Psychodynamic after Freud - Term Paper Example

Psychology Psychology Freud Sigmund Freud is one of the well known and established psychologists. History indicates that Freud existed between the periods of 1865-1939. He is considered as one of the most influential and controversial people who played a significant role in developing various psychology theories. He was a Viennese physician who assisted in developing psychoanalysis (Comer & Gould, 2011). According to Freud’s theory, it became easy to understand various developments in the life cycle of a human being. He suggested that one of the factors that determine the behavior of a human being is unconscious mind. Moreover, Freud suggested that another factor that determines human behaviors is the respiratory of a various impulses and desires (Comer & Gould, 2011). He suggested that human mind is usually unaware of these factors. According to Comer & Gould (2011), these factors tend to determine how human think, feel and act. Freud’s ideas helped in shaping the views related to childhood development, sexuality and personality. His views also assisted in understanding how humans’ memory and therapy operates. Through his theories, Freud’s work in considered of significant importance especially in the psychology related areas. Through his work and theories, Freud managed to establish various stages of psychosexual development (Comer & Gould, 2011). In these stages, Freud explained that an individual can have a healthy personality if only manages to complete all of them. Failure to complete all the psychosexual stages may contribute to a person’s failure in living a successful and healthy life. Even though Freud’s theories were of significant influential, various criticisms emerged related to his views and theoretical work. Some of the critics associated with Freud’s work include that his ideas were seemed to less objective and scientific. Many of those who failed to support the theoretical work of Freud illustrated that his work was based on clinical impressions. They illustrated that Freud’s work did not concentrate on controlled empirical methods. Other critics related to Freud’s work stated that his method of collecting data and making various presentations was unsystematic. 2#. In order to obtain all the required information necessary for the study of how a new medication might work for treating depression, there is a need to follow the recommended procedures of research making. The following information demonstrates on how to conduct the study through a systematic procedure in order to get the necessary information. Objective The objective of the study is to determine whether patients who have depression problems are healed after taking the new medication. Hypothesis Hypothesis refers to a statement that ought to be general describing the relationship between various variables that need to be used on the study (Comer & Gould, 2011). For example, the hypothesis of this particular study will be assessing whether the new medication is inversely related to cure of depression, such that depression decreases as a patient continues to increase usage of drugs related to the medication. This indicates that the study will determine the relationship between the new medication and depression. Independent Variable Independent variables simply refer to the characteristics involved in the psychological study that can be changed (Comer & Gould, 2011). For example in this particular study, where the study is about effects of the new medication on depression, the medication will be the independent valuable. This means that while conducting the study on the patients taking the medication because of depression problems, changes can be regarding to the new medication. For example, some of the drugs offered may be increased or reduced with regard to the responses that a particular patient is making. Dependent valuable When conducting the study, the variable that a researcher is interested to measure is the one referred to as dependent variable (Comer & Gould, 2011). On this particular study, the dependent valuable will be the depression expressed by the participants. This is because the study tries to identify how changes that independent variable, which is the new medication, will cause changes to the level of depression among the patients who ought to participate in the study. Random Assignment of Participants This refers to the technique that ought to be employed in the study in order to determine how the new medication makes effects on all the participants’ health. On the random assignment, the study will involve three main stages. The first stage will be determining the total number of participants who will be involved in the study. The second stage will be devising the appropriate method to randomize all the participants. The method ought to be purely mechanical. An example of such a method will be flipping a coin. The third stage will be assigning one group of the participants who may have received the heads after the second stage, to take the new medication. The other group with the subject of tails ought to be the control group. The aim of having the two groups is to make sure that the required information is achieved influencing the results (Comer & Gould, 2011). Ethical Guidelines There is a need to observe ethical guidelines in the study in order to make sure that the participants contribute fully in the study. Some of the ethical guideline to consider is to make sure that the participants understands the aim of the study. The other issue to consider related to ethical guideline is making all participants understand that they have the choice of participating and withdrawing from the study anytime they wish. 3#. Strengths of behavioral perspective in psychology One of the strengths of behavioral perspective is that researchers are able to ask various questions related to fitness. This makes it simple to for the researchers to identify a number of factors that may affect the individual survival and reproduction. The other strength of behavioral perspective is that researchers are able to use predictive approach when getting information. This means that they are able to make population models in their study more realistic and accurate. Moreover, while using behavioral perspective, researchers are able to focus on client’s behavior through observation and manage to provide the recommended help (Comer & Gould, 2011). Weaknesses of behavioral perspective in psychology One of the weaknesses of behavioral perspective is that researchers only manage to explain the actions of a person through visible phenomena. This means that researchers fail to interpret various mental activity of a person while using this perspective in psychology. Another weakness related to behavioral perspective is that researchers generally fail to explain the behavioral acts of an individual concerning the past. This means that through behavioral perspective, scientists fail to recognize or they neglect the inabilities of an individual in relation to his/her past. The other weakness related to behavioral perspective is that researchers fail to recognize individualism of every person. This is because they tend to assume that certain behaviors are common to everyone. However, this is not true in most cases. People tend to express various behaviors and characteristics according to their ability. In relation to learning issue, behavioral perspective tends to be strong in helping patients who have learning related problems. For example, applying of behavioral perspective on these patients help them to improve various behaviors that many thought they were difficult for them to perform. Moreover, behavioral perspective assists in improving the intelligence of an individual. While using this perspective on patients with low intelligence, they are able to improve their behaviors within a certain period. For example, adult patients can be able to dress themselves. Strengths of psychodynamic perspective in psychology One of the strengths related to psychodynamic is that researchers can manage to check and obtain a true insight concerning a particular behavior (Comer & Gould, 2011). This is because through this particular perspective, researchers are able to spend more time with the concerned individual. The other advantage related to this particular perspective is that researchers are able to obtain qualitative data. This is an added advantage because they manage to understand various reasons behind a person’s behavior. Weaknesses of psychodynamic perspective in psychology One of the weaknesses of psychodynamic is that the result of the study can only apply to a particular individual. This is because the case studies used in carrying out the research relate to single instances. Most of the case studies used in this particular method rely on qualitative method rather than quantitative analysis. This translates that there is a higher chance of the researcher to interpret the behavior of a particular individual the way he/she wants. In most cases, psychodynamic perspective relates with the personality of an individual. This is because, the main assumptions made in this particular perspective is that the behavior of a person is largely driven by a number of thoughts and feelings. According to the perspective, both of these two elements lie in the unconscious mind. Moreover, psychodynamic perspective also involves conducting a therapy with the concerned person or patient. For example, through the method known as common used by Freud, he would hold an analysis with his patients in order to figure out their problem. 4#. Psychology tends to be more than just common sense. There are two main methods used while conducting research in psychology. One of the two main methods is descriptive (Comer & Gould, 2011). Under descriptive method, there are a number of methods used to make sure that the researcher obtains the necessary required information. Some of these methods include naturalistic observation and conducting of surveys or questionnaires. The other main method of conducting research related to psychology is experimental method (Comer & Gould, 2011). The main reason for using this particular method is to determine the relationship between cause and effect. Using the above methods proves that psychology is more than common sense. Moreover, most of the experiments conducted in psychology work go beyond what would be expected in common sense answers (Comer & Gould, 2011). 5#. The main reason of employing a correlation in a psychology research is that it indicates the possibility of cause-effect relationship (Comer & Gould, 2011). However, correlation fails to prove if causation exists in the study. Moreover, correlation fails to demonstrate the direction of the influence that tends to be created by the relationship (Comer & Gould, 2011). Cause of the correlation may be another factor contributing to its failure in showing cause-effect relationship (Comer & Gould, 2011). An example of a statement that implies correlation but not causation is “Smoking cause Cancer”. 6#. German people did not comply with Hitler orders to slaughter the Jews because they were bad, but it is because their behavior was controlled by an external situation. The subjects of internal natures did not control their behavior. This means that the Germans were reluctant to disobey various orders given by Hitler. 7#. Operant conditioning refers to a learning strategy used in psychology that occurs through offering rewards or punishments for a particular behavior (Comer & Gould, 2011). An example of a behavior to modify through operant conditioning is the performance of students in school. Through this method, it is possible to improve the students’ performance by offering rewards to those who do well. Providing rewards to those students who perform well is related to positive reinforcement. This means it is a favorable event coming after the students present a recommendable behavior (Comer & Gould, 2011). Moreover, in order to improve the students’ performance, it is also advisable to employ negative reinforcement. This involves removal of various events that do not enhance recommendable performance of the students (Comer & Gould, 2011). Another strategy under operant conditioning that is recommendable to use in order to improve the performance of the students is punishment. This entails offering a presentation of an adverse outcome (Comer & Gould, 2011). In order to make sure that operant conditioning is effective in improving the behaviors of students, it is advisable to employ schedules of reinforcement. These are rules defining various instances of the behavior that ought to be reinforced (Comer & Gould, 2011). One of these schedules is continuous reinforcement. This particular schedule entails reinforcing the behavior at every time it occurs (Comer & Gould, 2011). The other schedule is known as partial reinforcement. This entails reinforcing the behavior only at certain moments it occurs (Comer & Gould, 2011). The other strategy to employ under operant conditioning in order to improve the student’s behavior is shaping and extinction. Shaping entails using a particular technique to teach the students new behaviors. Extinction entails removing the behavior that might be the one causing students to perform poorly (Comer & Gould, 2011). Reference Top of Form Comer, R. J., & Gould, E. (2011). Psychology around us. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Bottom of Form Read More