Concepts of Health and Applying Psychology to Health-Care - Schools of Psychology B Pillay.pdf

CONCEPTS OF HEALTH & APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY TO HEALTH-CARE SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY Prof B J Pillay Department of Behavioural Medicine  INTRODUCTION … Psychology became a discipline when the early pioneers decided to take the principles of scientific rese...

CONCEPTS OF HEALTH & APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY TO HEALTH-CARE SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY Prof B J Pillay Department of Behavioural Medicine  INTRODUCTION … Psychology became a discipline when the early pioneers decided to take the principles of scientific research and apply them to the study of human behaviour. These theorists contributions will help to understand psychology as a science.  Schools of Psychology PSYCHOANALYTIC BEHAVIOURISM HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY STRUCTURALISM Wilhelm Wundt Sigmund Freud Erik Erikson John B Watson B F Skinner Abraham Maslow 1880s-1920s 1856 -1939 1902—1994 1878 1958 1904-1990 1908–1970 Ivan Pavlov Carl Rogers William James Graf Christian von Ehrenfels Carl Gustav Jung Aaron T Beck 1902—1987 1849—1946 1859-1932 1875—1961 1921 1842—1910 COGNITIVE PERSON CENTRED GESTALT FUNCTIONALISM PSYCHOLOGY APPROACH PSYCHOLOGY  STRUCTURALISM Wilhelm Wundt 1880s-1920s  Sought to identify the building blocks or the structure of psychological experience Defined psychology as the study of conscious experience Structuralism focused on the fundamental elements that form the foundation of thinking, consciousness, emotions and other kinds of mental states and activities  Introspection –– procedure used to understand what was going through peoples minds as they completed various tasks. people are required to break down objects into their most basic mental unit. e.g a stimulus such as a bright green object or a sentence printed on a card, and asked to describe it in detail and describe what they were experiencing as they were exposed to it. Structuralism argued that the structure of the mind could be understood through the reports that people offered of their reactions/ experiences.  For example, A book is not merely a book, but had to be broken down into its various components, such as colour, shapes of letters and material on the cover. This was achieved through breaking down an experience into components: Physical sensations (lights & sounds) Affections/ feelings Images (memory and dreams)  Wundt was especially interested in how people process sensory stimuli. Through the method of introspection he was the first to draw the distinction between sensation (the effect of a stimulus on one of our senses) and perception (our brains interpretation of the stimulus). He discovered this by realising that when he asked people to listen to a sound and respond as soon as they heard it, they were much faster when all they had to say was whether they heard the sound or not, rather than to say what sound they heard. Concluded that the processing and categorising of sound took longer than the hearing of it, indicating that perception is a process that is separate but related to sensation.  However, peoples descriptions of their own feelings and reactions can be wrong. e.g. if you were asking subjects to hear a soft sound, subjects might hear a soft sound even if there wasn’t a sound. While introspection was valuable as an attempt to apply a scientific method to studies of the mind, some of its results suffered from our inabilities to accurately report our thoughts and feelings. FUNCTIONALISM William James 1842—1910  James was the major critique of structuralism and one of the leading proponents of the functionalist perspective. James thought that Wundt's method of trying to understand complex mental processes by subjects self reports was futile. The method of measuring would always change what you trying to measure i.e. subjective  Concentrated on what the mind does -— the functions of mental activity. Functionalists interested in what role behaviour plays in allowing people to adapt to their environments better. The ways in which behaviour allowed people to satisfy their needs. James suggested that when we repeat something several times, our nervous systems are changed, so that each time we repeat that action, it becomes easier to do than it was the last time.  James preferred instead to question why we behave the way we do. He wanted to understand behaviour in terms of its function in our lives, how it helps us or hurts us, and why certain behaviours are more common than others. Answered questions about behavioural features like why humans experience jealousy. James’ functionalism gave rise to the modern field of evolutionary psychology which looks at various behavioural and personality traits and the likelihood of passing on your genetic material to the next generation.  Wundt and James were some of the first psychologists to study the mind scientifically. Wundt’s 1st psychology lab carried out structuralist experiments which relied mainly on introspection which James objected to because it was too subjective. James functionalism – explained behaviour in terms of evolutionary terms to understand why certain behaviours were helpful to survival and others were not.  GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY Graf Christian von Ehrenfels  Gestalt also developed as a reaction to the elements approach of structuralism. Gestalt –– German word for form or configuration. German movement that focused on how we perceive whole objects and this is a question that is still relevant today. Gestalt psychologists noticed and described the way in which humans tend to shape ambiguous and incomplete stimuli into whole coherent pictures.  Gestalts believed that the mind cannot be studied by breaking it into elements because the mind functions as an interconnected whole. The mind cannot be studied as cause and effect. The mind must be studied in terms of how experiences are perceived meaningfully. The subject matter is the wholeness of the experience.  Gestalts call one of these ways that the mind works: emergence – the ability to see the whole without first noticing its parts. reification – refers to the minds ability to fill in an implied shape.  Gestalt psychologists were also interested in the way people tend to group the objects that they see i.e. perception and organisation Principles of perceptual organisation: Law of similarity observes that people tend to group similar items together. Law of proximity observes that people tend to use how close objects are to one another to perceive a larger image. PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS Sigmund Freud 856 -1939  Sigmund Freud (Austrian) theorised that unconscious forces act as determinants of personality. The unconscious – unaware part of the personality – which is a potential determinant of behaviour. Goal of therapy was to make the unconscious conscious The unconscious contains instinctual drives- wishes, demands, needs and desires – they remain hidden to avoid conflicts and pain.  Freud believed that his patients problems were caused by repressed memories of childhood trauma. Freud and others who followed this model like Carl Jung and Afred Adler used techniques of psychoanalysis e.g. talk therapy and dream analysis to try to expose and explore these unconscious memories and desires.  FREUD’S PERSONALITY THEORY 3 separate but interacting components i.e. the id, ego and superego Id — purpose is to reduce tension created by biological drives and irrational impulses, the id wants immediate gratification of its needs to reduce anxiety Ego — provides a buffer between the id and the outside world Superego — represents the morality of society as presented by parents, teachers etc.  Freud believed that personality development was motivated by how people dealt with their anxieties about realistic and unrealistic fears. Neurotic anxiety is when irrational impulses from the id threaten to become uncontrollable. Defense mechanisms therefore play a major role in this regard. Defense mechanisms are unconscious strategies people use to reduce anxiety by concealing the source from themselves or others.  DEFENSE MECHANISMS Repression: unacceptable impulses are pushed back into the unconscious Regression: people behave as if they are at an earlier stage of development by retreating to a younger age Rationalisation: justifying a negative situation in a way that protects our self esteem Denial: when a person refuses to accept or acknowledge anxiety producing information, most commonly used defense mechanism Projection: attributing unwanted feelings or impulses to someone else Carl Gustav Jung 1875—1961  JUNG'S THEORY 3 parts: Ego — is the conscious mind. Personal unconscious — anything not presently conscious but can be. Collective unconscious — all humankind shared a common mythological and symbolic past- our “psychic inheritance”  Jung described introversion and extroversion personality organisations. Introverts focus on their inner world of thoughts, intuitions, emotions and sensations. Extroverts are more orientated to their outer world, other people and material goods.  Jung suggested that the ultimate goal in life is to achieve individuation i.e. developing a unique sense of their own identity. This developmental process continues throughout life and may lead people down new paths away from their previous direction in life. Erik Erikson 1902—1994  Built upon the Freudian foundation. Erikson diverged from Freudian theory by de-emphasising the role of instincts and looked at how parents and society contributed to the development of personal identity. One of the main elements of Erikson’s psychosocial stage theory is the development of ego identity: Ego identity is the conscious sense of self that we develop through social interaction. Human beings go through a certain number of stages to reach full development from birth to death. COGNITIVE  COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Aaron T Beck 1921  Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes such as "attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and thinking". Focusses on how people know, understand and think about the world. Shifted away from understanding the structures of the mind to focusing on how people represent and understand the outside world within themselves and how this understanding influences behaviour.  The cognitive model suggests that cognitions (peoples thoughts and beliefs) are a central component to understanding abnormal behaviour. Unobservable thoughts influence behaviour and cannot be ignored. BEHAVIOURISM John B Watson 1878 1958  Behaviour should be the focus of psychology. Watson first advocated the approach. Watson’s argument was that you cannot define conscious any more than you can define a soul. Since you cannot locate or measure consciousness, therefore it cannot be the object of scientific study.  Normal and abnormal behaviour are responses to a set of stimuli, responses that are learned from past experience and are guided in the present by the stimuli that one finds in ones environment. Behaviourists rejected the idea that it is important to understand what a person is thinking. They considered how abnormal behaviour is learnt and observed the circumstances in which it is displayed in order to explain why such behaviour is occurring.  CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Ivan Pavlov 1849—1946  OPERANT CONDITIONING B F Skinner 1904-1990  Skinner was interested in specifying how behaviour varied as a result of alterations in the environment. Operant conditioning describes learning where a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened depending on its positive or negative consequences The organism operates on its environment to produce a desirable result. HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY  Emphasises peoples basic goodness and their tendency to grow to higher levels of functioning. This conscious, self-motivated ability to change and improve, and ones unique creative impulses make up the core of personality.  ‘The curious paradox is that when I accept itself as I am, then I can change.’ PERSON CENTRED APPROACH Carl Rogers 1902—1987  People know how to self heal — they know how to help themselves heal, they just needed some support from therapists to do so. People have a need for positive regard – a need to be loved and respected. Others provide this sense of validation and we rely on this. Unconditional positive regard (acceptance, respect and supportive behaviour from another, regardless of ones actions or words) allows people to grow and evolve cognitively and emotionally and develop realistic self concepts.  SELF ACTUALISATION THEORY Abraham Maslow 1908–1970  Different motivational needs obtained in a hierarchical order. Primary instinctual physiological needs e.g. food, water, sleep etc. must be satisfied before more sophisticated, higher order needs can be realised.  People need safe secure environments to function, this comes next. Physiological and safety needs compose the low order needs When basic lower order needs are met fulfilling the higher order needs of love, belongingness, esteem and finally self-actualization can be realised.  Transpersonal Psychology points to the view of the world that is fundamentally spiritual. Individuals who participate in religious or traditional rituals at times experience dramatic changes in consciousness that have a profound influence on the person’s life.  Cross-cultural Psychology Influence of cultural and ethnic similarities and differences on psychological and social functioning. Ecosystemic Psychology Emphasis on the interaction between a person or family and the larger social context such a schools, work places and social agencies  Community psychology How individuals relate to their communities and the reciprocal affect of communities on individuals. Researching unpleasant, undesirable, or problem situations in a community allows to uncover ways to make improvements.  African Psychology Relatively new approach in SA. Reaction to implied universality of western psychology which is mainly individualistic in nature.