Biological Approach To Psychology Essay

To understand a behavior is hard .. because of the complexity and the richness that has any behavior apart ...but and because every human has live different experiences that make him unique .That's the main reason that we have different approaches on Psychology. One perspective is the biological that is based in materialism ,that means material possessions make us happy and an indicator of personal success. There two primary concerns of the biological approach,the one is about the nervous system and the working on this because there is complex of neurons that enables the senses, controls the body function, and is associated with mental events. The second is the role the heredity takes place in behavior .. The transmission of characteristics

The main aim of this assignment is to find out the strength and weakness, similarities and differences between the different approaches of psychology such as biological approach, behavioural approach and psychodynamic approach. I have chosen mental illness to evaluate these approach.

There is only one approach in psychology that studies thoughts, feelings and behaviour. The biological approach believes that the way we are is due to our genetics and physiology. They believe that the activity going on our nervous system’s is what affects the way we think, feel and behave (Sammons, 2009). The physiology in the biological approach looks into how the brain functions. The brain is a very complicated machine as such, the brain is what controls our every move, every feeling and every action. There are 3 different methods used to study the brain; neuro surgery, electroencephalograms and brains scans. Neuro surgery is used as a last resort as brain surgery is so dangerous, the nervous system can also be studied by surgery on the brain. Electroencephalograms is where electrodes are attached to the scalp and the brain waves are monitored. Brain scans can involve the CAT scan, PET scan. Both scans enable constant pictures to be provided during mental activity (McLeod,

Rachel Danzig AP Psychology Dr. Eisen August 20, 2015 I. Psychology’s History A. Psychology’s Roots 1. Prescientific Psychology a. Socrates and his student Plato stated that the human mind is separate from the body and our knowledge is born within us b. Aristotle, Plato’s student, disagreed, concluding that knowledge can not be preexisting and we grow it from our experiences within our memories c. In the 1600s Rene Descartes believed that the mind can survive the body’s death and our brain holds animal spirits in its fluid and flow from the brain through nerves enabling reflexes d. In 1620 Francis Bacon established that humans functioned around order and patterns e. Adding to Bacon’s ideas was John Be a smart test-taker i. Take time to read prompts, questions, and organize your points III. Careers in Psychology A. What Psychologists in Various Professions Do and Where They Work 1. Basic Research Subfields a. Cognitive Psychologists look at biology and the correlations with memory, perception, memory, and judgment, and they can work as professors, or specialists in schools or businesses b. Developmental Psychologists study research changes due to age in regards to behavior, they can work in educational and school psychology or gerontology c. Educational Psychologists are involved in psychology pertaining to learning i. Provide ways to improve learning environments or methods ii. Could be employed by the government or employee training programs d. Experimental Psychologists work in research institutions, businesses or government facilities and study behavior in animals and humans to gain, in their subfield, scientific information for future useable data e. Psychometric and Quantitive Psychologists study data and methods to gain psychological knowledge i.

Biological psychology deals with studying the mechanisms of the brain and nervous system from the standpoint of how they evolved and effect our behaviors. Naturalist believe that over time as we evolved we adapted to our current environment. An example of a Naturalist’s way of thinking would include the idea that a certain aspect of a species evolved over millions of years because it adapted itself for the survival of the species. A Naturalist’s view leaves no room for the possibility that God devised the whole universe and made everything as He saw fit.

Skinner’s focus on positive and negative reinforcement of learned behaviors had a lasting influence in psychology that has waned somewhat since the growth of research in cognitive psychology. That emphasis has continued, particularly because of the importance of testing in determining opportunities for children, but other areas of exploration in African-American psychology research include learning style, sense of community and belonging, and spiritualism. Social psychologists conduct research on a wide variety of topics that include differences in how we explain our own behavior versus how we explain the behaviors of others, prejudice, and attraction, and how we resolve interpersonal conflicts. Wundt viewed psychology as a scientific study of conscious experience, and he believed that the goal of psychology was to identify components of consciousness and how those components combined to result in our conscious experience. Westen also argues that critics fail to consider the success of the broad ideas that Freud introduced or developed, such as the importance of childhood experiences in adult motivations, the role of unconscious versus conscious motivations in driving our behavior, the fact that motivations can cause conflicts that affect

Psychologist view behaviorism as a more scientific point of view based on laws of learning that explains the way humans behave. Cognitivism has helped psychologist today with understating inside the brain and how it functions. A field based on Cognitivism called cognitive neuroscience has helped psychologist come up with a better view between the relationship of the brain and of thinking. On the other hand the humanistic view has little impact on science, this is because psychologist consider it a therapy. The humanistic approach has almost become universal in that psychologist establish a relationship with empathy and

To better understand each of those perspectives, the quote will be applied to each perspective starting with biopsychological. Biopsychology is the perspective of psychology that focuses on our brain and nervous system. This perspective also explains how biology affects our behavior and says that the cause of a behavior is our brain. Applying the quote to the biopsychological perspective would explain that the chicken would cross the road because its brain sent electrical impulses down to its feet. This caused the muscles in the chicken’s legs to propel it forward and thus cross to the other side of the road.

Compare the Behaviourist and Psychodynamic Approaches to Psychology Before comparing the behaviourist and the psychodynamic approaches to psychology it is important to familiarise oneself with the background details of each approach. First the identification of each of their methods of investigation is essential. John B Watson (1878-1958) is thought to be the founder of behaviourism. Behaviourism is concerned with the aspects of the human behaviour that can be observed and measured. Watson believed that people are born with a certain amount of reflexes and the person’s behaviours are the result of their environment.

When it comes to the science of psychology psychologist are looking deeper into what affects ones behavior and mental health. Looking at the environment, health issues, cognitive, learning, and etc… How does everything affect the overall mental health of a person? 2. Distinguish between a theory, a hypothesis, and an operational definition.

However, due to the limitation of skills, most of the researches done are not well designed. A main limitation of psychology as a field of study is that it never captures the nature of consciousness (Willig, 2013), as human mind is bound up with meanings and interpretations which differ from one individual to another

It is undeniable that the foundation of Wilhelm Wundt’s Institute of Experimental Psychology and the introduction of Darwin’s new theory of evolution as descried in Origin of Species has had a huge impact on the development of the modern discipline of Psychology and on society today. In this essay I will examine Wilhelm Wundt’s Institute of Experimental Psychology and Darwin’s theory of evolution from Origin of Species. I will look at what they included and the effect they had on Psychology and society at the time they were published and their influence years after. Firstly I will assess the impact of the new theory of evolution as described in Darwin’s Origin of Species.

And the other reason was that they realized that psychological processes must have a physiological basis. In the past, researches were carried regarding the

His theories contribute several areas of psychology such as cognitive psychology, social psychology and developmental psychology. However his major influence the development of psychology and comparative psychology is originate from this theory of mental continuity of animals and human beings. Darwin’s theory of evolution speeded up animal studies in psychology. Before Darwin published his theories, there is no reason for scientist to study animals. Opposite to Darwin’s founding, there is clear distinction between animal and human being.

The Behavioral approach is explaining behavior through observation and believes that peoples surroundings and up bringing cause how they behave good or bad, they believe what people do is determined by the environment. Behaviorist regard all behavior as a response to a stimulus. People learn to act to stimulus in certain ways. Behaviorist also believe humans are born only with a few stimulus responses that are not learnt.