PSYCHOLOGY PERSPECTIVES

PSYCHOLOGY PERSPECTIVES

QUESTION ONE

Humanistic theory

The concepts that I find important in the humanistic theory are free will, self-actualization and self-efficacy. The humanistic theory uses the concept of free will to recognize the fact that human beings have the power and ability to act on how they feel so long as they do not interfere with the free will of other individuals. The concept of self-actualization in humanistic theory recognizes the needs that individuals should meet first before claiming to have utilized their full potential. The concept is important in humanistic development since it acts as a guide on what to satisfy first. Self-efficacy is the ability of a human to judge and take given actions in dealing with various situations. Humanistic theory judges how well an individual can take action in a given situation. The concept that I don’t like about humanistic theory is the dysfunction concept that focuses on the disruption of normal social relationships of nature.

Behavioural theory

The behavioural theory concepts that I like include the stimulus-response, classical conditioning and reinforcement notions. The stimulus-response concept n behavioural theory is a concept that allows people to predict the outcome of behavior when an action is stimulated. The classical conditioning is a concept that allows the association of a given involuntary response to a given stimulus. The concept of reinforcement in behavioural theory focuses on the possibility of using a motivation to stimulate a given behavior in individuals. The concept that I don’t like in behavioural theory is the concept of punishment, which focuses on the negative outcome of given behaviours.

QUESTION TWO

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is a behavioural concept where leaning comes in the form of reward and punishment so that the behavior of an individual can be shaped. The operant conditioning allows an association to be created between a behavior and the possible outcome of the behavior. For instance, a young child may be conditioned to know that if he touches a hot surface, then he will get burnt. From the instance, the behavior is touching a hot surface and the consequence is getting burnt. Through operant conditioning, the behavior of the child will be shaped and he will avoid touching hot surfaces. Operant conditioning is known to take place through a different process. One of the processes is the reinforcement process that is known to strengthen a given behavior. The reinforcement may be positive or negative but it serves its purpose equally. Punishment is another process of influencing behavior in operant conditioning which is used to discourage a given behavior. Another process in operant conditioning is the response cost. Response cost is a process that is used to remove a reinforcement in a form of behavior that is not desirable and has a negative outcome. By removing the motivating factor of committing a given behavior, one can reduce the probability of the undesirable behavior from taking place.

The concept of operant conditioning has been applicable in my personal life. For instance, there are some of the behaviours that I needed to change so that I can improve my grades at school. One of the behavior was to increase the number of hours that I studied and I was able to do this by decreasing the number of hours I spent on the phone and playing video games. I was able to use the process of response cost since I removed the reinforcing factors such as phone and television and replaced them with reading hours and I was able to successfully improve my grades in school.