Comparison of approaches

• Behaviourism


  • Explains human and animal learning in terms of simple stimulus-response connections
• Cognitive approach


  • Sees human beings as little more than information-processing 'machines'
• Biological psychology


  • Reduces behaviour to its basic physiological processes
• Psychodynamic approach

  • Describes the whole of personality as a conflict between Id, Ego and Superego
• Humanistic psychology


  • Advocates holism, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person
• Reductionist approaches


  May be more scientific as they reduce behaviour to independent and dependent variables
• Humanistic psychology


  Has fewer concepts that can be broken down to single variables and measured, so has less empirical evidence
• Humanistic psychology


  • Offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative to other approaches by seeing people as basically good and free to work towards their potential
• Humanistic psychology may be culturally-biased as its ideas are more associated with individualist countries
• Client-centred (person-centred) therapy


  An important form of modern-day psychotherapy led by Rogers, which sees the individual as the expert on their own condition
• Client-centred therapy


  • Therapy is non-directive, and the client is encouraged towards the discovery of their own solutions within a warm, supportive and non-judgemental therapeutic atmosphere
• Effective therapist in client-centred therapy

  • Provides the client with genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard
• Aim of Rogerian therapy


  To increase the person's feelings of self-worth, reduce the level of incongruence between the self-concept and the ideal self, and help the person become a more fully functioning person
• Client-centred therapy has been praised as a forward-looking and effective approach, but is best applied to the treatment of 'mild' psychological conditions
• Psychodynamic approach


  • Presents the most coherent theory of child development, tying its concepts and processes to specific (psychosexual) stages
• Cognitive approach


  • Stage theories have contributed to our understanding of child development, such as the formation of increasingly complex concepts (schema)
• Biological approach

  • Maturation is an important principle, whereby genetically determined changes in a child's physiological status influence psychological and behavioural characteristics
• Humanistic psychology


  • Sees the development of the self as ongoing throughout life, with childhood being a particularly important period and the child's relationship with parents being important for unconditional positive regard
• Behaviourist and social learning approaches

  • Do not offer coherent stage theories of development, but see the processes that underpin learning as continuous, occurring at any age
• Perspectives on nature vs nurture

  • Behaviourists see babies as 'blank slates' at birth, with all behaviour coming from learned associations
  • Biological approach argues behaviour is the result of a genetic blueprint, though the way it is expressed is influenced by the environment
  • Freud and humanistic psychologists see relationships with parents as playing a fundamental role in development
  • Cognitive psychologists recognise many information processing abilities and schemas are innate, but are refined through experience
• Reductionism

  The belief that human behaviour can be most effectively explained by breaking it down into constituent parts
• Holism


  The view that phenomena are best understood by looking at the interplay and interaction of many different factors
• Behaviourism, biological, psychodynamic, cognitive, and social learning approaches

  • Are reductionist in various ways, breaking down behaviour into smaller components
• Humanistic psychology


  • Formulates a holistic approach to understanding human behaviour, investigating all aspects of the individual and their interaction with others and society
• Determinism


  The proposal that all behaviour has an internal or external cause and is thus predictable
• Behaviourist, biological, and psychodynamic approaches

  • Advocate forms of determinism, seeing behaviour as caused by external influences, innate factors, or unconscious forces
• Cognitive and social learning approaches

  • Take a 'soft determinism' view, seeing people as having some choice within the limits of their knowledge and experiences
• Humanistic psychology


  • Asserts that human beings have free will and operate as active agents who determine their own development
• Behaviourist model of psychological disorders

  • Sees abnormality as arising from maladaptive or faulty learning, and uses behaviour therapies to condition new, healthier responses
• Social learning theory


  • Explains how negative behaviours like aggression may be learned through the influence of dysfunctional role models
• Psychoanalytic approach


  • Sees anxiety disorders as emerging from unconscious conflict, childhood trauma and the overuse of defence mechanisms, and uses psychoanalysis as a therapy
• Cognitive therapy


  • Aims to identify and eradicate faulty thinking, which is assumed to be the root cause of maladaptive behaviour, and is often combined with behaviour therapy as CBT
• Humanistic therapy


  • Based on Rogers' philosophy of closing the gap between the self-concept and the ideal self to increase self-esteem and stimulate personal growth
• Biological approach


  • Has revolutionised the treatment of mental disorders through the development of drug therapy to regulate chemical imbalances in the brain