Psychology

Experimental psychology sets up experiments to see how individuals act

Clinical psychology develops programs for treating individuals suffering from mental illnesses & behavioural disorders

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORYSigmund Frued

The mind is divided into 2 parts: The conscious (part we’re aware of) and the unconscious

(part we are not aware of)

Unconscious mind has more influence on personality & behaviour

Can be further divided into 3 parts: The id encourages us to seek physical satisfaction The superego prompts us to do the moral thing The ego referees between the two and deals

with external reality

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN PSYCHOLOGY

Psychoanalytic Theory – cont’d Believe that criminal behaviour is caused by frustration

stemming from early childhood experiences By treating the unconscious mind, one can alleviate

neuroses (do this through dream analysis & hypnosis) Many criminals and people with neuroses can be treated

successfully in this manner

Freud felt that individual sexual satisfaction/frustration was the key element in personality development•Highly influential in psychology•He emphasized individual counselling•Formed the basis of modern clinical psychology

Learning Theory Humans born with little instinct but much

learning potential

Most human behaviour is learned

By controlling the way humans learn, society can have a great influence on a person’s personality

Ivan Pavlov Experiments with

dogs showed that it was possible to get a dog to associate the sound of a bell with the arrival of food

At sound of bell, dog would salivate in anticipation

B.F. Skinner Pigeons could be

trained to peck at a particular coloured disk to get food rewards

Rats received food rewards for pressing a bar in a complicated sequences

this led theorists to believe that learning was a stimulus-response effect (if correctly stimulated, it will give the appropriate response)

proposed that children who were brought up in loving families would grow up to become secure & loving adults

Alfred Bandura - Bobo the Clown

experiment

learning is a modelling experience

(We tend to do what we see)

Behaviourism – a sub school of thought within learning theory

Use behaviour modification to create change Psychologists can predict & control or modify

human behaviour by identifying the factors that motivate it in the first place

Emphasis on the early childhood years, & on the rules or practices parents use to raise their children

Child-rearing methods have a huge influence on the character of individuals

John B. Watson

Founder of behaviourism Used animal experiments to determine whether

strict or flexible learning patterns are more effective

Children should be brought up using a “scientific,” strictly scheduled, rules-based model

“ Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years. [Behaviorism (1930), p. 82

Benjamin Spock

Believed that a permissive approach to child rearing would result in successful, well-adjusted adults

Encouraged parents to be loving, flexible, and supportive