Behavioral Perspective of Psychology

When it comes to psychology or psychologists, most people imagine a person lying on a couch and talking to someone about their problems. Maybe even rats, and monkeys running around being studied by humans. However, psychology has changed dramatically since the beginning of its time. Constantly expanding on new approaches, from structural, functional, psychoanalytic, to the most modern seven major psychology perspectives, one of which I am going to touch on in the contrast of this paper. In the early 1900’s John B. Watson introduced the behavioral approach into the world of psychology. He is now known as the founder of behaviorism. Watson was influenced by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov believed that, behavior results from within one’s environment. Well known behaviorist B. F. Skinner believed that we should use the behavioral approach to shape human behavior. Those who believed in the behavioral approach, viewed people and animals behavior and mental processes as being a direct impact or affect of their environment. They specifically believed, that we are a result of what we have learned from our environment. Behaviorism, mainly focuses on, how stimuli ( environment ) affects observable responses. Behaviorism is unique because, behaviorists believe in scientific methodology. They also believe that only observable behavior should be studied, being that it could be objectively measured. In the psychoanalytic approach, it is believed that in an unconscious state, there are thoughts, memories, and desires that people lack awareness of, yet these thoughts, memories, and desires have a great impact on one’s behavior. Sigmund Freud ( founder of the psychoanalytic perspective ) believed that events in our childhood can have a direct impact on our behavior as adults. When it comes to childhood, this could mean your neighborhood, ( environment ), family, peers, teachers, and so on. That’s why it is very important to watch what is said and done in the presence of young, and impressionable children. Thus in turn gives the two perspectives a common ground. In my opinion, I chose to elaborate on the behavioral perspective because, I, from my own personal experiences in my own life, and the observation of others and their life experiences, have found that, people tend to hold on to things that have happened to them in their past. Thus in turn, causes one to become very depressed, angry, afraid, and so on. I too, was once, one of those individuals, who held on to every trauma or shall I say bad experience that I have been faced with in my life. Through soul searching, and desperate desire of change in my life and way of thinking, began to de-root my issues from within. Noticing that holding on to my pain and fears was more traumatizing than just letting go. I then began facing my fears, and forgiving my pain. By doing so, I’ve noticed that I have become more of a happier person, able to communicate better, and more open minded to trusting again. I like this approach a little better than the others because to me, this approach is more of a realistic approach. I believe this approach is particularly of importance, because my belief is, the way to recovery is first admitting, addressing, and finding a solution to overcoming the obstacle, or obstacles holding you back. Critiquing this perspective, I would have to say that the strengths are, and I don’t mean to sound repetitive, however digging down to the root of a situation, and resolving the issues affiliated with the situation, is a great way to recover from the pain, memories, and various other obstacles that may be holding you back. In closing, though I am a huge fan of the behavioral approach, do not believe it would be a good idea for psychologists to focus only on the behavioral perspective. I believe there will be patients who do not, cannot, and will not want to talk about their underlying problems, fears, emotions, and so on. Another reason I do not think it would be a good idea for psychologists to focus only on the behavioral perspective is because all animals, human and no-human are unique in their own way. Not one animal, human or non-human, are exactly the same. The biopsychosocial model in psychology and medicine is essentially the idea that illness arises not just from a biological pathogen (as in the traditional biomedical model). However from a complex interaction of biological processes, such as genetics, brain functions, neurotransmitters, and evolution. Psychological factors, such as learning, thinking, emotion, personality, and motivation. And social forces, such as, family, culture, ethnicity, social class or social location, and politics. It suits many psychiatric illnesses particularly well. The interrelated influences interact with all of the seven major perspectives in modern day psychology. As far as conducting research, the biopsychosocial perspective may allow one to generate a more complex hypothesis and therefore have more complex findings at the end of the study. With that being said, there will be different problems, which need different approaches, to find different diagnosis, in order to give proper treatments. So again, though I deeply like the behavioral approach for my own personal reasons, believe that the biopsychosocial model approach, is the best approach to use in modern day psychology. My reasoning for this is because, the biopsychosocial approach, deals with more content. Thus for enabling better individual diagnosis’ and treatments for patients.