Download Unit G544 - Approaches to explaining human behaviour

Why do people behave the way they do?
An introduction
How psychologists explain human behaviour
Biological approach to understanding
human behaviour
• All behaviour is determined by genetic, physiological
and neurological factors
• The central nervous system and the ‘brain’ is a major
influence
• Normality is a properly functioning nervous system
Biological approach to understanding
human behaviour
The nature of psychological development
• Stages of behavioural & psychological development
are based on changes in brain growth which are
genetically determined (maturation)
Preferred method of study
• Experiment (on animals often rats
• and humans)
Biological approach to understanding
human behaviour
Major causes of abnormal behaviour
 genetic disorders
 organic (bodily) disorders
 brain disease or injury
 chemical imbalance / allergies
 mental illness
Biological approach to understanding
human behaviour
Preferred methods of treatment
• chemotherapy( drugs)
• electroconvulsive therapy; psychosurgery
Goals of treatment
• To alleviate symptoms or to reverse the underlying cause
(s) of the illness
Key Studies
• Maguire et al : Brains of London Taxi Drivers
• Sperry: The split brain studies
Psychodynamic approach (perspective) to
understanding human behaviour (Freud)
• Behaviour determined by unconscious forces
• The individual experiences unconscious conflict due
to opposing demands made by different parts of the
personality (id, ego, superego)
Normality
• A reasonable balance between id, ego, superego but
there is always some conflict
Psychodynamic approach (perspective) to
understanding human behaviour (Freud)
The nature of psychological
development
• Five psychosexual stages whose
sequence is determined by maturation
• An individual is shaped by early
childhood experiences
Psychodynamic approach (perspective) to
understanding human behaviour (Freud)
Preferred method of study is case study
Key Studies:
• Freud, S. (1909) Analysis of a phobia
in a five-year-old boy. Pelican Freud
Library, Vol. 8, Case Histories
• Thigpen, C.H. & Cleckley, H.
• (1954)
• A case of multiple personality.
Psychodynamic approach (perspective) to
understanding human behaviour (Freud)
Major causes of abnormal behaviour
• Emotional disturbance / neurosis caused by unresolved
conflicts stemming from childhood
Preferred methods of treatment
• Psychoanalysis in which the unconscious is revealed
Goals of treatment
• To uncover unconscious conflict and to achieve balance
between id, ego, superego
Behaviourist approach (perspective) to
understanding human behaviour
• All human behaviour shaped by
environmental forces
• behaviour is learned by
• classical & operant conditioning
• (Pavlov’s dogs)
Normality
• The possession of an adequately large repertoire of
learned responses
Behaviourist approach (perspective) to
understanding human behaviour
Major causes of abnormal behaviour
• learned maladaptive responses
• no distinction between symptoms and behaviour disorder
Key Study:
• Little Albert:
• J Watson & R Rayner (1926)
• Conditioned emotional responses
Behaviourist approach (perspective) to
understanding human behaviour
Preferred methods of treatment
– behaviour therapy
– systematic desensitisation
– aversion therapy, flooding therapy
Goals of treatment
• To eliminate maladaptive responses (phobias etc)
and to acquire new ones
Behaviourist approach (perspective) to
understanding human behaviour
• Classical conditioning
• With care & patience, it is possible to demonstrate the
conditioning of the eye-blink reflex in humans. In pairs
choose who will be the experimenter and the learner
• Experimenter - blow carefully (use a drinking straw )
across the eyeball. Now pair the puff of air with a gentle
tap on the back of the participants hand. Record the
number of pairings required to produce the eye-blink to
the tap on the hand alone.
Cognitive approach to understanding human
behaviour
• The human mind is compared to a computer
(information processor) as cognitive processes
select, code, store and retrieve information
• Key Study Areas: Memory, Perception, Language
• Normality
• The proper functioning of cognitive processes &
ability to use them to monitor & control behaviour
Cognitive approach to understanding human
behaviour
• The nature of psychological development
• Stages of cognitive development (Key Names: Jean
Piaget, L Vygotsky)
• Preferred methods of study
• experiment (mainly humans)
• artificial intelligence
Cognitive approach to understanding human
behaviour
• The major causes of abnormal behaviour
• unrealistic/irrational ideas about self & others
• the inability to monitor behaviour through cognitive
processes
• Key studies: Loftus & Palmer – how leading
questions reconstruct memory
• Samuel & Bryant: Asking only one question in the
conservation tasks
Cognitive approach to understanding human
behaviour
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Preferred methods of treatment
Rational Emotive Therapy
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
e.g. Pain clinics / depression clinics
• The goals of treatment
• To correct unrealistic ideas so that thinking becomes
an effective means of controlling behaviour
Key questions to ask about human behaviour
• Do people behave the way they do
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because of the sort of ‘person’ they are
the dispositional explanation
or
because of the situation they are in?
the situational explanation
or ‘a bit of both’
Key questions to ask about human behaviour
• Do people behave the way they do
• because of biological (nature) reasons
• or
• because of their environmental (nurture)
experiences?
• or ‘a bit of both’
Key questions to ask about human behaviour
• How can metaphysical mental
processes cause behaviour?
• The ghost in the machine!
Psychology of why people behave
the way they do !