Posted: March 5th, 2022

Psychology

Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, its functions and how it affects behavior. Psychology analyzes the various parts of the brain, feelings, and thoughts. It also analyzes cognitive processes, perception, attention, personality, and intelligence. William James developed functionalism in psychology. Functionalism look at what causes behavior and mental processes involved.
There are different types of psychology, these include; clinical, evolutionary, forensic, developmental, health and occupational psychology. Psychologists analyze the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind and try to figure out the relationship between physiological and biological processes that affect cognitive processes and behaviors. Psychology also involves an analysis of how mental processes affect behavior and interpersonal relationships.
Behavioral
Behavioral psychology examines how behavior relates to the mind. It states that behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Conditioning is exposure and interaction with environmental stimuli. There are two types of conditioning; classical and operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is linked to the outcomes or consequences of the action if the consequences are positive then the action is more likely to happen again if they are negative the action is not likely to reoccur. The classical condition states that if a neutral stimulus is paired with a natural stimulus for some time. When the natural stimulus is withdrawn the neutral stimuli will bring about the same response.
Biological
Biological psychology relates human behavior to genes and physiology. It analyzes behaviors based on biological and physiological processes. There are three views of the biological approach. The comparative method, physiology, and investigation of inheritance. Investigation of inheritance finds out whether a behavior is inherited from parents. Comparative methods compare different species of animals to understand human behavior. Physiology finds relations between behavior, hormones and nervous system.
Biological psychologists have conducted several studies on animals relating to language, perception, and sleep. The brain is studied through neurosurgery, scanning, and electroencephalograms. Rene Descartes was one of the first people who discovered biological psychology. He believed that the pineal gland connected the body and mind.
Cognitive
Cognitive is the study of mental processes and how they affect behavior. These include perception, attention, memory, and metacognition. Metacognition is what one thinks about his or her thoughts. Attention is the filtration of data as the mind is only able to concentrate on a small amount of data. Perception includes all the senses such as touch and smell and the mental processes involved in perceiving. There are two types of memories; short memory and long memory. The short memory is only able to temporarily store data. The brain collects data, processes, and stores it before responding.
Social
Social psychology is the study of how social relations affect our behaviors. According to Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, people’s behavior can be modeled. People learn behaviors from others. Cognitive dissonance theory by Festinger also states that dissimilar believes and attitudes causes dissonance.
Social relations play an essential role in shaping behaviors. They not only allow individuals to understand how other people perceive them but also enable them to come up with a perception about themselves that makes them act, think and feel the way they do.
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is based on the idea that there are unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories that affects a person’s behavior. Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis he argued that moving thought from the unconscious to the conscious allows one to deal with that issue. According to him disorders such as stress and anxiety are caused by a conflict between the conscious and the unconscious.
Psychoanalysis can be used to rectify some mental disorders. This occurs by taking the unconscious to the conscious. It increases awareness of unconscious thoughts, repetitive behavior, and emotions. Psychoanalysis is long term care as the psychoanalyst has to understand the causes of the problem and help a patient overcome it gradually.
Existential-humanistic theories.
Existential humanistic theories emerged in the 1950s during the humanistic psychology movement in Europe and the United States. It was founded by Abraham Maslow. The theory states that human beings can make choices and are aware of themselves. There are two approaches to this theory. The humanistic approach highlights that human beings can establish relationships for the good of others and themselves.
The existential approach states that people should be authentic and responsible. Particularly, when they face anxiety, they should look for philosophical meaning. Acting authentically helps people live meaningful lives.