health and care Essays

Submitted By sownia1310
Words: 1481
Pages: 6

P1) Explain the principle psychological perspectives.
The Behaviourist Perspective
The behaviourist perspective looks to understand human behaviour. The theory they have come up with is that all human behaviour comes from what they have learnt, such as being shy, or aggressive.
They assume that all behaviour is from classical conditioning which is Pavlov’s theory, or from operant conditioning, which is skinners theory.
Classical conditioning is when someone is trained to have a certain response to something.
Unconditioned stimulus is a natural event that happens in the environment causing a response; unconditioned response is when a human has an instinctive response to something that happens; a conditioned stimulus is when a neutral stimulus gets paired with the unconditional stimulus; and a conditioned response is when a human is taught a specific response to the new conditioned stimulus.
Operant conditioning is when a person/rat carries out a specific action and depending on the outcome, whether it is positive or negative the human/rat will either repeat it, or not do it again. There are two types of reinforcement, positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.
The Biological Perspective
The biological perspective is based around Arnold Gesell’s theory that development happens according to a sequence of maturational processes. As soon as a person is conceived they start to mature according to their genes.
As the person is developing their genes allow them to grow into the person that they are supposed to be; support should be provided by the environment for the unfolding of talents, skills, personality and interests, however the main thing that drives this development is the maturation process.
The circadian rhythm refers to the ideas that we have a body clock. The human body does things in a 24-25 hour cycle, specific physiological things in the human body occur at the same time every day. The core body temperature is 36.7OC though it can vary between 36.1 - 37.2 OC, when the human body is at its warmest, then the person is most alert, however when it is at its coldest then the person will feel sleepy and be least alert.
The pineal gland creates a hormone that is known as melatonin, the more melatonin that gets released the sleepier a person becomes, when it is dark there is an increase in the amount of melatonin that is released and in the light there is a decrease.
The Humanistic Perspective
The humanistic perspective understands human experiences from the view point of the individual; it looks at freewill and the belief that everyone is able to make their own choices.
The humanistic perspective focuses on the individual, the fact that everyone is different, unconditional positive regard, non-judgemental, active listening, empathy, self-concept, and self-esteem.
The humanistic approach sees people as individual humans that we may not fully understand and however we still accept; accept the fact that every individual is different.
Having unconditional positive regard towards a person without any conditions, so no matter they do you will always have a positive regards to them.
The humanistic approach believes that a person being human and their behaviour should be separated; they feel that every individual deserves to be listened to without being judged.
The humanistic approach depends on active listening, humans find it difficult to listen to a person if they get distracted, don’t agree with what they are saying, prejudice towards the way they look, speak or dress, or simply aren’t interested in what they are saying.
Empathy is when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes. The humanistic approach feels like it is important to understand to empathise with individuals.
Self-concept is how a person sees themselves, the way a person sees themselves can all be influenced by what they were told as a child, how we judge ourselves through the things we succeed and fail in, as well as a person’s