P1 – Explain the principal psychological perspecties
In this assignment, I will be discussing the principal psychological perspecties, and their beliefs. The psychological
perspecties I will be explaining are the behaiiourist approach, the psychodynamic approach, and the humanistc
approach.
Behaiiourist approach
The main belief of the behaiiourist approach is that we can understand any kind of behaiiour by looking at what a
person has learned. This includes personality traits such as shyness, confdence, optmism or pessimism, or
behaiiours such as asking to help with the dishes. Behaiiourists belieie that all human behaiiour is a result of past
experiences. The two main psychologists for this approach are Pailoi who discussed classical conditoning, and
Skinner who discussed operant conditoning. ien though these theorists both had diferent ideas about the
processes that were iniolied, they both explained behaiiour to be a result of learning. These are the two theories...
Classical conditoningg This theory was deieloped by Iian Pailoi. He was doing an experiment with dogs to
iniestgate their digestie system. The dogs were attached by a harness and Pailoi attached monitors to
their mouths and stomachs to measure how much they saliiated. One day he notced that the dog started to
saliiate when the food was brought in the room, but it hasn't tasted the food yet. It was thought that
saliiaton was a result of the food touching the tongue, howeier, it was later found that it was a reflex
response. Pailoi found this strange and made the discoiery that the dog was saliiatng because it
associated the lab assistant with food. He then deieloped his theory in the following way. Food led to
saliiaton automatcally, this is an unconditoned response. The food automatcally led to saliiaton, so it is
called the unconditoned stmulus. .ext, Pailoi rang a bell and showed the food at the same tme, the bell
was a neutral stmulus. He did this to see if the dog would learn to associate the bell with the food. Oier
tme, the dog learned to associate the bell with food, and would saliiate when the bell rang but there was
no food. Therefore, the dog learned the conditoned response of saliiaton to the conditoned stmulus
which was the bell.
Operant conditoningg This theory was deieloped by Frederic Skinner. Skinner was an American psychologist
who worked on discoiering the psychology behind learning new behaiiours. Most of his experiments were
carried out using pigeons and rats. His most famous experiment was the 'Skinner box', this is a box that has a
leier inside which releases food onto a pallet when pressed which reinforces leier-pressing behaiiour.
Skinner placed the rat in the box and it would run around snifng diferent objects. It would also accidentally
press the leier whilst running around which released food onto the pallet, and oier tme it learnt that the
leier released food. The food is reinforcing to the rat, something that it would like to haie more of, which
means that it is likely to repeat the behaiiour. There are two kinds of reinforcement, positie and negatie.
Positie reinforcement is when we repeat a behaiiour to get a positie outcome, and negatie
reinforcement is when we repeat a behaiiour to aioid a negatie outcome. Skinner looked into negatie
reinforcement by running a low electrical current at the bottom of the Skinner box. The current could be
In this assignment, I will be discussing the principal psychological perspecties, and their beliefs. The psychological
perspecties I will be explaining are the behaiiourist approach, the psychodynamic approach, and the humanistc
approach.
Behaiiourist approach
The main belief of the behaiiourist approach is that we can understand any kind of behaiiour by looking at what a
person has learned. This includes personality traits such as shyness, confdence, optmism or pessimism, or
behaiiours such as asking to help with the dishes. Behaiiourists belieie that all human behaiiour is a result of past
experiences. The two main psychologists for this approach are Pailoi who discussed classical conditoning, and
Skinner who discussed operant conditoning. ien though these theorists both had diferent ideas about the
processes that were iniolied, they both explained behaiiour to be a result of learning. These are the two theories...
Classical conditoningg This theory was deieloped by Iian Pailoi. He was doing an experiment with dogs to
iniestgate their digestie system. The dogs were attached by a harness and Pailoi attached monitors to
their mouths and stomachs to measure how much they saliiated. One day he notced that the dog started to
saliiate when the food was brought in the room, but it hasn't tasted the food yet. It was thought that
saliiaton was a result of the food touching the tongue, howeier, it was later found that it was a reflex
response. Pailoi found this strange and made the discoiery that the dog was saliiatng because it
associated the lab assistant with food. He then deieloped his theory in the following way. Food led to
saliiaton automatcally, this is an unconditoned response. The food automatcally led to saliiaton, so it is
called the unconditoned stmulus. .ext, Pailoi rang a bell and showed the food at the same tme, the bell
was a neutral stmulus. He did this to see if the dog would learn to associate the bell with the food. Oier
tme, the dog learned to associate the bell with food, and would saliiate when the bell rang but there was
no food. Therefore, the dog learned the conditoned response of saliiaton to the conditoned stmulus
which was the bell.
Operant conditoningg This theory was deieloped by Frederic Skinner. Skinner was an American psychologist
who worked on discoiering the psychology behind learning new behaiiours. Most of his experiments were
carried out using pigeons and rats. His most famous experiment was the 'Skinner box', this is a box that has a
leier inside which releases food onto a pallet when pressed which reinforces leier-pressing behaiiour.
Skinner placed the rat in the box and it would run around snifng diferent objects. It would also accidentally
press the leier whilst running around which released food onto the pallet, and oier tme it learnt that the
leier released food. The food is reinforcing to the rat, something that it would like to haie more of, which
means that it is likely to repeat the behaiiour. There are two kinds of reinforcement, positie and negatie.
Positie reinforcement is when we repeat a behaiiour to get a positie outcome, and negatie
reinforcement is when we repeat a behaiiour to aioid a negatie outcome. Skinner looked into negatie
reinforcement by running a low electrical current at the bottom of the Skinner box. The current could be
