Identifying Perspectives in Psychology Free Essay Example

Part: 1 Case Study #1: In neurobiological perspective of psychology, biologists like, Weber and van Helmholtz believe that the endocrine or nervous system is related to behavior. Mrs. B is feeling depressed because something is affecting her nervous system. Her body isn’t producing enough serotonin to control her moods and emotions. A humanistic perspective focuses on the positive outlooks of being human. It emphasizes on the importance of people’s feelings. Like how Carl Rogers came up with the “self-centered” therapy, which mainly focused on understanding one’s feelings.

It seems Mrs. B was very close to her father and her son, with her father’s death this could have made her feel lonely since a main source of love and comfort is gone.

Her father’s death could have made her feel insecure about life and given her a low self-esteem. Psychodynamic perspective emphasizes unconscious mind and early adolescent experiences. Mrs. B dropped everything when her father past away because she never resolved her phallic stage, Sigmund Freud’s third stage on psychosexual development.

In other words, it seems she had an identity through him rather than her own accord. Furthermore, with her child gone, it could implied that she probably spent a lot of time on her own as a child which may have triggered the sudden actions she has taken in her life.

Behavioral perspective is the idea that behavior comes from learning. Like how Ivan Pavlov trained dogs to salivate in a response to the sound of a tone.

Mrs. B doesn’t have control of her emotions. Rather than trying to deal with them, she dwells upon her issues without trying to resolve them. It seems that her self-esteem lowered when her father and child gone. Since she has never experienced this before, she feels overwhelmed and lonely.

Cognitive approach focuses on the importance of storing and receiving information and one’s way of thinking and reasoning. The only reason she is behaving like this is because of the unfortunate events of her father dying and her child leaving home. It is stressful to deal with these unfortunate events that lower her motivation to teach and be herself.

Case Study 2: In the neurobiological approach, Barry is feeling guilty because the lack of serotonin. His concentration and his attention to time is affected too from the lack of this chemical in the body. With a humanistic perspective, it seems Barry has a void in his love life and work life. In Abrahams Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, “the basic needs must be met before higher ones are satisfied.” Furthermore, since Barry didn’t reach his basic needs which were to go on a date with his co-worker it reflects his on higher need to go to a professional lever. This goes back to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; since he couldn’t fulfill the love part of his life he couldn’t fulfill the esteem part in his job.

In a psychodynamic approach, Barry’s behavior comes from his childhood or unconscious conflicts. Barry missed his project date because he is unconsciously feeling overwhelmed from coming to his blind date late and not apologizing. He is putting himself down because he feels that he is a terrible person for making her think she got stood up. In a behavioral approach, Barry’s behavior comes from learning.

John Watson’s experiments of classical aversive conditioning say learning from an unpleasant stimulus. He used to his daily routines, spending time with his mother and his computer. The fact the he has something new in his life, which was going on a date with his friend’s co-worker and coming late, affected him. With a cognitive perspective, Barry is behaving like this because his is trying to punish himself by affecting his job because he feels guilty for coming to his date late and not calling her, apologizing for coming late.

Part 2: Both the evolutionary perspective and social-cultural might explain the use of corporal punishment. The evolutionary perspective focuses on how Darwin’s theory of natural selection shapes one’s behavior. In biology, there is “fitness”, meaning the strongest survive. In this perspective, corporal punishment on children makes a stronger child and allowing them to spread their “strong” gene. The social-cultural perspective emphasizes on how different cultures affects behavior. Different cultures use corporal punishment on children is used to show authority, it shows children must respect their elders. It is also used to show children from right or wrong, teaching children what they should or shouldn’t do.

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get a custom paper by one of our expert writers.

Get your custom essay

Helping students since 2015