Affiliated School
Identify the major schools of thought in psychology and examine their major underlying assumptions.
Psychology is founded on the premise of schools of thought structuralism and functionalism. These two schools were the first and are based on introspection and breaking down of mental processes. Behaviourism is yet another school that states we are products of nurture and not nature (Rad, 2010). We become accustomed to reacting to the stimuli that surrounds us in our lives. Psychoanalysis was started by Freud and it states that the behaviour is influenced by unconscious mind.
Humanistic is also another school and it is based on the premise that people have free will to choose what is right and what is wrong. This was a reaction to the psychoanalysis school. This school states that our behaviours are not a product of unconscious mind but are as a result of our conscious decisions. It is under this school that there is the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Rad, 2010). Cognitive is another school and it studies how people think and how they perceive issues.
Identify the primary biological foundations of psychology linked to behaviour.
Psychology is the study of behaviour and mental processes that happen due to biological effects. This is because when someone is said to have a mental disorder that does not allow him to function normally, then it means that some nerves and neurons are not functioning well (Hardcastle, 1999). This means it is a biological reason as well. Psychological issues also lead to biological issues, for instance when someone is said to have clinical depression one of the major signs is lack of appetite and loss of weight.
The biological side of the body influences the psychological part, this is because genetics can affect how a person is behaving. The neurons are the ones that send messages from the body to the mind initiating the behaviour for example when someone sees something scary a message is send and the cognitively one will experience fear and reacts by running away (Hardcastle, 1999).
References
Rad R. Roya, (2010), Psyche and self’s Theories in Psychology: a Concise Comparison, Orthodox Print Press, New York
Hardcastle Gray Valerie, (1999), Where Biology Meets Psychology: Philosophical Essay, Prentice Hall Press, New Jersey
