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Explain the principal psychological perspectives
Different perspectives of psychology
Different perspectives of psychology
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Psychological perspectives assignment
The word psychology comes from the Greek word ‘psyche’ meaning mind, body and spirit. The earliest known ideas in psychology also came from ancient Greece. Thales of Miletus (624-546BC) says the brain plays a vital role. This wasn’t always said, as for a long time the brain was thought to be a big snot gland. Pluto (427-347BC) was said to have debated and believed we are all born knowing everything we know, all our behaviours and knowledge we have when we are born. Unlike Aristotle(384-322BC) who believed we are all born with a ‘tabula rasa’ which is the Greek saying for blank slate, and all our knowledge and behaviours are learnt through are experiences and the environment around us. Aristotle also produced the first psychology text book in 350BC (De anima). This theory was still believed in the 1600’s, john Locke (1632-1704) also believed in the ‘tabula rasa’ theory. In the middle ages (400-1500AD) intellectual life was mostly dominated by Christian theologises who believed the explanation for everything in life and the mind was either an act of god or an act of the devil.
The first psychology laboratory was opened at the University of Leipeg, Germany by William Wundt in 1879. Wundt and his co-worker attempted to carry out investigations through introspection. Introspection is analysing one person’s conscious thoughts and feelings, this is also the way we all self-reflect on a situation. This was done in controlled conditions but had very little ecological validity. They put theories to the test that dated back thousands of years.
…Wundt believed that conscious mental states could be scientifically studied through the systematic manipulation of antecedent variables and analysed by carefu...
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...between the id, superego and the environment, we develop this around the age of 2-3 and thirdly is our SUPER EGO where the decision the EGO makes comes out and is in touch with reality, values and morals. We develop this around the age of 5. With our personalities being structured in this way, we are about to restrain certain thoughts. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) had the first psychodynamic theory. Even though all Freud’s work is based on only 6 case studies, his work has been very diverse, including association between dreams, sleep and the real world. Freud believed that we get pleasures from certain parts of our body in five fixed stages in our development. These are oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital stages.
Bibliography
Works Cited
GROSS, RICHARD (2009), Psychology, the science of mind and behaviour. 5th edition. London: Hodder Arnold.
Psychology comprises of two words originally used by the ‘Greeks’, ‘psyche’, defining the mind, soul or spirit and lastly ‘logos’ being study. Both words define together the ‘study of the mind’. Psychology perspectives evaluate the normal and abnormal behaviour and how persons’ deal with different concepts of issues and problems. Psychology theories’ are based on ‘common sense’, but its scientific structure, everything needs to be evaluated and tested, therefore, promoting different psychological theories’.
Gross, R (2010). Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour. 6th ed. London: Hodder Education. p188.
Chapter 4 discusses the several states of consciousness: the nature of consciousness, sleep and dreams, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, and meditation. Consciousness is a crucial part of human experience, it represents that private inner mind where we think, feel, plan, wish, pray, omagine, and quietly relive experiences. William James described the mind as a stream of consciousness, a continuous flow of changing sensations, images thoughts, and feelings. Consciousness has two major parts: awareness and arousal. Awareness includes the awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experiences. Arousal is the physiological state of being engaged with the environment. Theory of mind refers to individuals understanding that they and others think,
The development of psychology like all other sciences started with great minds debating unknown topics and searching for unknown answers. Early philosophers and psychologists such as Sir Francis Bacon and Charles Darwin took a scientific approach to psychology by introducing the ideas of measurement and biology into the way an indi...
Myers, G. D., (2010). Psychology (9th ed.) In T. Kuehn & P. Twickler (Eds.), The Biology of Mind. (p.65) New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Passer, M., Smith, R., Holt, N., Bremner, A., Sutherland, E., & Vliek, M. (2009). Psychology; Science of Mind and Behaviour. (European Edition). New York.
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
Davis, S. F., & Palladino, J. J. (2003). Psychology. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Wood, S. Wood, E. Boyd, D. (2014). Mastering the World of Psychology. A. Chow(Ed.). Jersey, NJ: Text.
The term psychology has many meanings to different people, even to those who work within the psychological field. The word psychology derives from two Greek roots; 'psyche' refers to 'soul' or 'mind' and logo refers to 'the study of'. A more update definition of the word psychology can be found from Atkinson, et al (1991) “The scientific study of behaviours and mental processes.” However on Google Definitions the definition of psychology is “the mental characteristics and attitudes of a person” [accessed 16 September 2011], which gives somewhat of a contradiction. In this assignment I will be outlining and evaluating four key psychological perspectives. The psychological perspectives I have chosen are the behavioural approach, biological approach, cognitive approach and the psychodynamic approach.
(2004) Psychology (2nd European edition). Essex: Pearson Education Limited Gross, R (1996).Psychology, The Science of mind and behaviour (3rd Ed). London: Hodder & Stoughton
Davis, Tom. The Theories of the Mind Lectures. Ed. G. Baston. Birmingham University. 9 Nov. 2000
The field of psychology has opened different hypothesis from a variety of theories with the aim of studying the behaviour of humans being as a result they concluded with five psychological perspectives. Behaviourist, Biological, Psychodynamic, Cognitive and Humanistic perspectives are the deduction after a depth study of mental activity associate to human behaviour. In this essay I will be comparing two psychological perspectives according to aggressive behaviour.
Psychology started, and had a long history, as a topic within the fields of philosophy and physiology. It then became an independent field of its own through the work of the German Wilhelm Wundt, the founder of experimental psychology and structuralism. Wundt stressed the use of scientific methods in psychology, particularly through the use of introspection. In 1875, a room was set-aside for Wundt for demonstrations in what we now call sensation and perception. This is the same year that William James set up a similar lab at Harvard. Wilhelm Wundt and William James are usually thought of as the fathers of psychology, as well as the founders of psychology?s first two great ?schools? Structuralism and Functionalism. Psychologist Edward B Titchner said; ?to study the brain and the unconscious we should break it into its structural elements, after that we can construct it into a whole and understand what it does.? (psicafe.com)
Psychology is the study of the mind, its biology, and behavior if the individual. The father of psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, used objective measurement and controlled analyzing to find and emphasize separation between psychology and philosophy (McLeod). Wundt opened the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1879, using his background in physiology to study reactions and sensations (McLeod). There is no doubt that he, along with the later help of Sigmund Freud, launched what is now modern psychology. Psychology and its research helped the world understand the inner workings of the mind and how it affects everyone around us.