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 doesn't 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 of all people.

The humanistic approach to psychology offers parents and teachers many ways to

be non-judgmental when approaching children about incorrect or "bad" behaviors.

Educator's and parents need to be very careful, in my opinion, when using only this

approach with their children. Humanists will not label any behavior as "bad" or "wrong"

but instead they will focus on the individuals right to choose what they will do or what

decision they make on their own. In schools today I believe we place to much emphasis

on making the child feel they have done well no matter the level of work they have

produced or the actions they have chosen to take. The humanistic approach can work well

when trying to improve a child's self-esteem or cure shyness but, when a child is not told

they are doing something wrong how will they then learn what is considered right and

wrong in society? "We've got youngsters here now who . . . are under the authority of the

school [and] are being persuaded that there is a better way, and that way is to make their

own decisions. They're being induced to make decisions about activities that the citizenry

of the state have decided are wrong" (http://www.probe.org/docs/psy-educ.html) When

used in conjunction with behaviorism and cognitive psychology a child will gain a much

better understanding of their place in the world as well as what is expected of them in

regards to behavior.

"Many psychologists have accepted the cognitive perspective - where the focus

is on how thought occurs, memory processes, and information storage and utilization -

and currently conduct research in the area of cognitive processes." (Davis and Palladino,

2005) This focused more on the thinking remembering, and storing of information in the

mind, unlike the behaviorists, who only focused on observational behaviors. For about a

40 year period, there was no attention being paid to this area. George Miller and Jerome

Bruner established the "Center for cognitive Studies at Harvard University in 1960, and

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