Evaluation of the Major Perspectives in Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and the mind. It is a broad discipline that includes cognitive, social, and clinical psychology, as well as health, sports, and human development processes. Psychology was first defined as a science distinct from philosophy and biology (Helmes and Pachana 2011). Nonetheless, several debates have erupted over how to represent human behavior and thought. The first schools of psychology to emerge were functionalism and structuralism. Despite the fact that structuralism and functionalism did not hold for a long period of time, they made vital impacts to the advancement of the modern psychology. Structuralism, as the first school of psychology, concentrated mainly on breaking down the mental processes of human beings into essential primary elements (Boucher 2014).

Structuralism is vital due to the fact that it was the first main school of thought in the field of psychology. It played a major role in the advancement of experimental psychology. Various researchers employed the use of introspection techniques to understand the primary components of consciousness. Alternatively, functionalism is also one of the schools of thought of psychology that was developed as a response to the structuralism psychology (Johnson 2016). William James’s work and Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory greatly influenced the formation of functionalism. According to the functionalists, they tried to use precise and systematic techniques to explain the mental processes of human beings. Instead of concentrating on the primary components of consciousness, they concentrated mainly on the principle of behaviours and consciousness (Courtney 2011). Besides the early schools of thought of psychology, there are also other different perspectives in psychology (Kaplan 2014). This paper evaluates the major perspectives in psychology such as behaviourism, psychodynamic, humanism, biological, and cognitive perspectives.

Psychodynamic Perspective

Psychodynamic perspective is a psychological perspective that was sponsored by Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that sex drives the majority of the human pulses. The psychodynamic perspective studies various psychological forces that underlie emotions, feelings, human behaviours as well as their relationship to the human early childhood experience. It is a theory that is mainly interested in different dynamic relations between the unconscious and conscious motivation. Psychoanalysis of Freud is a therapy and theory. The work of Freud helped to inspire psychologists such as Erikson and Jung to invent their own psychodynamic theories (Lakshman 2012).

According to Freud, he argued that the mind of human beings resembles an iceberg due to the fact that only a small part of the human mind is visible. Slip of the human tongue, dream analysis, and free association are the three major techniques that were used by Freud to access the unconscious mind. Psychoanalysis tries to assist the patients who have inner conflicts to resolve them. Theory of psychosexual development by Freud is a component of psychoanalysis. The theory illustrates how the early experiences of an individual affect their adulthood personality. For instance, stimulation of the various body parts is essential as the child goes through the various essential stages of development. Nevertheless, excessive stimulation of the body parts might be very dangerous later on in their lives (Porucznik 2012).

The essential stage of human development is the phallic phase. This is a stage in which genitals are used to create libido on the child. During the phallic stage, little girls and boys experience Electra complex and Oedipus complex respectively. Electra complex and Oedipus complex occur in children who identify themselves with the same gender of the parents. As a result, it allows them to learn about the moral codes of conducts and behaviour about sex (Ruby 2011).

Despite the fact that psychodynamic was a very important psychological perspective, it over stressed about the value of sexuality. Besides, it under stressed the purpose of social relationships in human beings. It is therefore not a scientific theory as it cannot be actually proved. However, the psychoanalysis has actually been very important due to the fact that it has motivated the majority of the modern theorists to try and invent new measures on how to improve psychodynamic theory by eradicating its main drawbacks (Karagiannopoulou 2011).

Behaviourism Perspective

Behaviourism perspective is a psychological perspective that was invented at the start of the twentieth century. It was developed as a response to the psychoanalytic theory during that period. The psychoanalytic theory normally had problems to make predictions that might be evaluated through the use of precise experimental techniques. The behaviourism perspective claims that human behaviours might be illustrated scientifically remedy. Instead of concentrating on the underlying conflicts, the behaviourism perspective concentrates on various observable and overt behaviours that people learn from the environment (Bouton 2009).

According to behaviourists such as B.F Skinner, they do not believe in the concept of free will. As a matter of fact, they believe that individuals learn through systems of punishment and strengthening. It is a theory that suggests two main processes in which individuals learn from. These processes include operant conditioning and classical conditioning. The operant conditioning constitutes learning from the impacts of their behaviours while classical conditioning constitutes learning through association. The behaviourism perspective can actually be effective when an individual does not bother what other people think provided he or she gets the required behaviour. The impact of behaviourist theory affects the day to day lives of human beings. As a result, it affects everything that human beings do on their day to day lives (Sharma 2012).

Whereas behaviourism perspective is vital since it helps to learn from the effects of human behaviours, it does not disregard the complication of the behaviours of human beings. Majority of the researches that are used in animal studies are very difficult to generalize to the human beings. It has to engage other biological factors (Wigginton 2017).

Cognitive Perspective

Contrary to behaviourists, the cognitive psychologists have the belief that the behaviour of an individual is mainly determined by his or her emotions and anticipations. According to the argument of Jean Piaget, a cognitive psychologist, he said that individuals only remember things depending on what they are already aware of. In addition, problems can only be resolved by an individual based on the memory of their previous experiences. Therefore, the cognitive perspective mainly deals with the mental functions, for instance, attention, perception, and memory (Pachur and Bröder 2013).

Therefore, with the cognitive perspective, individuals have turned away as machines without the free will. In addition, they are delved back into the feelings and thoughts of human beings. Internal processes on an individual influence their reaction. As a result, there is a lot of stress on people. For instance, based on the cognitive perspective, the anticipation of an individual for an upcoming event will definitely impact their actions and feelings while at the event. This will affect the memory hence make people to a flashback of the previous events attended. Cognitive perspective is a scientific perspective that generally uses laboratory experiments in order to study the behaviours of human beings. It is a psychological perspective that can be applied in different areas such as eyewitness testimony and cognitive therapy (Weisz et al 2011).

Humanism Perspective

Humanism perspective is a psychological approach that stresses on the research of the entire human being. The main role of humanistic psychologists is to examine the behaviours of human beings and not just the observer’s eyes. According to the humanistic psychologists, they believe that human behaviours are linked to their self-images and inner feelings. It is a psychological approach that is mainly based on the argument that every individual is very unique on their own and they are free to change their mind anytime. The humanistic approach proposes that human beings have the responsibility to influence their general well-being and happiness. Every human being has the ability to accomplish self-actualization. Self-actualization is the unique desire of individuals to accomplish the greatest ability as human beings. Scientific techniques are considered by humanists as unsuitable for the study of human behaviours due to the fact that it concentrates on individuals and their perceptions and experiences of the globe (Raina 2015).

For instance, one the recognized humanistic psychologists, Carl Rogers referred to his patients as clients and provided a caring environment where they could attain insight into their individual feelings. Contrary to the focus of behaviourism perspective, the humanistic perspective operates on the empowerment of human beings. An individual is motivated in life to realize their potential regardless of whether they were right or wrong. All the choices made by individuals in life emanates from an individual attempting to improve their lives. Therefore, in case an individual is attempting to reduce the amount of alcohol consumption at night, then the humanistic psychologist would be supporting and encouraging such individual however they would not request them to stop drinking alcohol (Stein 2011).

Biological Perspective

Biological perspective is a psychological perspective that believes that majority of the human behaviours has adaptive functions and is inherited. They examine the effects of the genetic makeup, hormones, and nervous system on the human behaviours. For instance, few weeks after a child’s birth, there is a significant reduction in the level of testosterone in the father by over 30%. The reduction in the level of testosterone has adaptive functions. The testosterone during this period is not very aggressive hence it is vital when the baby is born (Nelson 2011). According to the biological psychologists, they explain human behaviours in various neurological terms such as brain structure and physiology. Majority of the biological psychologists have focused on the abnormal human behaviours. They have also attempted to explain about the abnormal human behaviours. For instance, they have the belief that level of dopamine impacts schizophrenia (Biro 2011).

Biological theorists such as Charles Darwin demonstrated the concept that evolution and genetics play a vital role to influence the behaviour of human beings through the process of natural selection. Various biological theorists considered the impact of genes on human behaviours. The findings of the biological psychologists have assisted psychiatry to impersonate and assist in relieving the various symptoms associated with mental sickness. This process is normally undertaken through the injection of drugs. Nevertheless, other theorists such as Freud would claim that it is a process of treating the symptoms of the sickness and not dealing with its cause. It is the circumstance in which health psychologists normally use the research findings of biological psychologists and assess various environmental factors engaged in order to understand the emerging issues (Leckman 2007).

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