PL1S128 Theoretical Approaches to Psychology Assignment Sample

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Introduction -PL1S128 Theoretical Approaches to Psychology Assignment

Human thoughts, emotions, and behaviour are the scientific study of Psychology. For students seeking help writing assignments on psychological theories, these approaches provide essential frameworks. It aims to explain how people interact with their surroundings, decide and grow with time. To develop this psychologists have created several theoretical approaches of different frames on the behaviour and mental processes. They help to explain why people do what they do and can be used in therapeutic interventions and applications to the workplace.

There are the behaviourist, the psychodynamic and the cognitive approaches. This behaviourism approach relates to observable behaviour and how conditioning plays a role in learning. According to the psychodynamic approach, more focus is laid on the unconscious mind and the roles played by that was experienced in early childhood. The cognitive approach studies internal mental processes such as memory, perception, and problem-solving. All of these approaches have something to teach us about human behaviour, but at the same time, they differ in their strength and weakness.

In this essay, these three psychological approaches are explored in detail. The first will explain each based on the key assumptions and research studies that relate to them. This will be followed by applying their use in therapy and workplace settings. A final evaluation will critically compare their contributions to their strengths, and weaknesses and the extent to which they can be amalgamated into a more complete understanding of human behavior.

PL1S128 Theoretical Approaches to Psychology Assignment Sample

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Behaviorism in the Workplace

Definition and Key Assumptions

Psychology has a behaviouristic approach that studies observable behaviour learned by conditioned behaviour. Behaviourism assumes that all its behaviours have been learned from the environment through interaction. People are born as 'blank slates' (tabula rasa), with their behaviours shaped by experience rather than innate. Behaviourists maintain that scientific psychology should only involve externally observable actions and not internal mental states, which are considered subjective and unobservable.

Conditioning is one of the principles of behaviourism, which is a process of learning associations between the stimulus and the response. This approach is very supportive of the idea that reinforcement (reward) and punishment will affect behaviour and that it will determine if an action will be repeated. The study of these learning mechanisms has given rise to behavioural therapies and applications across education, healthcare, and workplaces because people believe that understanding these learning mechanisms can help in shaping behaviour in desired ways.

Key Theories and Studies

There are two major theories within behaviourism: the classical conditioning of Ivan Pavlov and the operant conditioning of B. F. Skinner. The first one explains how individuals learn by association, and the second one by consequences.

In Pavlov’s well-known experiment with dogs, he demonstrated classical conditioning. Pavlov noticed that dogs naturally salivate when they are fed. He conditioned the dogs to associate the sound of a bell with food by repeatedly pairing the ringing with the sight of food, inducing the animals to salivate at the sound alone. This showed that it was possible to condition a previously neutral stimulus (the bell) to elicit an automatic response (salivation) if it is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food). Phobias and emotional responses can be learned and it can be explained by classical conditioning, and the approach has been widely applied to treat anxiety disorders (Halkiopoulos et al., 2022).

On the other hand, operant conditioning is how we learn through rewards and punishments. During research with rats and pigeons (in what is called in the trade Skinner’s box), Skinner showed that behaviours could be reinforced through consequences. On the other hand, if an action produced an unpleasant outcome (such as an electric shock), the animals were less likely to repeat the action. Skinner reasoned that Positive reinforcement was different from negative reinforcement and punishment (Anggriani, 2023).

Applications in Therapy and the Workplace

The behaviourist approach can be applied in therapy, for instance, in treating anxiety disorders and phobias. Usually, phobias are treated with systematic desensitisation, the technique of classical conditioning based on exposure to the feared object and situation and relaxation. This technique enables people to make new, less fearful associations and thereby eventually diminish their anxiety. Widespread in institutional settings, schools and psychiatric hospitals are other behavioural therapies, such as token economy systems.

The behaviourist principles are used in the workplace to improve the employee performance and motivation. Reinforcement strategies include bonuses, pay raises, or promotions that many businesses use to encourage productivity and efficiency and are considered quite effective. For example, those who do better than the targets might be paid for doing better. Like negative reinforcement, job satisfaction improvement could be applied by removing obstacles or reducing workload stress. Demotions or warnings may also be punishments to discourage unproductive or undesirable behaviour.

Evaluation of the Behaviourist Approach

The behaviourist approach has some advantages, particularly its scientific and empirical methodology (Fishman, Yang and Mandell, 2021). It focuses on observable and measurable behaviour, enabling rigorous experimental research and objective information gathering. The empirical fruit of controlled laboratory experiments, like those of Pavlov and Skinner, are intense. In addition, behaviourism has been widely used in the real world, for example, in education, therapy, and workplace management. Reinforcement principles-based behaviour modifying techniques have been proven effective in shaping some desirable behaviour in numerous situations.

However, the behaviourist approach has also been criticised for departing from its reductionist perspective (Le Coze, 2022). This approach ignores cognitive processes, emotions, and biological factors that shape human actions. To critics, humans are not passive learners and respond only to environmental stimuli. Thought, emotion and intention are essential parts of behaviour.

One limitation of behaviourism is that it has a deterministic view of behaviour that indicates environmental factors entirely shape behaviour and has no room for free will or personal agency (Silvia, 2021). The problem with this perspective is that it does not consider individual differences such as personality traits or genetic influences that influence behaviour. For example, two individuals subjected to the same reinforcement schedule might not always behave similarly, implying that factors beyond environmental conditioning are at play.

Cognitive Psychology in the Workplace

Definition and Key Assumptions

Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic approach believes that the unconscious plays an active part in human behaviour (Leonardi, Gazzillo and Dazzi, 2021). From this perspective, a large portion of human thought and action is motivated by activities occurring below the threshold of consciousness, including unresolved conflicts and repressed emotions. This theory indicates that childhood experience determines personality development, with early relationships and events contributing to long-term behavioural patterns.

This is an explanation offered by Freud that human behaviour results from internal conflicts prevailing between the different aspects of the mind (Bazan, 2023). These conflicts come from adverse experiences encountered in early life that continue and shape the person’s thoughts or inactions if the person is not even consciously aware of them. The psychodynamic approach believes that people must bring unconscious conflicts to the awareness and work it out to be psychologically well.

Key Theories and Studies

The tripartite model of personality is one of Freud’s most influential theories, which divides the psyche into three components: the id, ego and superego (Pourkhalkhali, Aghayari and Sadeghinezhad, 2024). Id describes instinctual drives that operate on the pleasure principle, i.e. desire instant satisfaction to their desire. The ego is the rational mediator between the demands of the id and the constraints of reality. Moral conscience is represented by the superego, a part of the ego formed in the reaction to the guilt instilled into it by the engendering influence of the community's conscience, such as societal or parental. The tension among these three components is continuous, and an imbalance of any of them may result in psychological distress (Luoma and Martela, 2020).

Another concept within the psychodynamic approach is the defence mechanisms. Freud maintained that the ego employs defensive unconscious strategies to prevent itself from distressing thoughts and anxiety. Denial involves refusing to acknowledge something challenging to accept, and repression entails throwing the thought ‘out of consciousness’ into the unconscious mind. Projection is when someone imagines that they did an unacceptable thought or feeling that a person has, and displacement is when someone turns the emotion towards a less threatening thing (Cheng, 2022).

Applications in Therapy and the Workplace

The psychoanalytic method is generally used as a psychodynamic method in therapies (Shahla Ibrahimova, 2024). Its therapeutic method is designed to help the practitioner bring unconscious conflicts to the surface via free association and dream analysis. Patients reveal hidden emotions and repressed memories under this boundless atmosphere (where patients are in free association and are encouraged to verbalise thoughts without censorship). Dream analysis explains symbolic meanings in dreams to uncover unconscious desires and conflicts (Shahla Ibrahimova, 2024). Certainly, psychoanalysis has been most suitable for the treatment of those conditions wherein a patient suffering from anxiety, depression or trauma can gain insight into his unconscious motivations.

Psychodynamic principles can be utilised in the workplace to understand unconscious prompts that will determine leadership style and work dynamics (Shepherd, 2024). If managers know that lingering personal conflicts have the potential to damage professional relationships, they are more capable of managing team conflicts with as little blowback as possible. This also formulates defence mechanisms in the workplace scenario, which the employers and the employees can utilise to understand the behaviours of the workforce, like resistance to change and inability to adopt or accept feedback. When people acknowledge their unconscious influence on the workplace, productive and healthy settings will develop.

Evaluation of the Psychodynamic Approach

The psychodynamic approach is one of the strengths of this approach because it focuses on early childhood experiences and the long-term impact thereafter on the personality and behaviour these persons will show (Midgley et al., 2021). This perspective adequately explains emotions and unconscious conflicts with a deep and comprehensive explanation that other psychological approaches may overlook. Additionally, psychodynamic therapy has served as an essential form of treatment for psychological disorders by providing insight into repressed memories and unworked emotional issues.

The psychodynamic approach has been criticised for lacking scientific proof in favour of its claims (Harari and Grant, 2022). The findings are based on case studies rather than empirical research, which makes them difficult to test. In addition, this particular emphasis on childhood experiences and sexuality has been regarded as excessively deterministic that is, people exert very little control over their adult behaviour. Furthermore, dream analysis psychoanalytic techniques are also subjective, thus limiting its reliability and consistency.

The psychodynamic approach has profoundly impacted psychology and is still used clinically today (Schmidt et al., 2025). It may not give the most scientifically rigorous explanations. Further, like all its fellow psychotherapies and workplace psychology, it has shaped the thinking behind the most modern psychotherapies and workplace psychology.

The Cognitive Approach

Definition and Key Assumptions

Psychology’s cognitive approach concerns thinking, memory, perception, problem-solving, etc (Chang, Li and Lu, 2021). The cognitive perspective differs from behaviourism in that it pays attention to individuals’ information processing and how these processes influence actions. It makes the assumption that human cognition operates similarly to a computer where information comes in, is processed, stored, and, when needed, is retrieved. According to cognitive psychologists, these mental processes may be understood, and this understanding may yield insight into decision-making, learning, and problem-solving (Paspatis and Tsohou, 2023).

This approach assumes that behaviour is determined by internal cognitive processes associated with stimuli rather than by them. This implies that people actively understand and react to their surroundings based on earlier known, experienced, and mental algorithms like schemas (Haavold and Sriraman, 2021). On the other hand, cognitive psychology emphasises the need to study these processes scientifically by conducting experimental studies of how memory, attention and reasoning work.

Key Theories and Studies

Cognitive psychology is a fundamental theory in which the human mind is compared to a computer of its information processing model. It implies that information moves in a step-by-step sequence that is input (perceiving), processing (thinking, making decisions and acting), and output (acting or responding). This model shows how information is being encoded, stored, and retrieved and provides an organised structure of cognitive functions.

The study by Loftus and Palmer (1974) on how external factors can influence memory is one of the most influential in cognitive psychology (Goldschmied et al., 2017). They proved their research on reconstructive memory where they showed that one word in a phrase, used to phrase a question, could change the eyewitness's testimony. In their experiment, people watched a vehicle crash video and the average speeds of the cars that went along together in the video when the cars 'smashed' 'collided' 'bumped' 'hit' or 'contacted' each other. The wording was a very important variable in estimating speed, and this memory is not an exact recording of events but a reconstruction which can be suggested by wording (Goldschmied et al., 2017). The significant contribution of this study has definitely been to forensic psychology, especially in legal proceedings where witness’s testimony is presented. Baddeley and Hitch’s working memory model is another big contribution to cognitive psychology, as it builds on earlier ideas of short-term memory.

Applications in Therapy and the Workplace

The broader application of the cognitive approach has been widespread in therapy, with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) being applied to various types of cases, such as depression and anxiety (Paspatis and Tsohou, 2023). CBT is based on the hypothesis that the causal factor for emotional distress and behavioural issues is negative thought patterns. Our work involved helping people see and question their irrational beliefs and create more healthy responses to those. For instance, someone with social anxiety will get automatic negative thoughts, 'everyone is going to judge me', which will result in avoidance behaviour (Paspatis and Tsohou, 2023). CBT helps people to replace such thoughts with more real and constructive ones, which reduces anxiety and increases the confidence of the patients.

Cognitive psychology particularly comes in handy in training, decision-making techniques, and managing cognitive overload in the workplace (Chang, Li and Lu, 2021). For example, companies employ spaced repetition and active learning techniques to increase employee knowledge retention. They also contribute to decision-making models in cognitive psychology whereby the leaders and managers determine the risk, process the information efficiently and avoid cognitive bias.

Evaluation of the Cognitive Approach

A large strength of the cognitive approach is that it is empirically based and scientific. Cognitive psychologists use controlled experiments, brain imaging techniques, and computational models to study mental processes (Taylor and Taylor, 2020). Therefore, a result is striving for objectivity and measurability. This methodology has contributed to our understanding of memory, perception, and problem-solving, with practical consequences on education, therapy and artificial intelligence.

A further plus of the cognitive approach is its relevance in real life. Cognitive therapies like CBT have been shown to be extremely helpful in treating mental health disorders, as have been studies to assist legal procedures based on research with memory and attention (Barrett and Stewart, 2020). This approach also promotes learning strategies, communication and workplace efficiency and is very suitable for everyday life.

Nevertheless, the cognitive approach has its ups and downs. It has been criticised for ignoring emotional and social influences in guiding behaviour (Hayes and Hofmann, 2021). This does not include an explanation of the role emotions have in the mind. It explains thoughts and the process of thoughts very well, but does not include emotions play a role in decision making and in mental health as well. Examples include when individuals respond irrationally because of their strong emotional influences, such as fear or stress, not because of faulty cognition.

Conclusion

Psychological research and practice have benefited from the psychodynamic, behaviourist and cognitive approach. The behaviourist approach is related to observable behaviour and the importance of learning through conditioning. Additionally, it has been a key resource for behaviour modification techniques and workplace reinforcement strategy development. Further, it is limited because it overlooks internal mental processes and emotional factors.

A deep and complex explanation of behaviour comes from the psychodynamic approach characterised by the unconscious mind, early childhood experiences and internal conflicts. Psychoanalysis has made wide application in therapeutic settings of this sort and within psychoanalysis itself. This perspective does contribute to understanding unconscious motivations and has been attacked for being unscientific and overdetermined by childhood and sexuality.

The cognitive approach deals with the mental processes of thinking, memory and decision-making. To this day, it has been very influential for therapy, especially for using CBT and programs aimed at learning and decision-making in the workplace. It has been criticised for its failure to take into account feelings and social influences on behaviour, a failing which has its strengths in explaining behaviour more simply and empirically.

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