To be able to assess all six psychological approaches to study you need to understand what they are and how they work. All five approaches have their own strengths and weaknesses and they all have their own theories which explain human behaviour, the only problem is not all of them agree that their theories and studies are correct.
Behaviourist approach believe that human beings are able to learn all types of behaviours through the environment they grow up in, its believes that we learn these behaviours through using theories, such as, Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning and Burrhus Frederic Skinner’s Operant Conditioning. Both of which show behaviour which can be learnt by training the mind of an individual to behave in a certain way, for example, potty training an infant. This approach also believes that human beings have no free will which means that their behaviour is firm by their surroundings. When a new born baby is born behaviourist believe that their minds are ‘tabula rasa’ which means a blank state. For example, the little Albert experiment which was carried out by Watson and Rayner, where they conditioned an infant boy, which they called Albert B also known as little Albert, to fear a white rat.
This experiment was the first ever study within psychology that proved classical conditioning can transpire within humans not just within animals. Watson and Rayner made sure their study was strictly carried out within a controlled environment and their findings were carefully documented. Doing this it ensured that Watson and Rayner study could be proven if this experiment was to occur again. As the experiment was carefully documented and controlled; which meant they were ensuring there were no problems with reliability. This was another way in which Watson and Rayner backed up their evidence.
Nevertheless, nowadays experiment would not be allowed to be carried out as it is unethical; as you cannot compare the behaviours of humans with those of animals; and goes against the ethical principles, such as, non-maleficence and beneficence. It lacks environmental strength, as little Albert may have come across or developed these fears before the experiment took place, if someone was to perform this experiment on other children it would be less likely to create the same response. This is due to the fact they only carried out this experiment on one child which makes it less reliable than if a sample of children were used. Watson and Rayner’s research overweighed the welfare of little Albert. In the future there is a high chance for little Albert to encounter emotional damage due to the study. During this experiment they did not take little Albert’s best interests into consideration, even more he was unable to agree on taking part in this study.
All the stages which were carried out for this study were created within a controlled lab instead of creating they within a real life environment, the main problem with carrying out the experiments within a lab is whether or not little Albert would have the same reaction when he is in an environment he recognises, for instances, the hospital he was used to.
The psychodynamic approach believes that all the behaviours and feelings of an individual are strongly influenced by their unconscious motives, and that an individual’s personality is made up of three main areas, these are the id, ego and super ego. The id is the impulsive part of a human being’s mind that directly responds to their instincts. The ego becomes an element of the id and it is there for working a person’s rational ways to which it can please the id’s demands. The super ego is to control the id’s impulses which include aggression and sex; it also persuades the ego to go towards moralistic ambitions instead of realistic one and is also there the help an individual the endeavour for excellence. I believe that this approach is worth it because it shows the positive and negative outcomes and it helps parenting easier so that they know what stages there child or infant is at also how they could deal with it. But however some stages are very strange if what the infant or child might happen to them in the future.
Its promise to scientific methods is strength of the social learning approach as its research studies are reliable and allow suggests about cause and effect to be drawn. However, this does give rise to the criticism that it relies heavily on research conducted in rather artificial settings. For example, some critics argue that the behaviour of the children in Bandura’s studies was significantly influenced by demand characteristics and that they were, in effect, deliberately producing the behaviour they thought the experimenters he wanted to see. The reason for the social learning approach is that it takes into account the cognitive factors that come between stimuli and responses, it addresses one of the most important criticisms of behaviourism which is neglect of thinking processes. Consequently, the social learning theory can explain a range of processes that behaviourism has difficulties with, especially behaviours which emerge without the person being directly conditioned.
The strengths of the behaviourist approach come from the methods it uses. For insistence on objectivity, control over variables and precise measurement means that the studies carried out by behaviourists tend to be very consistent, and the behaviourists can be attributed with introducing scientific method into psychology. However, behaviour may be studied under very artificial conditions. The common use of animals is a source of criticism.
Maslow was an American psychologist, he believed that we are all seeking to become the best we can possibly be spiritually, physically, emotionally and intellectually in which we go through a processes from self-actualisation. He constructed a theory known as hierarchy of needs, in which he explained that every human being requires certain basics needs to be met before they approach next level. Maslow (1943) formulated a more positive account of human behaviour which focused on what goes right. He was interested in human potential, and how we fulfil that potential. As each person is unique the motivation for self-actualization leads people in different directions. For some people self-actualization can be achieved through creating works of art or literature, for others through sport, in the classroom, or within a corporate setting. This approach is appropriate because make sure that they maintain that the person does not feel a higher need until the needs of the current level have been satisfied.