Posted by Evgeniy on 04/10/2013. Published by Psychology 101 Last updated: 04/05/2015
It is quite easy to get lost in modern psychological approaches: what is the difference between cognitivism and behaviorism? Why is it important to distinguish between evolutionary and biological approaches? and finally, how does each psychology explain the phenomenon of human behavior?
Instead of a preface
- There are many points of view on the phenomenon of human behavior. Psychologists use all sorts of approaches when studying how people think, feel, and behave.
- Some researchers specialize in one approach, such as biology, while others turn to more eclectic methods that combine different perspectives.
- Neither approach is leading; each only emphasizes different aspects of human behavior.
Theoretical prerequisites for creating a humanistic approach
In psychology, the humanistic direction of psychological assistance is often called the “third force”, for which the key is understanding the uniqueness of man. The metaphor of the humanistic approach is the metaphor of a grain that, given the necessary conditions, will germinate.
The highest value, humanistic psychologists believe, is the life of a specific person, his ability to realize himself to the maximum, therefore, for a psychologist, particular, and not just general cases, are important.
Humanistic psychology has its own approach to the problem of man and considers him as a holistic entity, which is its fundamental position.
The basic belief of humanistic psychologists is that every person contains the potential for recovery, which he can realize fully, and the work of a humanistic psychologist is aimed at creating favorable conditions.
A well-known approach of the humanistic direction of psychological assistance has become the client-centered therapy of C. Rogers, the key concept of which is the tendency to actualization. The author believes that developing and preserving oneself, identifying one’s best qualities inherent in nature is the most important motive in human life.
Self-development may be accompanied by breakdowns, falls, and suffering, but the incentive is irresistible and the person continues his attempts further.
The experience of a person’s life is automatically assessed - whether it contributed to the development of the individual or hindered it. This process, which occurs on an unconscious level, is what Rogers called the organismic evaluative process.
People who trust their feelings are more easily aware of the correct direction.
The second core concept of the client-centered approach is the “field of experience” and the “self.” The field of experience is the potential accessibility to consciousness, and the self is the central concept of Rogers's concept. It includes a wholeness consisting of bodily, symbolic, and spiritual experience.
An important concept in Rogers's approach to psychological counseling is the self-concept, or what he considers to be the conscious idea of oneself. The gap between the real self and the ideal self is a symptom of internal distress and suffering.
Rogers' client-centered therapy assumes that a person will always act in accordance with his self-concept, which is a kind of glasses through which a person sees the world and himself.
Note 2
The goal of client-centered therapy is to help align a person's self-concept with experience to realize his or her natural potential.
The quality of the relationship between the psychologist and the client is the success of psychological assistance. An effective psychologist shows empathy towards the client and communicates with him sincerely.
Seven Basic Approaches in Psychology
The early years of psychology were marked by a continuity of different philosophical schools. If you've ever had a psychology course in school, you may remember studying these schools: structuralism, functionalism, psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanism. As psychology matured, so did the number of topics that science explored. Since the early 1960s, the field of psychology has grown at a rapid pace, as has the depth and breadth of the subjects psychologists study.
Today, few psychologists identify their observations with one school or another. Although you can still find a few "purebred" behaviorists or psychoanalysts, most psychologists classify their work based on their area of professional activity and approach.
Each topic in psychology can be viewed through the prism of different approaches. For example, let's look at the phenomenon of aggression. One who takes a biological approach would consider the connection of the brain and nervous system with aggressive behavior. A professional who focuses on behaviorism would look at environmental factors that contribute to aggressive behavior. Another psychologist who takes a cross-cultural approach considers how cultural and social factors accompany aggression or cruelty.
Let's consider several main approaches of modern psychology.
Psychodynamic approach
The psychodynamic approach originates from the work of Sigmund Freud. This type of psychology emphasizes the role of unconscious thinking, early childhood experiences, and interpersonal relationships to explain motivations and help people suffering from mental illness.
Behaviorism
Behaviorism is an approach that focuses on learned forms of behavior. Behaviorism differs from many other approaches in that, rather than focusing on internal states, it focuses exclusively on the external manifestations of behavior.
This school dominated psychology at the beginning of the twentieth century, and already in the 50s it lost its advantage. The principles of behaviorism are often applied to the regulation of mental health: doctors use these techniques in diagnosing and treating a variety of diseases.
Cognitive approach
During the 1960s, the cognitive approach began to gain momentum. This branch of psychology focuses on mental processes such as memory, thinking, problem solving, language, and decision making. Under the influence of psychologists Jean Piaget and Albert Bandura, the approach has developed enormously in recent decades.
Cognitive scientists often use the information processing model, comparing the human mind to a computer to understand how information is acquired, processed, stored, and used.
Biological approach
The study of physiology played a major role in the development of psychology as a separate science. Today the approach is known as biological psychology. Sometimes called biopsychology or physiological psychology, the school emphasizes the physical and biological reasons for behavior.
Researchers who take a biological approach look at how genetics influences different behaviors, or how damage to a specific area of the brain shapes behavior and personality. Thus, genetics, the brain, the nervous, endocrine and immune systems are the objects that interest biopsychologists.
This approach has advanced significantly in recent years due to advances in the study and understanding of the human brain and nervous system. Instruments such as MRI and PET scans allow researchers to observe the human brain under a variety of conditions. Scientists can now see the effects of brain damage, drugs and disease in ways that were not previously possible.
Cross-cultural approach
Cross-cultural psychology is a fairly new approach that has developed over the last twenty years. Scientists look at human behavior through the lens of different cultures. By studying these differences, we can learn more about the influence of our home culture on our thinking and behavior.
For example, researchers have noted how social behavior differs between individualistic and collectivist cultures. In individualistic cultures - such as the United States - people tend to expend less effort when they are in a group; this phenomenon is known as “social loafing.” In contrast, in collectivist cultures such as China, people work more actively when they are part of a team.
Evolutionary approach
Evolutionary psychology focuses on the study of how evolution explains psychological processes. Researchers take the basic principles of evolution, including natural selection, and apply them to psychological phenomena. This approach proposes the following theory: mental processes arose because they aid in survival and reproduction.
Humanistic approach
During the 1950s, humanistic psychology emerged. Nurtured by the work of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, the approach emphasizes the importance of motivation to a person's thoughts and behavior. The basis of psychology is the concept of self-actualization. Those who take this approach explore ways that a person can grow, change, and develop personal potential. By the way, positivist psychology, a recently emerging branch of psychology, is rooted precisely in the humanistic approach.
Introduction
The intersubjective approach is the latest direction in modern psychoanalysis, substantiating a qualitatively new look at the problem of understanding mental and psychopathological phenomena. Despite the high heuristic, psychotherapeutic and scientific-philosophical potential of the intersubjective approach, there is still practically no research reaction from either the academic science and philosophical criticism, and from the psychotherapeutic community.
In this regard, it would be useful to carry out a historical and theoretical excursion and trace what prerequisites led to the emergence of the intersubjective approach in psychoanalysis, outline its main theoretical principles and show what new representatives of this direction brought to psychoanalysis.
Critics of traditional psychoanalysis, represented by the works of S. Freud and his followers, pointed to two of its fundamental errors: firstly, when explaining mental and psychopathological phenomena, traditional psychoanalysis identified understanding and explanation, and, secondly, its explanatory concepts (interpreted in the spirit biologism and mechanism, characteristic of the psychology of the 19th century), as a rule, replaced the phenomena under study. In essence, it was pointed out that the psychoanalytic conceptual apparatus does not correspond to the mental and psychopathological phenomena being studied.
Understanding the “bottlenecks” of previous decisions, the authors of the intersubjective approach subject the traditional psychoanalytic conceptual apparatus to critical reflection.
Intersubjectivists develop the idea of H. Kohut that empirical psychoanalytic research is limited to the methods of empathy and introspection, from which they conclude that it is necessary to abandon all metapsychological abstractions that not only are not consistent with the use of empathy and introspection, but also interfere with their implementation. In their theory, intersubjectivists focus on ensuring the consistent application of the empathic-introspective method and propose ways to increase the efficiency and self-reflexivity of psychoanalytic research, which allows us to escape the pitfalls of psychoanalytic metalanguage and overcome the shortcomings noted by critics of previous psychoanalytic solutions.
Post scriptum
There are many perspectives on human thinking and behavior. The variety of approaches of modern psychology allows researchers and students to find their own way of understanding various problems, find new ways to explain and predict human behavior, and also develop modern methods of treating deviations.
Tags: behaviorism, Humanistic approach, cognitivism, cross-cultural approach, approaches in modern psychology, evolutionary approach
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Development of the psychoanalytic approach
In modern psychotherapy for emotional disorders, there are different types of personality theories, diagnostic methods and psychotechniques in the psychodynamic approach. Some movements are less focused on the id, the unconscious, and the past than classical Freudianism.
They pay much more attention to a person’s current problems and how the power of his Ego can be used to solve them successfully. In these types of therapy, clients are helped to recognize how their underlying feelings of insecurity, anxiety, and inadequacy lead to emotional disturbances and problems in relationships with others.
Psychoanalysis as the origin of the approach
The psychodynamic approach to personality was developed by the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, creating his theoretical concept - psychoanalysis. Therefore, this approach is often called psychoanalytic. The scientist's views were revolutionary for that time. He proceeded from a psychodynamic understanding of mental phenomena. He sought not simply to describe and classify phenomena, but to understand them as a struggle of mental forces.
Freud based the angle on unconscious motives that work in concert with each other or are at odds with each other. He was the first to suggest that a person's personality and behavior are the result of the ego's efforts to reconcile unconscious mental conflicts and the demands of the real world.
