Psychology is a discipline studying human behavior and mental processes. It is a scientific study which includes diversity of perspectives and approaches. When psychology appeared there were two main theoretical perspectives such as functionalism developed by William James and structuralism discovered by Wilhelm Wundt. Functionalism was focused on exploring human behavior, mental processes and its cause. This very approach was the one which made an important contribution to contemporary psychology. In 1879 Wundt opened his laboratory devoted to psychology, it is considered that he also separated psychology from philosophy.
Nowadays there are several main perspectives in psychology which search for answers about behavior and mind; they are biological, cognitive, behavioral, psychoanalytical, humanistic, evolutionary and sociocultural psychology. Due to their diversity they cover a great number of topics such as "learning and memory, sensation and perception, motivation and emotion, thinking and language, personality and social behavior, intelligence, child development, mental illness etc." (McLeod, 2011). Each psychological perspective is aimed to explain how and why people behave using varying theories and methods. Despite there can be different theories within one psychological approach, it is always based on certain and common assumptions. Understanding and interpreting of human behavior requires examining various views and methods, that is why every perspective is very important and correct though it has its strengths and weaknesses. This work is focused on explaining main ideas of behaviorism, psychoanalysis and humanism.
Behaviorism is a psychological perspective concerned with observing and analyzing how certain environmental factors influence on one's behavior. Formally it was initiated in 1913 by John B. Watson after publishing his article "Psychology as the behaviorist views it". The author preferred studying human and animal behavior to exploring consciousness and mind. After Ivan Pavlov's observation Watson supposed that classical conditioning allows to explain all aspect of human psychology, "Everything from speech to emotional responses were simply patterns of stimulus and response" (McLeod, 2014). The theory of classical conditioning consists in learning new behavior with help of association, " two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response in a person or animal" (McLeod, 2014).
B.F. Skinner believed that the science of behavior could be achieved by scientific explanations and understanding of behavior could be reached by finding its causes and consequences. Thus, a theory of operant conditioning appeared and it consisted in changing behavior by reinforcing certain response. Despite some disagreements in views, all behaviorists supported the basic ideas by Watson that psychology is a science of behavior.
Behaviorism is a theory based on the results of scientific research and experimental findings which help to suppose main principles of personality formation analyzing the total of one's actions under certain circumstances. Such theoretical models are called social learning theories because they attract much attention to importance of social interaction and learning as the main point in personality development. Albert Bandura argued that child's behavior is learned through seeing and listening instead of formal training, this theory was called observational learning. Related theoretical models has a great influence on understanding of personality formation and application in education.
Researches conducted by behaviorists are reliable, measurements are precise; it allows them to involve scientific methods in psychology and becomes the strength of behavioral perspective. Moreover, behaviorism made an important contribution to solutions of many human problems, for example treatment by behavioral therapies and using operant conditioning for teaching.
In contrast to behaviorism, psychoanalysis explains behavior as the interconnection between various aspects of personality. Sigmund Freud developed first personality theories which lead to significant changes in various societies and disciplines and his ideas became fundamental for intellectual ideas of the modern psychology. The focus object of psychoanalytic theory was unconscious, Freud believed that human behavior was resulting from individual's brain, thoughts, ideas, wishes not accessing conscious part of the mind; there was a suggestion that unconscious processes operate naturally along with other biological functions.. According to the Personality Theories, "psychoanalytic theory proposes that personality characteristics are mostly a reflection of the contents of the unconscious part of the mind". Moreover, there was an opinion that unconscious protects one's mind from anxiety by repressing or pushing threatening thoughts and ideas out of awareness. Freud developed a theory about influence of one's experiences on his further life, especially how repressed events happening in the childhood can later affect on one's behavior, thinking and mood. It is caused by the theory that though undesirable information is kept in the unconscious it can leak out and be expressed through behavior. Such expression usually happens in hidden ways in order not to interrupt consciousness and Freud believed that dreams are the best area to look for the unconscious. So as to understand any unconscious information dreams should be thoroughly analyzed and interpreted. There are two notions concerning dreams: manifest content which represent things and events which happen in dreams and latent content which is defined as meaning of mentioned things and events. One more important finding by Freud is a Freudian slip, the author suggested that mistakes people make unconsciously have their hidden meanings.
Erik Erikson, who knew about Freudian psychology from Anna Freud, used psychosexual theory in developing his theory of psychosocial development and "converted Freud’s emphasis on sexuality to a focus on social relationships" (Personality Theories). Karen Horney, the author of most complete psychoanalytic theory of female personality development, believed that all differences between men and women were caused by social environment and the way how women were treated under certain societal conditions and parental involvement.
Humanism or humanistic psychology is another significant theoretical school in modern psychology, developed by Abraham Maslow. In contrast to psychoanalytical focusing on abnormal personality and the unconscious, the author insisted that psychology should pay more attention to the conscious. The main idea was that "human personality is primarily a matter of making conscious choices and rational decisions that are guided by our desire for excellence and fulfillment" (Personality Theories, p. 297). Unlike behavioral perspective, Maslow believed that psychology should be focused on the individual's inner life and mental processes instead of observing overt behavior.
The central idea of humanism is self-actualization, in other words, it is the motive power and highest motivation which acts as the final goal of inner personality and understanding ourselves. Such self-fulfillment is a process aimed to find and realize our true inner identity. Humanistic psychology considers self-actualization as a constant struggle in order to find a balance between identity's right needs and desires. Maslow developed the hierarchy of needs placing and arranging human needs and motivations into the pyramid of the same name.
Psychologist Carl Rogers found the concept of ideal self, in other words, what kind of person and personality to be is perfect for an individual; the other concept real self means what an individual is actually like. Thus, self-actualization is a try to unite both concepts.
According to the humanistic psychology, the best way to change one's behavior is to change the self-concept because an individual's actions depend on accordance with the concept of the self. "Self-actualization is the process of building congruence between our experiences in the world and our sense of self" (Personality Theories, p. 300). Despite the modern scientific approach to psychology, humanism has made a significant and lasting contribution to the psychological science and is still popular among general public.
Some scientists apply to a certain psychological perspective while others explore various views and approaches. Obviously, each topic can be examined from multiple points because it is impossible to give right explanations of a situation or behavior taking into account a certain aspect of human personality.
References
McLeod, S. A. (2011). What is Psychology?. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/whatispsychology.html
McLeod, S. A. (2014). Classical Conditioning. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html
Personality Theories. (2004). Psychoanalytic Theory. Chapter 8. p.278-316. Retrieved from http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/1530/1567154/278-316_CH08_61939.pdf
