Essay About Different Perspectives Of Early Psychology And Observable Behaviors

Psychology
Psychology
As described, there are 10 different perspectives of early psychology. These
perspectives are: Structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt psychology, Behavioral,
psychodynamic, humanistic, physiological, evolutionary, cognitive, and cultural and
diversity. I will only be looking at three of these perspectives still in common use today
here is a summary of each.
The behavioral perspective “focuses on the observable behaviors; thus it does not
speculate about mental processes such as thinking.” (Davis and Palladino, 2005).Unlike
the other approaches, the behavioral perspective accentuates how it is important to learn
and understand and doesnt focus on coconscious. B. F. Skinner, a well known
psychologist, was a strong advocate of this thinking. He has since been called the
“greatest contemporary psychologist” (Fowler, 1990). Skinner basically took an easy
angle on his methods. “Behavior changes as a result of consequences (Bjork, D. W.,
1997). When it comes down to it, Skinner teaches basic skills.
When applying this type of psychology to young children you will see immediate
results and these can be long standing results. However, in young children, this method
will not give the parent ay idea of the motivations or thoughts behind that bad behavior.
Only reinforcing the correct behaviors will do nothing to help parents or teachers better
understand the feelings of the child or the internal factors that have contributed to this
behavior. Behaviorism works well in conjunction with the other theories below to help
parents and teachers gain a more complete understanding of not only their children’s
behaviors but “why” they choose to behave in a certain way.
The humanistic perspective “emphasizes free will and an individual’s control of
their own behavior.” (Davis and Palladino, 2005).This was more of a human approach to
psychology which was to look at and study humans by the choices they make. Laboratory
specimens can not possibly equate to what a human can achieve deeming any laboratory
experiment illogical. Instead of developing principals about their theories, they concluded
that each individual is their own being. Humanistic psychologists believe in the inherent
“good” nature