Philosophy of Psychology - Essay Example

Philosophy of psychology al affiliation) Introduction Psychology is the study of the human mind. The field of psychologyis enormous and is made up of numerous schools of thoughts that were developed by early psychologists according to their respective study modes and research. The various schools of thoughts that are associated with psychologists include biological perspectives, cognitive perspective, behavioral perspective, gestalt perspective and humanistic perspective. Even though various schools of thought have disputed for a particular model of study that can be utilized as a guiding theory of explaining human behavior, some psychologists tend to adhere to certain school of thoughts while at the same time rejecting others (Slavin & Davis, 2006). This paper will compare and contrast the three schools of thoughts that include behavioral perspective, gestalt perspective and psychodynamic perspective. Belief and goal Gestalt perspective: a holistic school that focuses on the "big picture." Gestalt’s view is "the sum is greater than the whole" which is to say that your idea of something (say a home) means more than each of the parts (boards, a door, windows, etc.). Behavioral perspective: True behaviorists believe that everything you do is because of conditioning. You are merely a puppet, an animal trained to act one way or another by your parents and society. Behaviorism holds that only observable behaviors should be studied, as mood and cognition are too are too subjective. According to behaviorist theory, our response to surrounding stimuli shapes our individual behaviors (Slavin & Davis, 2006). Important concepts such as classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and reinforcement have arisen from behaviorism. Behaviorism employed methods to evaluate the Stimulus-Response relationship and its effects on behavior. “Most behaviorists saw Gestalt psychology as a regression to a discredited unscientific nativism.” Behavioral school of thought believes that human behavior is shaped by what happens in the surrounding. It became the primary school of thought in the 1950s. “Gestaltists were a minority in a behaviorist-dominant establishment. Nevertheless, they had an influence on the development of psychology out of all proportion to their numbers and position.” Psychodynamic perspective: Freud- Psychoanalysis is defined by the Id, ego and superego and one underlying desires and repressed emotions (Lyon, 2013). Freud’s school of thought believes that attitude, experience, mannerism and thoughts are extremely influenced by irrational drives. He reveals that conflicts between unconscious and conscious, or repressed can materialize in the form of emotional and mental disturbance for example depression, anxiety, neurotic traits and neurosis. The school of thought believes that people’s behavior is controlled by inner forces and that individuals have little awareness and power over it (Slavin & Davis, 2006). Research methods that were employed in various schools of thought Psychodynamic theory became highly popular due to its explanatory power for behaviors for people’s behaviors. Sigmund Feud developed psychoanalysis, a therapeutic method to identify intrapsychic conflicts and resolve the by drifting them to consciousness from the unconscious region. The treatment approach employed by Sigmund feud was described as insight therapy. Even though Sigmund Feud considered himself as a scientist, he was indeed thorough in recording his outcomes and methods. However, he failed to utilize scientific methods in most of his works. Psychodynamic theory was created through a case study research method that was considered qualitative and non scientific. Behavioral perspective research entailed studying animals under laboratory environment. The research method employed in this school of thought was experimental, a scientific method. The laboratory conditions were used since it allowed the researchers to control the conditions and observe its effect on the behaviors of the animals. The experimental research methods that were employed allowed the researchers to observe the cause and effects on the human behaviors through animals. The behavioral perspective also studied human behaviors by utilizing humans as experimental subjects in various environmental settings. The behaviors of psychiatric patients in a hospital as well as the behavior of children in a school setting were learned through observation. As with laboratory research, researchers were able to manipulate the conditions in order to evaluate their effect on the behavior of the study subjects (Slavin & Davis, 2006). Allyon and Azrin utilized this research method in studying the impact of token economy on the behavior of psychiatric patients in 1968. The token was often exchanged for positive reinforcers such as chocolate and cigarettes. The researchers identified that positive reinforcers affected the behavior of the psychiatric patients in a positive manner. Gestalt approach can be distinguished from one another basing on its approach on its experimental approach. By utilizing numerous experiments, the researchers are able to support the client’s experience towards something that is considered new rather than focusing on mere possibilities. The entire therapeutic relationship that has been employed in the perspective can be considered as experimental. The perspective observed the changes in the way clients expressed their feelings as well as exaggeration of the non verbal behavior. The three psychological schools utilized either scientific or non scientific methods in studying their subject. In psychodynamic perspective for example, less scientific method were utilized in studying subjects with scientific methods used in Gestalt and behavioral perspectives. Major topics and the findings of the schools of thoughts Gestalt school of psychology was founded in the twentieth century and provided the foundation for studying human perception. Gestalt perspective employed use rather than phenomenology. Gestalt perspective tries to understand the laws of people’s ability to maintain meaningful perception in a chaotic world. The main principle illustrated by Gestalt psychology is that the human mind forms a global whole having self organizing tendencies. The principle asserts that the mind of a human being forms a gestalt or percept, the whole present a reality of its own that is independent of other parts (Lyon, 2013). Gestalt theory indicates that the perception is the main results of interactions related to various stimuli. Unlike psychodynamic perspective that deals with the behavior of the human mind, gestalt theory focuses on confronting the challenge of an extended event, whether an action or an experience, that cannot be completely described as a sum of independent or smaller events. The term gestalt can be identifies as structure, form or configuration. The gestalt theory emerged as a reaction towards atomistic psychology. The theory, at the start, was mainly concerned with issues related to perception. Subsequently, its studies extended to the areas of learning, memory and thinking as well as certain aspects of ethics and logic. Psychodynamic perspective believes that human behavior is determined by unconscious forces that they are unaware of. Each manifest thought, behavior or utterance lays a latent intention or motive. Psychoanalysts believe that child upbringing can influence their adult behaviors (Terrace, 2010). Psychoanalysis view behaviors as a compromise between three parts of personality such as the id, ego and super ego. Sigmund Feud asserts that human ego utilizes defense mechanisms to convert unconscious impulses into various forms that can be accepted in the society. His studies indicates that the exact way in which the ego deals with superego and id is determined during childhood as they go through the various psychosexual stages of human development that includes the oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital stages. Psychodynamic psychologist unlike behavioral and gestalt psychologists study the behavior o the human beings through the use of individual case study methods after gathering large amounts of qualitative data in order to search hidden meanings in things that human beings do, say or thing. John B. Watson’s behavioral perspective indicates that human behavior can be changed, trained and measured (Chidiac, 2008). He explained that he could be able to train healthy and well formed infants to become any type of specialist. Watson was able to perform various scientific experiments on both animals and human beings and realized that all behaviors were acquired through conditioning that occurred through interactions with the environment. Behaviorists believed that conditions of the surrounding environment shaped human behavior. Based on this school of thought, behavior can be learned in an observable and systematic manner with no consideration of internal mental status. It suggests that observable behaviors are easy to study unlike internal states such as emotions, moods and cognitions that are considered too subjective. Their ability to attract a loyal group of followers and uphold social demand One of the benefits of behavioral theory is that it allowed psychologist to investigate observable behaviors in a systematic and scientific manner. However, many critics feel that the theory felt short of essential influences on behaviors. Freud, for example, thought that behaviorism theory failed to account for feelings, thoughts, and desires that are associated with the unconscious minds. Other psychologists thought that behaviorism was too limited and too rigid and failed to take into context factors such as free will (Kratochwill, 2002). Even though behaviorism theory is not currently dominant as it was during the twentieth century, it still remains an influential force in psychology. Outside psychology, parents, animal trainers, teachers and many others utilize basic behavioral principles to help discourage bad behaviors and teach new ones. Psychodynamic perspectives have been extremely influential; its results have extended beyond psychology and are being applied in many other fields such as medicine. Despite its greater influence, it has continued to receive criticism based on its unscientific approach in analysis of the human behavior. Most of the concepts brought up by Sigmund Freud are subjective and impossible to scientific tests. Most of Feuds ideas are clinically derived and focused on what his patient told him during performance of various therapies. Of the three psychological schools of thoughts, Gestalt perspective is less influential and has received numerous criticisms. Neither Gestalt theory nor its connection with Gestalt therapy is adequately understood, even by most Gestalt researchers, and has not been discussed adequately in various Gestalt therapy literatures. Conclusion Even though behaviorism, psychodynamic and Gestaltism perspective appear to have some similarities in the research subjects that are utilized in their studies, they also differ in influence, topics and beliefs associated with them (Slavin & Davis, 2006). While Psychodynamic perspective believes that human behaviors are influenced by inner forces from the unconscious minds and that people have little awareness or power towards them, behavioral perspective asserts that human behavior is influenced by conditions in the surrounding environment. Moreover, gestalt psychologists believes that the sum total is much superior and bigger than the summation of its parts and that people should focus on the entire experience rather than dividing the behavior and thoughts in smaller units. References Chidiac, M. (2008). A Gestalt perspective of coaching: a case for being more yourself. Development And Learning In Organizations, 22(4), 15-16. doi:10.1108/14777280810886382 Kratochwill, T. (2002). Evidence-based interventions in school psychology: Thoughts on thoughtful commentary. School Psychology Quarterly, 17(4), 518-532. doi:10.1521/scpq.17.4.518.20861 Lyon, C. (2013). A brief introduction to psychoanalytic theory. Psychodynamic Practice, 19(4), 431-435. doi:10.1080/14753634.2013.853480 Slavin, R. E., & Davis, N. (2006). Educational psychology: Theory and practice. Terrace, H. (2010). A behavioral theory of mind?. Behavioral And Brain Sciences, 7(04), 569. doi:10.1017/s0140525x00027370 Read More