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theories_of_psychology_0_3.docxRunning head: THEORIES OF PSYCHOLOGY 1
THEORIES OF PSYCHOLOGY 8
Theories of Psychology
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Theories of Psychology
Psychology is referred to as the scientific study of human behavior and the mental processes in an attempt to understand how and why individuals operate the way they do. In the past one century, over three hundred theories have been developed in trying to understand human behavior. Specific theories have been developed for particular human traits (Baltes and Schaie, 2013). More theories that are psychological continue to be developed today. Therefore, it makes it hard to cover all the theories related to psychology discipline. Various psychology theories govern the way different psychologist approach their research in human character (Baltes and Schaie, 2013).
Despite all the theories developed, the following are the most shared and basic psychological theories. Biological theory, psychoanalytic, behaviorism, cognitive, humanistic and existential, sociocultural, feminism and postmodernism. Each of the above theories provides an overarching framework on which psychology research is based upon. Each of the specific theory provides a particular point of emphasis when approaching the vital psychological questions of why, how and what. Most of the modern psychology study is based on one or more of these theories (Lerner and Lerner, 2013).
Biological theory
Biological theory of psychology can be traced back to Charles Darwin (1859). He (Charles Darwin) demonstrated the idea that evolution and genetics play a major role in influencing and developing human character via a process of natural selection. Psychologist put into consideration how genes impact behavior while studying behavioral genomics. Theorists focus on the biological underpinnings of character and the impact of genetics and evolution. The main thinking is that mental processes and character can be explained via understanding human anatomy and physiology. Therefore, biological psychologist put the focus on the nervous system and the brain of the human while studying the behaviors (Kalat, 2015)
Human thoughts, behaviors, and feelings have a biological origin. This is the beginning point of the research on psychology. A biological approach is a relevant and important to study of psychology in three ways. First, comparative method where different species of animals can be explored and compared. It has helped in the search to understand the human character and behavior. Secondly, it has helped in physiology in the study of how the human brain works, how the nervous system and hormones functions. Finally, investigation of the inheritance of genes. It is the research on what any animal species inherits from both parents and the mechanism of inheritance (Hergenhahn and Henley, 2013)
Psychoanalytic theory
Psychoanalytic theory is one of the modern personality theories that was developed by Sigmund Freud. The theory put emphasis on the Importance of early child-development factors and unconscious mental processes as they are connected to childish wishes, immature desires, impulses and demand for reality (Elliott, 2015). Psychologists believe that most human behaviors are influenced by ideas, thoughts, and wishes that are in the brain of a human and are not accessible by the conscious part of the mind. Therefore, this theory suggests that personality characteristics are primarily a reflection of the composition of the unconscious side of the mind (Dorpat and Miller, 2013).
Behaviorism (behavioral psychology)
Behaviorism is a psychology theory of learning related to the idea that human characters are acquired through processes of conditioning. During the beginning of the 2oth century a scientist named Watson said that theories needed to be supported by empirical data collected via controlled measurements and observation of behavior (2013).Therefore, most psychologist view behaviorism approach as a branch of natural science that is purely objective experimental. The theory stated that all human behavior are learned from the environment. The theorists meant that individuals have no free will and that a human environment influences the behavior of that individual. Human is born with their mind “tabula rasa” meaning that the mind is a blank plate (Watson,2013).
Behaviorist perspective is mainly concerned with behaviors that can be observed as opposed to emotions and the internal thinking of and individual. This theory has allowed comparative psychology to develop. Comparative psychology has shown that there is none or little difference in the process of learning that takes place between other animals and human beings. Therefore, the study can be done on other animals as well as humans (Watson, 2013).
Behaviors are as a response to certain stimulus. People or animals, in general, behave in response to stimuli. Watson described all behaviors as can be predicted given the stimuli (1930). The theory assumes that human behavior is reflexes produced because of the body responding to stimuli generated in the environment. Watson and other psychologist believed that Freud theory of mental and unconscious idea was unreal and that concentration should be put in studying the observable behaviors’ (Staddon, 2014).
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The various scientist was actively involved in carrying out various experiments that provided the factual background of this theory. Watson and Ivan Pavlov were actively involved in the investigation of response produced because of stimulation, processes of classical conditioning. On the other hand, Skinner investigated the consequences of controlled stimuli or discriminative stimuli. The study was to understand how signals may strengthen or weaken a response or a behavior a method that later referred to as operant conditioning (Staddon, 2014).
Cognitive theory
The conceptual origin of the theory came from a book by Edwin Holt and Harold Brown ( 1931) stating that all animals behavior and character are rooted on the satisfaction of the psychological needs of desire, feeling, and emotions. However, in 1941 Neil E. Miller presented a revision of this theory in another book and John Dollard named social learning and imitation theory. The two stated that there are four basic factors that lead to learning: responses, cues, rewards and drives (Rosenthal and Zimmerman, 2014).
Miller and Dollard argued that if an individual was internally driven to learn a certain behavior, then the behavior could be learned via clear observation. By copying these observed behaviors, the person observing would perfect the acquired action and would be paid with positive reinforcement. Later, Albert Bandura, a Canadian psychologist, expanded the idea of social learning. He and his colleagues conducted a series of research to find out the reasons why and when children show aggressive behaviors (Rosenthal and Zimmerman, 2014).
Bandura carried the research for too long that he published the second book in 1986, renamed his original theory, and called it the social cognitive theory. He changed the name to show the role of cognition plays in performing and encoding behavior. In the new book, he mentions that individual character is brought about by behavioral, environmental and personal influences. The theory clearly shows that a new behavior diffuses through society by physiological properties dictating adoption and acquisition of the character. The theory has been applied to explain mental processes as induced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors that finally bring about the process of learning in a person (Denler,Wolters and Benzon, 2014).
Humanistic and existential theory
Humanism is a psychological approach that emphasizes the research on a whole individual. The theory focuses on the intrinsic and the extrinsic study of a person. It rose to address the shortcomings of Freud Sigmund theory of psychoanalytic and skinners behaviorism. The theory focuses on the uniqueness of each and the ability and responsibility of an individual to make valid straightforward and complex choices in their lives. Humanists believe that a person’s free will, free choice, and proper understanding of the meaning of conditions and situations in a person’s life are the vital things to research (Satre, 2014).
Carl Rogers dated some of the sources of humanistic work back to 1920s. Rogers’s research was based on the development process of an individual. The focus was to understand the development of a person into a healthier personality functioning from childhood into adulthood. He came up with the term self-actualizing tendency which later led Abrahams Maslow to research on self-actualization as a human need (Chambers, 2013)
Five core postulates summarize the humanistic approach. James Bugental (1964) first wrote these fundamental principles in an article though later a long time humanistic psychology journal editor Tom Greening adapted them. These five core principles of humanistic psychology include: first, human beings supplant the total of their parts. A human cannot be reduced to components. Secondly, people exist in a unique human context and a cosmic ecology. Thirdly, people are conscious. People are aware and are aware of being aware. Next, people have the ability and capacity to make decisions and therefore they have duties. Finally, human beings have intentions, goals, and aims and that they induce future events and seek to know the value, meaning, and creativity (Chambers, 2013)
Socio-cultural theory
The sociocultural theory focuses on the social and cultural properties that impact on human behavior. For example, the phenomenon tattoos were highly disputed in the 1990s: Before the 1990s, individuals who got tattooed were seen as acting outside of the status quo. In the world of today, the tattoos are widely accepted in every continental over the world (Lantolf, 2000).
A Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, is referred to as the father of sociocultural theory. He started his research work in 1917 after the Russian revolution. He observed that the mental functioning of a person is not directly related to the interaction of the individual with the society. Rather, the processes and structures of learning of a person can be traced to their interaction with the rest of the community. In 1991, Wertsch derived three major themes from the writings by Vygotsky showing the nature of the relationship between a person and the common procedures in development and learning (Kozulin, 2003).
The first theme is that the elaboration of a person has its beginning in human sources. The theme is clearly outlined in Vygotsky work of ‘genetic law of development’. The cultural evolution of a child occurs on the social and the psychological properties. First, the development occurs through interaction between people as an instrumental category and secondly within the child as an intramental class. The second theme is that individual action is mediated by semiotic tools and signs. These tools and signs include languages learned, writings, drawings, mechanical drawings, and maps. The key differentiation of these tools and symbols is what separates the human race and other animals. Knowledge is gained when a person can internalize the tools being provided by the culture (Kozulin, 2003).
Finally, the last theme stated that the first two topics could only be proven by analyzing them genetically or developmental. The three themes were later simplified into three areas which include the culture, the language and the zone of proximal development. The theory also takes into consideration the how their peer's influence learners and how social events affect their ability to acquire information (Lantolf, 2000).
Feminism theory
Feminist theory focuses on the social, economic, and political rights of women and how these forces influence both men’s and women’s behavior in the society. The feminist approach surfaced in the women’s movement of the 1960s. Women were struggling to gain equality like their counterparts the male gender (Nicholson, 2013).
Feminist theory focuses on understanding the gender problem. The development of this theory can be traced back to 1794 in a publication by Mary Wollstonecraft referred to as Vindication of the rights of a woman. Later other people continued to push for feminism. Elaine Showalter explains the various phases during the development of the feminist theory. The first step she named it feminist critique where female readers examine the ideas behind the literary phenomena. The second phase of the theory is called gynocritics where a woman is the producer of textual meaning. The last phase was the gender theory where the idea of inscription and the effect of the gender system (Medlski, 2014).
The model was however highly disputed by Toril Moi who saw it as an essential a determinant model of female gender subjectivity. He also criticized the model for not putting women outside the West into consideration. Toril in her work she says that a woman defines herself by the way she makes something out of her life out of what the world have given her (Hekman, 2013)
Postmodernism theory
The theory questions the very center of psychological science, challenging and criticizing its perspective to truth and its focus on a person. Postmodernists propose, for example, that to understand human thinking and reasoning, we need to take a look at the social and communal procedures involved in thinking and reasoning (Eagleton, 2013). They make the argument that persons in powerful positions have too much to say about what is “real” and “true” in the field of psychology. They push for a social constructionist view of reality, which states that the concepts of “reality” and “truth” are explained, or made, by society. These concepts have no meaning apart from the meanings that society and its “experts” assign to them (Lash, 2014)
Conclusion
The above theories form are referred to as the grand theories. All the other psychology related theories have their bases developed from these grand theories. Most of these theories were developed in the 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the need to study human behavior was highly developed, and various psychologist has developed many different theories. Some of these theories have become so helpful in various fields such as education and that of medicine. A good example is a biological theory and the psychoanalytic theories that have led to the research in brain and neurotic diseases.
References
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