it is better to explain what Psychology is. Psychology is the study of the mental processes and behaviour. The term psychology comes from the Greek word psyche meaning "breath, spirit, soul" and the logia meaning "study of."  Psychology comprises biology and philosophy and is closely linked to other disciplines including sociology, medicine, linguistics and anthropology. Psychology is scientific study of how the human mind works and how it influences their behaviour.

This assignment will explain if psychology is more than just theories, experiments and case studies. The explanation will use examples of relevant studies appropriately and will explain the difference between the behaviourist and humanist approach towards psychology. 

Behaviourism was good example in psychology and was founded by JB Watson in 1920. All behaviours are learnt from the environment. Therefore it is the result of stimulus. Depending upon the type of response, there are different types of psychological theories. They are

1. Classical conditioning

2. Operant conditioning and

3. Social learning

Classical conditioning can be defined as a form of associative learning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist. Because of his breakthrough research techniques, now it is known as “Pavlov Classical Conditioning”. Classical condition is primarily known as learning through association. It is just response to stimulus. It involves learning a new behaviour via the process of association. There are three stages to classical conditioning.

Before conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) produces an unconditioned response (UCR). For instance: a person entered the kitchen, the smell (UCS) of food produce a response of hungry (UCR). UCR could be in several ways. It could be salivating, insulin release, gastric changes etc associated with the body getting ready to eat. These responses can also cause hunger. So the UCS could also be hunger which cause salivation (UCR). In this case, food itself could be involved as a neutral stimulus. 

During the conditioning stage, a person grabs the food and eats it. Eating food naturally produce salivation. This means Natural stimulus produce natural response.

After conditioning stage, food (UCS) became conditioned stimulus (CS) and eating taking place. It creates conditioned response (CR) which is response of enjoyment.

The Behaviourism Therapies used in Classical conditioning, in order to treat phobias are (a) Systematic Desensitisation (b) Implosive Therapy and (c) Aversion Therapy.

Systematic Desensitisation Therapy is used to remove fear response of a phobia, by exposing gradually to the previously Neutral Response.

Implosive Therapy also known as Flooding is used for the person who fear something or situation the most.

Example:  For the woman who fear spider the most, in order to cure her fear response of spider, she was put amongst spiders. For the person who fears dark the most locked him in a small room for a couple of hours.

Aversion therapy is sued to eliminate unwanted behaviour by associating with the stimulus with unpleasant feeling or taste. For example, a mother wants to stop breast feeding her son who is very addicted to his mum’s milk. She applied bitter taste cream on her teat. When her son tried to suck his mum teat, he gets bitter taste. It is unwanted taste for him. So he gradually stops doing that.

Operant Conditioning

It is a method of learning through reward or punishment for behaviour. It is discovered by Edward Thorndike. The components of operant conditioning are:

(1)    Positive reinforcement which could give a pleasurable outcome.

(2)     Negative reinforcement which could remove something unpleasant.

(3)     Positive punishment and negative punishment.

Reinforcement could cause the outcome good. On the other hand, punishment could cause the outcome bad.

For example: I have four years old son. He loves playing TV games. He hates reading books. So I told him “if you read book regularly, I will buy MacDonald regularly for you”. This is the reinforcement. MacDonald is reward for his behaviour. It actually works well.

On the other hand, the whole house is messy with his toys. I told him “if you don’t keep your toys properly, I won’t allow you to watch TV.” This is punishment for his behaviour. However I noticed that punishment doesn’t work as like as reinforcement.

There is another operant conditioning example: I teach my cat to jump through a hoop to receive a food putting on the other side of hoop. The food is a positive reinforcement. Through positive reinforcement, my cat was able to jump through the hoop.

Token economy is one of the methods used to increase desirable behaviour and decrease undesirable behaviour by using tokens. This method could be used for both children and adult. For example: A boy would receive a token after behaving well. The tokens are collected and later he could exchange for what he wants with the tokens he obtained.

Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory states that people learn from the environment and seek acceptance from society by learning through influential models. The social behaviour is learned primarily by observing and imitating the actions of others. According to social learning theory, models are an important source for learning new behaviours.  Albert Bandura proposed that observational learning can occur in relation to three models: (1) Live model in which an actual person is demonstrating the desired behaviour (2) Verbal instruction in which an individual describes the desired behaviour in detail, and instructs the participant in how to engage in the behaviours and (3) Symbolic in which modelling occurs by means of media, including movies television, internet, literature and radio. This type of modelling involves a real or fictional character demonstrating the behaviours. An important factor of Bandura’s social learning theory is a person’s behaviour; environment and personal qualities all reciprocally influence each other.

In 1961, Dr Albert Bandura conducted the Bobo Doll experiment. Bandra made a film of a female student beating up a Bobo doll. She punched and kicked the doll, hit it with tiny hammers, and sat on it, while shouting aggressively. Bandura showed this file to a group of kindergarteners. Then they were sent into a playroom. The room had brand new Bobo doll and assorted toys and a few little hammers. 

Predictably, the kids beat the Bobo doll. They punched, kicked and sat on the doll. They hit the doll with little hammers and screamed aggressively at it. In other words, they imitated what they saw on the film. His findings formed the foundation of modern social learning theory.

Humanistic Psychology

The aims of humanistic psychology are to explore the experience of the individual and to facilitate person growth. The approach is optimistic and focuses on noble human capacity to overcome hardship, pain and despair. The Humanist approach was founded in 1962 by Carl Rogers. Humanistic psychology is concerned with people’s conscious experience and their ability to direct their lives. There are three basic principles. The basic principles believe the experience of the person is paramount. Instead of analysing in an objective way, the humanist psychologist is interested in the person’s experience. This is known as the phenomenological approach.

Holistic approach looks at the person as a whole, instead of studying specific psychological process in isolation. The final principle is that we all have personnel agency. We have the potential to choose. Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist developed the hierarchy of needs.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a pyramid consisting of five levels. The four lower levels are grouped together as being associated with Physiological needs whereas the top level is termed growth needs associated with psychological need.

Humanistic psychologists rejected a rigorous scientific approach to psychology because they saw it as dehumanizing and unable to capture the richness of conscious experience.

In summary, Behaviourism psychology is based upon the notion that all human behaviours is shaped through a process called conditioning. In the meantime Humanistic psychology emphasises the individual as human, rather than as a test subject. It is often known as positive psychology because it emphasis on what makes the individual “normal” rather than emphasising abnormalities. This therapy is used for helping the person overcome their defective characteristics. After studying theories, experiments and case studies, psychology is more than that.

In conclusion, Behavioural treats humans like animals. In most cases, such as classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and when helping others, their methods involve desensitization. Humanistic is more about human potential. One side suggests that humans automatically behave a certain way due to instincts and genetics. The other, which I think makes way more sense, is that humans react and behave according to their conditions and environments.

This is the easiest way to think about it. There is no such thing as a "Hitler" baby and a "Gandhi" baby. There are simply two babies who were raised in entirely different circumstances and by entirely different people, and thus became entirely different people. Adolf Hitler was not born evil, his conditions caused him to adapt to his environment and change in a way that resulted in him becoming a sociopath. Gandhi was raised and lived in conditions that caused him to believe in peace and harmony. This, to me, is proof enough that human behaviour is more of a determining factor than genetics.

 

References and Bibliography

• AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OF THE CEREBRAL CORTEX, By Ivan P. Pavlov (1927), Translated by G. V. Anrep (1927) 
• Gross,R. (2005) Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour. 5^th ed. London, Hodder Arnold Publication
• Tutor Roami Aggarwal’s Introduction to Psychology handouts and power point slides, Access to Radiography course,Kensington and Chalsea College, From 11^th Sept’ 2012 to 6^th Dec’ 2012.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_learning_theory
• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_strengths_and_weaknesses_of_Social_Learning_Theory
• http://classroom-assessment-theory-into-practice.wikispaces.com/Interpersonal+-+Social+Learning
• Michael W,Eysenck. (2008) AS Level Psychology. 4^th ed. Psychology press Ltd, 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex,BN3 2FA
• Nigel C.Benson. (1999) Introduction Psychology. Icon Books Ltd, UK.
• Cherry,K. Social Learning Theory: An Overview Of Bandura’s Social Learning Theory [Internet]. Available from <http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/sociallearning.htm>
• Classroom-Assessment-Theory-into-Practice : Interpersonal-Social Learning. [Internet]. Available from< http://classroom-assessment-theory-into-practice.wikispaces.com/Interpersonal+-+Social+Learning>