Humanistic Approach

The humanistic approach in psychology developed in the 1960s and 70s in the United States as a response to the continual struggle between behavioral theorists and cognitive psychologists. The humanists brought in a new perspective, believing that the study of psychology should focus not just on the purely mechanistic aspects of cognition, nor purely on the impact of environment on behavior, but rather felt that the emphasis of psychological study should be on the particulars of human experience. For the humanist psychologist, the goal of psychological study isn't so much the total understanding of human behavior, but rather the ability to help people deal with life more successfully. In this sense, it is a highly therapeutic approach, as opposed to a purely theoretical one.

The humanistic approach has its roots in existential philosophy. Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Camus, and Sartre began to view the condition of man's existence on earth as somewhat "absurd". In an increasingly post-Christian European society, they felt that man had finally reached a state in which an honest appraisal of reality would give one the impression that the universe was neither benevolent nor malevolent, but rather totally indifferent to the trials and tribulations of humankind. Instead of reacting to this news depressively, however, the existentialists felt empowered with a sense of freedom and personal responsibility. Humanistic psychology takes its approach from this philosophy, attempting to help people come to terms with their often painful existence in the world by accepting the responsibility of their existential freedom.

1. One of the first major proponents of humanistic psychology was Abraham Maslow. Coming from a background of developmental psychology, Maslow attempted to develop a theory by which to explain the diversity of human needs and motivation. In the course of his studies, he was able to develop a model to express these needs that has since become quite popular across the world, being referred to as either the "hierarchy of needs" or sometimes "Maslow's Pyramid".1 
2. Carl Rogers was another of the important figures in early humanistic psychology. He was the first to advocate for the importance of "unconditional positive regard", a way of viewing one's self in which one is unconditionally positive and accepting, maintaining the right to be critical without being judgmental or overly harsh. For Rogers, this state of positive regard towards one's self was essential to psychological development, and in maintaining strong personal relationships. 

Evaluation of the Humanistic Approach

• Humanistic psychology is the psychological approach which states that the human is the most important thing, more important than the complex, the disorder, the behavior, or the environment. It seeks to help people live better lives through practical therapeutic measures.
• Humanistic psychology has its origins in existential philosophy. Believing that the universe is inherently meaningless, existentialists see themselves as ultimately free creatures able to define their own personally meaningful destinies.
• Abraham Maslow attempted to explain human motivation from the standpoint that all people are looking to achieve "self-actualization". There is an entire hierarchy of needs that have to be fulfilled in order to reach that stage however.
• Rollo May's existential psychology attempted to help people come to terms with the "meaninglessness" of life, reframing this "problem" as a profound state of individual freedom, free from the constraints of fate.
• Carl Rogers' approach to therapy was to allow clients to direct their own recovery through the principle of "unconditional positive regard".

PYCHO-DYNAMIC APPROACH

Psychodynamic Approach Assumptions

* Our behaviour and feelings are powerfully affected by unconscious motives.

* Our behaviour and feelings as adults including psychological problems are rooted in our childhood experiences.

* All behaviour has a cause usually unconscious, even slips of the tongue. Therefore all behaviour is determined.

* Personality is made up of three parts  tripartite. The id, ego and super-ego.

* Behaviour is motivated by two instinctual drives: Eros the sex drive & life instinct and Thanatos. Both these drives come from the “id”.

* Parts of the unconscious mind the id and superego are in constant conflict with the conscious part of the mind the ego.

* Personality is shaped as the drives are modified by different conflicts at different times in childhood during psychosexual development.

Psychodynamics is the systematic study and theory of the psychological forces that underline human behavior, emphasizing the interplay between unconscious and conscious motivation

The original concept of "psychodynamics" was developed by Freud suggested that psychological processes are flows of psychological energy in a complex brain, establishing "psychodynamics" on the basis of psychological energy, which he referred to as libido.

The psychodynamic psychotherapy is a less intensive form compared to classical psychoanalysis practiced by strict Freudians, demanding sessions only once weekly instead of 3-5 times weekly which was typical for traditional psychoanalysts.

Psychodynamic therapies depend on a theory of inner conflicts which surface in behaviour or emotions. Generally, one conflict is subconscious.

COGNITIVE APPROACH

The term cognitive psychology came into use with the publication of the book Cognitive Psychology. Cognitive Psychology revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people tick then the way to do it is to figure out what processes are actually going on in their minds. 

Cognition literally means “knowing”. In other words, psychologists from this approach study cognition which is ‘the mental act or process by which knowledge is acquired.  They focus on the way humans process information, looking at how we treat information that comes in to the person what behaviourists would call stimuli and how this treatment leads to responses. In other words, they are interested in the variables that mediate between stimulus/input and response/output. Cognitive psychology assumes our behaviour is an internal process including perception, attention, language, memory and thought The cognitive approach applies a nomothetic approach to discover human cognitive processes, but have also adopted idiographic techniques through using case studies

Cognitive psychology became of great importance in the mid-1950s. Several factors were important in this: -

o Dissatisfaction with the behaviourist approach in its simple emphasis on external behaviour rather than internal processes

o The development of better experimental methods

o The start of the use of computers allowed psychologists to try to understand the complexities of human cognition by comparing it with something simpler and better understood i.e. an artificial system such as a computer.

BEHAVIORIST APPROACH

Behaviorist theories of learning seek scientific, demonstrable explanations for simple behaviors. For these reasons, and since humans are considered to resemble machines, behaviorist explanations tend to be somewhat mechanical in nature.

For many years, these concepts from behavioral theory formed the basis of most of the learning theory applied in child rearing and in classrooms. Parents and teachers still find that, in many instances, individuals do learn when provided with the appropriate blend of stimuli, rewards, negative reinforcement, and punishments. Especially with small children and simpler tasks, behavioral principles are often effective.

They make use of one or both of two principal classes of explanations for learning: those based on contiguity simultaneity of stimulus and response events and those based on the effects of behavior reinforcement and punishment                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Behaviorism traces its roots to the early part of the 20th century, a time when many psychologists emphasized self-analysis of mental processes introspection or the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud. In contrast, researchers like Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson began to develop a framework which emphasized observable processes environmental stimuli and behavioral responses. The result was a new approach, behaviorism, which grew in popularity for some fifty years, becoming the dominant framework for experimental research. While its restrictions

BIOLOGICAL APPROACH

Biology is defined as the study of life from the Greek bios meaning ‘life’ and logos meaning study.

1.Comparative method: different species of animal can be studied and compared. This can help in the search to understand human behaviour.

2.Physiology: how the nervous system and hormones work, how the brain functions, how changes in structure and/or function can affect behaviour. For example, we could ask how prescribed drugs to treat depression affect behaviour through their interaction with the nervous system.

3.inheritance: what an animal inherits from its parents, mechanisms of inheritance genetics. For example, we might want to know whether high intelligence is inherited from one generation to the next.

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