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11. The Secret of Success Profiles of people of great accomplishment: Time Magazine's 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century http://www.time.com/time/time100/ Success Stories of People With Physical Disabilities - Roger Frank http://spot.pcc.edu/~rjacobs/career/personal_success_stories.htm Biography.com 12. Approaches to Psychology There are many different approaches to investigating and explaining human behavior. Each approach contributes new observations and insights, helping us to better understand why we behave the way we do. Over the last century, five major approaches to psychology have dominated the field: the psychodynamic approach, the behavioral approach, the humanistic approach, the cognitive approach, and the biological approach. Each of these approaches sheds light on human thought, feeling, and action in a slightly different way. The Psychodynamic Approach The psychodynamic approach to psychology is based on the ideas of early 20th century psychologist Sigmund Freud. This approach declares that behavior stems from inner forces and conflicts that lie below conscious awareness. Freud's view of the mind has been extremely influential to modern thinking. In his view, we have three layers of mind: conscious, preconscious, and subconscious. The conscious mind controls sensations and emotions. It collects information from our environment, stores it in our memory, and helps us make logical decisions. Our subconscious mind stores experiences, feelings, and thoughts that influence our behavior, even though we might not ordinarily remember them. Many of our early childhood experiences, for example, are stored in the subconscious. Freud pioneered the technique of psychoanalysis, a form of psychological therapy that aims to make people aware of their subconscious motives so that they can gain control over their behavior and free themselves of self-defeating patterns. The Behavioral Approach In the first half of the 20th century, psychology began to focus on what American psychologist John Watson called "the science of observable behavior." Watson and B.F. Skinner were the driving forces behind this movement, known as behaviorism. Behaviorism is an approach to psychology based on the belief that psychology should only examine observable human behavior, not subjective thoughts and feelings. Behaviorists believe that human behavior is largely controlled by stimuli in our environment. A stimulus is any aspect of the environment that leads to a reaction or response. Responses to some stimuli, such as burning heat or a threatening wild animal, are instinctual. When we touch a hot pan, for example, we pull our hand away by instinct. Reactions to more complex stimuli, however, are learned. In Skinner's theory of operant conditioning, we learn to behave in certain ways because of the consequences that we associate with certain behaviors. A certain behavior may generate positive consequences, in which case it is reinforced; or it may generate negative consequences, in which case it is punished. For example, a student learns not to speak up in class if her ideas are shot down by the instructor or other students; or a child learns to throw tantrums if by throwing a tantrum, he gets what he wants. Although behaviorism is no longer as popular as it was throughout the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, it still exerts a large influence in psychology. The Humanistic Approach Humanistic psychology was developed in the 1960s, primarily by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. It takes the view that people are complex, unique individuals who naturally strive to reach their full mental and spiritual potential. The emphasis in the humanistic approach is on free will, the ability to make independent decisions about one's own behavior and life. Humanistic psychologists focus on understanding people's values, intentions, and self-concepts. They believe that people will reach their full potential if they are given the opportunity to do so. The Cognitive Approach Cognitive psychology focuses on the study of human thought. As the name implies, cognitive psychologists focus on cognition--the functions of processing, storing, and remembering information and experiences. They examine how we create mental roadmaps of the world around us, and how our ways of thinking about situations and events influence our behavior. Like humanistic psychologists, cognitive psychologists believe that human beings control their own behavior, and that we are not simply controlled by stimuli or unconscious drives. Cognitive psychologists, however, see the mind as an active and aware problem-solving system, somewhat like a self-conscious computer. In other words, they investigate how people shape their understanding of the world through mental processes such as sensation, perception, motor control, attention, memory, learning, language, reasoning, imagery, creativity, problem solving, and decision making. The Biological Approach Biological psychology is the approach to psychology that investigates the biological basis of human behavior. Biological psychologists focus their study on the human nervous system. The nervous system is a vast network of neurons (nerve cells) that regulate body activities by transmitting messages between the brain and the other parts of the body. Biological psychologists study how the parts of the brain work and how emotions are expressed in the body and brain. They study how neurons are structured and how they communicate with one another. They also look at the role of heredity (the transmission of traits from one generation to the next through genes) in determining psychological characteristics such as personality. For example, studies done with twins and adopted people have established that there is a genetic, or inherited, component to just about every human trait and behavior. To learn more about the various approaches to psychology, visit the Web page “Approaches to Teaching and Learning Psychology” at |