Approaches to Psychology Essay

The psychoanalytic approach was started and developed mainly in atomic number 63 between 1900 and 1939 by Sigmund Freud, a Viennese doctor who specialized in neurology. As a doctor, he became interested in the field of violence the manifestation of physical symptoms with come forth physical causes and became convinced that unconscious rational causes were responsible, and could be responsible for in all mental disorders and even our personality.He created the theory of personality, and ground his ideas upon intensive quality studies of a considerable range of patients, especially his infamous weigh on Little Hans, a young boy who Freud carried out psychoanalysis upon. Bowlby (1946) applied Freuds theories when he used psychoanalysis on a large group of youngsterren with various ages on a study of habitual delinquency. The central emphasis is on dynamic, biological processes especially those victorious place in the unconscious mind, and involves the idea of psychic determini sm, i.e. Freudian slips. Freud verbalize that we all cast off instinctual drives wishes, desires, needs, or demands, which are isolated and suppressed from the consciousness because society disapproves of their open expression. Freud proposes three main components of the mind the id, the ego and the superego. The id operates on the pleasure principle and its goal is immediate gratification and reduction of tension caused by irrational impulses. The ego operates on the reality principle, and controls the id in its response with the world.The superego operates on the idealisation principle, with norms and values of society being internalised. According to this approach, we all undergo psychosexual stages spontaneous, anal, phallic, latency and genital which gradually motivate the mortal to focus on the libido, and can be linked with the Oedipus complex. The libido is described as psychic energy behind primary drives of hunger, aggression, sex and irrational impulses. repai r at some(prenominal) of these stages can lead to demeanor in our due date reflecting earlier stages of our childhood, which are caused by unresolved conflicts.For example, fixation at the oral stage can cause adult behaviour that is centred on the emit (eating, smoking, etc. ) The purpose of psychoanalysis was as a therapy to treat mental disorder by means of treating the unconscious mind. The methods that Freud used for investigating the stupefaction were by means of case studies, and deep analysis and interpretation. Free connector involves the uninhibited expression of thought association, no matter how bizarre or embarrassing, from the client to the analyst.Dream analysis involves the analyst attempting to decode the symbols and unravel the hidden meaning (the latent content) of a dream from the dreamers taradiddle (the manifest content). Freud used his theory to explain a number of topics. He explained that the development of personality came from fixations or defence m echanisms, and that aggression was caused by hydraulic drives and displacement. Abnormality was seen as the consequence of ahead of time traumas and repression, which subsequently could impair our chaste and gender development, the latter being the result of the Oedipus complex.The psychoanalytic approach has been greatly influential within psychological science, in areas such as psychotherapy and developmental theories, and also beyond in art, literature and other sciences, some light speed years since Freud first developed his ideas. His theory has had some experimental realize in certain areas, such as repression and fixation. Freud introduced the world to the concept of the unconscious, and regarded his case studies like Little Hans and Anna O as firm empirical take over for his theory.He thought his belief in determinism and detailed collection of information were scientific, yet many psychologists today argue that his theories and ideas are too biological, that is that t hey avow too much on the influence of rudimentary instincts and physical drives. to the highest degree of Freuds ideas and concepts came from only a handful of results on the study of children. Freud could have allowed his own prejudices to shape his analysis, leading to no objective measures. His close interventions and feedback to the childs family could have changed the childs behaviour and that of its family.Psychoanalysis lacks unrelenting empirical support, especially regarding normal development, and leads to reductionism, i. e. it reduces human activity to a basic set of structures, which cant account for behaviour. Freuds ideas have been criminate of being irrefutable, and are therefore theoretically unscientific. Another approach to psychological science is the behaviourist approach, which concentrates on the theory of learning and behavioural therapy, and tries to explain behaviour in terms of its relation to environmental events (stimuli), rather than any intrinsic factors.The view that behaviour should be the sole subject matter of psychology was first advanced by the American psychologist John B. Watson in the early 1900s. His position came to be called behaviourism. He believed that psychologists could not afford to speculate upon the unperceivable inner workings of the mind, since they are too private to be canvas scientifically. For the behaviourist, much of their research focuses on objectively observable behaviour, rather than any internal process. The approach proposes that behaviour is radical, and that it is caused and maintained in this way.