Psychology Theories and Self Reflection

Psychology Theories and self-reflection

Kathleen McKenna

NorQuest College

Psych 1060 & Section one

Assignment One

Jocelyn Beaudette-Hodsman

November 9th, 2010

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Psychology Theories and Self Reflection

According to the Webster's dictionary the word psychology means "the science of mind and behaviour" (Merriam-Webster's, 2010). There are many different theories that have influenced psychology, but when I look at my life there are three that stand out from all the rest that I will be talking about in this paper those three theories are behaviourism, humanism, and psychoanalytic.

Behaviourism

There were many different theorists that had impact on the behaviourist perspective I am going to discuss two of them John B. Watson and B.F Skinner. We start with John B. Watson who didn't believe that behaviour was influenced by the unconscious mind (Huffman, Younger, & Vanston, 2010 pg. 10). He believed like Ivan Pavlov, the Russian physiologist, that behaviour was based on classic conditioning, which is behaviour training you take a stimulus and pair it with a response. Psychologist B.F. Skinner furthered the behaviourist perspective with his concept of operant conditioning, which demonstrated the effect of punishment and reinforcement on behaviour which could then in turn could change the way one behaves (Huffman et.al. 2010 pg. 10). Peoples personal views on this theory vary as it is believed that you as a person can control your own behaviour you just have to want it bad enough. The impact of behaviourism was enormous, and this school of thought continued to dominate for the next 50 years until people started to see that there are many things that influence ones behaviour instead of just what is learned.

Self-Reflection

I can see that the behaviourist perspective had an influence in my life when I was growing up and I also use it with my own children. When I was younger my father was very abusive and he used to hit us with a belt and I knew that any time I see that belt I was going to get hit, so in a way that is like classic conditioning. It didn't matter if I was in trouble or not I would jump at the sight of the belt.

I as a mom tend to use the operant conditioning with my own children. I tell them that with any behaviour it is going to have a consequence and that it could be bad or good depending on the behaviour. When I was potty training my little girl I used this, if my daughter peed on the potty I used to give her stickers as a reward to that and if she had an accident she would not get one which helped so she put the two together and knew that all she would have to so is pee on the potty and she would get positive reinforcement instead of negative.

Humanistic Theory

The humanistic theory which emerged in the 1950's is based largely on how we as humans tend to perceive and understand the world which could also mean that all people are good. Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were the ones that were mainly responsible for developing this theory (Huffman, et al, 2010 pg. 341). Rogers believe that people could help themselves and find self-fulfilment by looking at how they see themselves as a whole. Some people question if this is true in the fact that there are people who think that they are nothing and don't matter in this world. If you have a person that has a low self-esteem how is possible to see yourself as a good person and who is happy? Well that question can be answered with the following Roger's believe that if this person had some childhood experience that was either good or bad that it affected that feeling. Rogers also had four basic concepts that he believed would help change a person's thinking and help that be happy there are unconditional positive regard, non-judgmental attitude, disclosure, and reflection , by using these four concepts a person can change how they look at themselves (Heffner, 2001).

Abraham Maslow focused on the positive and not negative of how people viewed themselves. He is responsible for creating the Hierarchy of Needs which include physiological (satisfaction of hunger and thirst), safety (security), belongingness and love (being loved, avoiding loneliness), esteem (achievement, recognition, self-esteem), self-actualization (realization of one's full potential)