Unit 8: Psychological Perspective in Health and Social Care
M1: Assess different psychological approaches to study
In this essay I will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each psychological approaches to health and social care.
The first approach I will be discussing is the Behaviourist approach of Psychology. The Behaviourist approach of psychology is all about changing and shaping behaviour and the different ways in which this is achieved. There are many strengths and weaknesses to this approach. A strength to the behaviourist approach is the idea that this approach is scientific and acknowledges the scientific influences on an individual’s behaviour. An example of how this approach to society is scientific, is the fact that Pavlov’s research was used to create an objective. Another Strength to this approach is that it allows behaviour to be observed and measured easily so that it is possible to analyse and compare an individual’s behaviour whilst collecting the information needed for the research. Experiments and Research are two extremely important contributions to providing an explanation of behaviour, therefore behaviourism have made sure to focus on the observable and measurable behaviours rather than behaviours that are difficult to observe correctly. There are also many experiments to support the behaviourist approach allowing more evidence to be used to support the explanations of why individual behave in a certain way. Within this theory, theorist began to identify the comparisons between animals and humans in the way in which they behave and how they learn certain behaviours. Pavlov identified the way in which animals behaved using dogs as the prime focus of his experiment, whilst Watson used humans to try and figure out why individuals behave in a certain way, whilst doing this they both realised the similarities in the way in which behaviour is learnt. This allows individuals to have a larger insight into behaviour. However, the behaviourist approach also has several weaknesses, the main weakness is that the approach focuses more on the nurture debate and how the environment helps to change and shape behaviour, that it ignore the nature debate completely. This completely ignores the biology an individual has which could also have an influence on the individual’s behaviour. It has also been argued that the behaviourist approach is too deterministic, and that there is not much free will when it comes to the behaviour of an individual. This is because theorists believe that behaviour is learnt through the environment using associations with a stimuli and a response that an individual learns through association. Therefore, this view portrays the fact that the environment controls different behaviour rather than the individual themselves.
The next approach I will be discussing is the Social Learning approach to society. The Social Learning theory focuses on positive and negative reinforcement and how that helps to change an individual’s behaviour. There are also many strengths and weaknesses to this approach. The main strength to this approach is the evidence that theorist have gained to support this approach to behaviour. Bandura confirmed the idea of this approach during his experiment with children, he realised that children would watch others play with a doll before repeating the action they had just been shown due to the role model not getting any negative reinforcement for the action. This supports the idea that individuals learn through positive and negative reinforcement to themselves as well as to others. The social learning theory also helps to give a way to combine the social and cognitive theories to behaviour, this is because the child originally learns the behaviour from their role models, depending on the positive and negative reinforcement that the role model gains, however after a while of completing this behaviour without any reinforcement, the role model becomes unnecessary and the child is free to behave in the way they would like, this relates to the cognitive theory. This theory explain a large number of different behaviours as well as the inconsistencies in an individual’s behaviour as it focuses on the child observing different behaviours as well as the consequences that come with that behaviour. There are also weaknesses with this behaviour, such as not all behaviour that a child observes is automatically copied by the child, for example, when a child watches a violent film or plays a violent video game, the child does not copy the behaviour in this film, and they are aware that they should not be repeating the behaviour seen. This therefore goes against the social learning theory because this is a behaviour that is observed by the child however they do not repeat it. It is also similar to the Behaviourist theory, in which this theory believes that an individual’s behaviour is no choice of their own and is all learn through the individual’s environment, therefore it offers no free will to the child and no freedom to make their own choices. Lastly, the social learning theory does not take into account physical and mental changes to the individual, and instead focuses on what happens around the individual, therefore this doesn’t take into account all the influences of behaviour.
The next approach to psychology that I will be discussing is the psychodynamic society. The main strength of this approach is the fact that the psychodynamic approach realises the importance of early childhood experiences, this was developed through Freud’s theory. This allows individuals to understand their problems and realise the root of where all their problems come from. Freud’s theory also led to more theories being developed into childhood, giving more evidence into how the experiences an individual has in their childhood affects them later on in life. This is an effective way to help individuals understand their behaviour as it gives the individual an insight into why they may think or feel the way they do. Another strength to this approach to psychology is the fact that it emphasises the importance of nature and nurture, it explains the importance of the childhood experience which relates to the nurture debate, whilst also explaining the importance of the unconscious part of the brain, which relates to the nature debate. It is important to see the influences of both debates in order to see the bigger picture of how it influences an individual’s behaviour. Also, this approach can be used for a wide range of problems, including mental health problems. This approach was the first approach to help explain mental health behaviour within the perspectives. However, there are also weaknesses that should be considered when discussing this perspective. One of the important weaknesses to this perspectives is the fact that individuals get important insights about the unconscious mind as well as early life experiences, if a harmful insight is brought up, then this may cause distress to the individual and make them overwhelmed. This perspective can also be viewed as deterministic, this is because theorists believe that behaviour is already pre-determined due to the unconscious part of the brain, and therefore this does not give the individual free will to decide what they would like to behave like.
The humanistic approach is also a psychological perspective within society that helps view the way in which behaviour is developed. The main strength of the humanistic approach is the fact that this view is very person centered and it is different to all the other perspectives as it focuses on the individual person rather than the unconscious mind and how that affects the individual’s behaviour. They therefore believe that the individual is in full control of their behaviour. This leads onto another strength of the humanistic theory, which includes allowing the individual free will to control what they do relating to their behaviour. Unlike theorists from other perspectives, Maslow views the individual as very powerful when it comes to the choices they make and therefore focus on these choices. Another strength of this approach is that it can be used widely within different situations and many therapists tend to use the key aspects of this approach in their practise in order to help individuals. This approach also collects a lot of data in order to get a better insight on behaviour and how the individual choices affects the behaviour. However, there are also many weaknesses to the humanistic approach to psychology. Firstly, the humanistic approach completely ignores the unconscious mind and the biology that goes with it, therefore this does not give a full view of how an individual’s behaviour is influenced. There is also not a lot of evidence to support the humanistic perspective and different theorist, such as Maslow have been criticised due to it biased view on the nurture debate. Lastly, the data collected from the humanist perspective can be difficult to compare due to the fact it is all qualitative data, therefore it may be harder to gain evidence on the way in which behaviour is learnt.
Another psychological perspective that I will be discussing is the cognitive approach. This approach is a structured approach that aims to understand and challenge behaviour. There are many strengths of the cognitive approach including the fact that it is an easy approach to learn and apply to different situations, making it easier for individuals to understand the perspective allowing them to focus on understanding their behaviour. It also aims for the individual to be independent, allowing them to have different views and ways in which they behave. The main strength of this perspective is the fact that it is widely used in health care to help explain certain behaviours, and to help individuals understand. There are also some weaknesses to the cognitive approach, some of which include the fact that it can be difficult to understand and use for individuals who can not follow a rational train of thought, meaning that only stable individuals would be able to properly understand and use this perspective. Another weaknesses of this approach is the fact that the cognitive approach does not deal with the underlying cause of the problems, and therefore it may only be a temporary solution for understanding an individual’s behaviour instead of solving the behaviour. Lastly, this approach does not focus on the biology of the individual, this therefore can cause problems when finding out the causes for the individuals behaviour and explaining their behaviours.
The final psychological perspective that I will be discussing is the Biological approach to psychology. There are also many strengths and weaknesses of the biological approach. The main strength of this is the fact that this approach is very scientific. This makes the evidence used be measurable and also reliable. This allows the evidence to be collected repeatedly without changing the results. This theory also applies to other areas, and helps link the approaches together. This is because joining the biological and cognitive approach together, makes Evolutionary Psychology. This helps find out more about behaviour as it allows to perspectives to join together and see different influences of behaviour. Another strength is the fact that there are many studies that support the biological theories that are reliable and valid, this allows solid evidence to support the biological explanations for behaviour. However, there are several weaknesses to this perspective. One of the weakness is that the biological approach focuses on the nature side of the debate, and only argues about genetics, this therefore does not give any insight into the environmental influences on an individual’s behaviour. Another weaknesses is that this approach believes that an individual’s behaviour is a result of their genetics, this means that they do not give much room for the free will of the individual and does not allow the individual to have any control over their behaviour. It also exaggerates the importance of genetics on an individual’s behaviour. Another weaknesses includes the fact that the biological approach does not recognize cognitive processes when looking at an individual’s behaviour, because they only focus on the genetics of the individual.
Overall, each of the psychological perspectives have strengths and weaknesses, however they all have a different approach to the individual and the behaviour the present. This allows individuals to get all the necessary information from different approaches in society.