Understand The Psychology Contemporary Approaches & A Positive Approach to Psychology A. Ranggabumi N.

Early Scientific Approaches to Psychology (Santrock, 2005) Wilhelm Wundt ( ) & William James ( ) begins the scientific approaches to psychology. Structuralism. The main research conducted by Wundt and his collaborators focused on trying to discover basic elements, or “structures” of mental processes. For examples, they describe three different dimensions of feelings: pleasure/displeasure, tension/relaxation, and excitement/depression. The most common method used in the study of mental structures was introspection (literary, “looking inside”).

Functionalism. In contrast to structuralism, which focused on describing the components of the mind, functionalism emphasized the functions of mind and behavior in adapting to the environment. Thus, in a way, the structruralists were looking inside the mind, searching for its structures, whereas the functionalist were looking more at what was going on in the person’s interaction with the outside world (James saw the mind flexible and fluid).

Contemporary Approaches to Psychology (Santrock, 2005) Psychologists still have an interest in the structures of brain and how they function. They also stress the importance of the person’s interaction with the environment. Efforts to understand the complexity of mental processes and behavior have given rise to a number of broad approaches in psychology. The following sections will introduce six contemporary approaches: behavioral, psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and sociocultural.

The Behavioral Approach The behavioral approach emphasized the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their enviromental determinants. In other words, the behavioral approach focuses on interactions with the environment that can be seen and measured. The principles of behavioral approach also have been widely applied to help people change their behavior for the better. John B. Watson ( ) & B.F. Skinner ( ).

Skinner emphasized that what we do is the ultimate test of who we are. He believe that rewards and punishments determine our behaviour. We do these things, say behaviorists, not because of an inborn motivation to be competent people but rather because of the enviromental conditions we have experienced and continue to experience (Skinner, 1983).

Social cognitive theory, as proposed by Albert Bandura (1925- ), stresses that behavior is determined not only by environmental conditions but also by how thoughts modify the effects of environment on behaviour (Bandura, 1986, 2001). Bandura believes that imitation is one of the main ways in which we learn about our world. To reproduce a model’s behavior, we must enter and store the information in the memory, which is a mental (cognitive) process.

The Psychodynamic Approach The psychodynamic approach emphasized unconscious thought, conflict between biological instinct and society’s demand, and early family experiences. This approach argues that unlearned biological instincts, especially sexual and aggressive impulses, influence the way people think, feel, and behave. Although Sigmund Freud ( ), the founding father of the psychodynamic approach, saw much of psychological development as instinctual, he believed that early relationships with parent are the chief forces that shape an individual’s personality. Freud’s (1917) theory was the basis for the therapeutic technique that he termed psychoanalysis.

The Cognitive Approach According to cognitive psychologists, your brain hosts or embodies a “mind” whose mental processes allow you to remember, make decisions, plan, set goals, and be creative (Reed, 2004; Stenberg, 2003). The cognitive approach, then, emphasized the mental processes involved in knowing: how we direct our attention, how we perceive, how we remember, and how we think and solve problems. This approach explains why remember some things for only a short time but remember others for a lifetime, and how we can use imagery to plan for the future.

The Behavioral Neuroscience Approach The behavioral neuroscience approach emphasizes that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion. Neuroscientists believe that thoughts and emotions have a physical basis in the brain. Electric impulses zoom throughout the brain’s cells, releasing chemical substance that enable us to think, feel, and behave.

The Evolutionary Psychology Approach Although Darwin introduced the theory of evolution by natural selection in the middle of the nineteenth century, his idea about evolution only recently became a popular framework for explaining behavior. The evolutionary psychology approach emphasizes the importance of adaptation, reproduction, and “survival of the fittest” in explaining behavior. This approach focuses on the conditions that allow individuals to survive or fail.

The Sociocultural Approach The sociocultural approach examines the ways which the social and cultural environment influence behavior. This approach argues that a full understanding of a person’s behavior requires knowing about the cultural context in which the behavior occurs (Berry, 2004). The sociocultural approach focuses not only on comparisons of behavior across countries but also on the behavior of people from different ethnic and cultural groups within a country (Matsumoto, 2001, 2004).

A POSITIVE APPROACH TO PSYCHOLOGY Can psychology make us happier? If you are like most people, you probably associate psychology with problems, such as deppression and eating disorders. Psychologist sometimes think that their field focuses too much on problems and not enough on the positive aspects of behavior. When the tone of psychology was believed to be too negative, two movements emerged to focus on the positive effects psychology can have on people’s live.

The Humanistic Movement The humanistic movement emphasizes a person’s positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and freedom to choose any destiny. Humanistic psychologists stress that people have the ability to control their lives and avoid being manipulated by the environment (Maslow, 1971; Rogers, 1961). Humanistic psychologist are interested in the choices people make and their motivations.

The Positive Psychology Movement Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi & Martin Seligman (2000) edited a special issue of the journal American Psychologist on the theme of positive psychology. 1. Experiences that people value subjectively, such as hope, optimism, and happines 2. Positive individual traits, such as capacity for love, work, creativity, talent, and interpersonal skills 3. Positive group and civic values, such as responsibility, nurturance, civility, and tolerance

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