Analyse and Evaluate the Psychodynamic, Cognitive and Behavioural Appraoches to Psychology

Analyse and evaluate the Psychodynamic, Behaviourist and Cognitive approaches to psychology, include in your answer the difference between classical and operant conditioning and compare the theories of conditioning to other approaches.

Freud (1856-1939) pioneered the Psychodynamic approach creating theories such as The Three States of Mind; where any decision we make is influenced by unconscious mental processes; that the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious areas of our mind decide the outcome of our choices. He also suggested that our personality has 3 major components; the Id, the Ego and the Super-ego which determine the way we behave. The Id and the Super-ego are in constant conflict creating anxiety which leads the ego to develop a number of defence mechanisms for example; denial and repression, in order to protect itself.

Freud also developed the psychosexual stages of development, this stemmed from the idea that as we develop, our libido (sexual energy) is focused on different areas of the body – the oral stage,, for example focuses on the mouth and pleasure is gained from biting and sucking. Depending on how we pass through these stages determines our personality as adults.

The main strength of the psychodynamic perspective is the way it can explain a wide variety of atypical psychological conditions and also identified the fact that childhood is an important period in our development, influencing some adult behaviour.

One of the many criticisms of the psychodynamic perspective is that is highly subjective and its ideas, such as that much of our mental life exists at an unconscious level are hard to test scientifically. Most of Freud's theories are based on case studies of individuals and as such shouldn't be applied in general terms. It is also felt that this approach suggests that humans have no free will; as childhood behaviour is dependent on innate forces (libido) and adult behaviour as dependant on early childhood experience and its effect on the unconscious mind.

The Behaviourist Approach is based on the assumptions that behaviour is learned from the environment and is determined by reinforcement or punishment. Also that observable behaviour, not minds should be studied. Behavioural psychologists also recognise that it is valid to generalise from animal behaviour to human behaviour.

Two important theories proposed by this perspective are Classical conditioning and Operant conditioning, both of which centre around the belief that all learning can be explained in terms of stimulus and response

Classical Conditioning was pioneered by Pavlov and demonstrates how behaviour is learned through association of two stimuli. For example Pavlov conducted an experiment to see if he could stimulate an involuntary response of salivation in dogs, he combined the presentation of food with the sound of a ringing bell and within time the dogs began to salivate upon hearing