Psychological Perspectives for Health and Social Care - Unit 8

This report, addressing Unit 8: Psychological Perspectives for Health and Social Care, provides a comprehensive overview of the principal psychological perspectives. It delves into behaviorist, social learning, psychodynamic, biological, and humanistic approaches, explaining their core assumptions and applications. The report examines how these perspectives inform health and social care practices, discussing learning through conditioning, observational learning, the influence of unconscious forces, the impact of genetics and physiology, and the importance of personal growth and self-actualization. The assignment analyzes the main psychological perspectives, exploring the implications of each approach for understanding and addressing health and social care needs. The report also explores the practical implications of these approaches in real-world health and social care scenarios.

UNIT 8 PSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVES FOR HEALTH AND
SOCIAL CARE January 19, 2016sihaan08
Content page
P1 Explain the principal psychological perspectives
P2 Provide an explanation of the different psychological approaches to
health care practice
P3 Provide an explanation of the different psychological approaches to social
care practice
M1 assess different psychological approaches to study
M2 compare two psychological approaches to health and social care service
provision.
D1 evaluate two psychological approaches to health and Social care service
provision.
p1 In this assignment I will explain the principle psychology perspective.
unit 8 psychological perspectives for health and social care
in this assignment I will explain the principal psychological perspectives.
The main psychological perspective
An approach is a perspective that involves certain assumptions about human
behaviour, the way they function, which aspects of them are worthy of study
and what research methods are appropriate for undertaking this study. There
may be several different theories within an approach but they all share these

common assumptions. Sometimes people wonder why there are so many
different psychology perspectives and whether one approach is correct and
others wrong. Most psychologists would agree that no one perspective is
correct, although in the past in the early days of psychology, the
behaviourist would have said their perspective was the only true scientific
one.
The psychological perspective is the result of a synthesis of cognitive and
behavioral psychology theories. In this tradition of research, three strategies
are clear: (1) the adoption of attitude change as the most interesting
dependent variable, (2) the modeling of communication (i.e., persuasion) as
a special case of behavioral learning theory, and (3) the reliance on
experimental social psychology for conceptual and methodological research
strategies. The basic communication model proposed by Hovland and Janis
(1959) conceived of the communication situation in terms of message
content, source identity, type of channel, and setting operating through
predispositional factors (situational elements that determine what audience
members attend to and how) and internal mediating processes (attention,
comprehension, and acceptance) in order to produce observable
communication effects (changes in opinion, perception, affect, and action).
The challenge of a message was to gain the receiver’s interest, then produce
the intended effect with understandable and memorable content. The
receiver’s interest, of course, could be affected by external qualities of the
subject of communication or sender, as well as internal interests, beliefs, and
cognitive processing capacities (Andersen, 1972). Thus, the model retained
the linear notion of technical communication theories but adopted a strong
emphasis on the effects component of the communication process.
Main psychological perspectives are:
 Behaviourist approach
 Social learning theory
 Psychodynamic perspective
 Biological approaches
 Humanist approach
The behaviourist approach
Behaviourism is an approach to psychology that emerged in the early 20th
century as a reaction to the psychoanalytic theory of the time.
Psychoanalytic theory often had difficulty making predictions that could be
tested using rigorous experimental methods. The behaviourist school of
thought maintains that behaviours can be described scientifically without
recourse either to internal physiological events or to hypothetical constructs
such as thoughts and beliefs. Rather than focusing on underlying conflicts,

behaviourism focuses on observable, overt behaviours that are learned from
the environment.
Its application to the treatment of mental problems is known as behaviour
modification. Learning is seen as behaviour change moulded by experience;
it is accomplished largely through either classical or operant conditioning.
In the second half of the 20th century, behaviourism was expanded through
advances in cognitive theories. While behaviourism and cognitive schools of
psychological thought may not agree theoretically, they have complemented
each other in practical therapeutic applications like cognitive-behavioural
therapy, which has been used widely in the treatment of many different
mental disorders, such as phobias, and addiction. Some behaviour therapies
employ Skinner’s theories of operant conditioning: by not reinforcing certain
behaviours, these behaviours can be extinguished.
Skinner’s radical behaviourism advanced a “triple contingency” model, which
explored the links between the environment, behaviour, and the mind. This
later gave rise to applied behaviour analysis (ABA), in which operant
conditioning techniques are used to reinforce positive behaviours and punish
unwanted behaviours.
This approach to treatment has been an effective tool to help children on the
autism spectrum, however, it is considered controversial by many who see it
as attempting to change or normalise autistic behaviours.
Social learning theory
In social learning theory Albert Bandura (1977) states behaviour is learned
from the environment through the process of observational learning.
Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways.
Individuals that are observed are called models. In society, children are
surrounded by many influential models, such as parents within the family,
characters on children’s TV, friends within their peer group and teachers at
school. Children pay attention to some of these people (models) and encode
their behaviour. At a later time they may imitate the behaviour they have
observed.
They may do this regardless of whether the behaviour is ‘gender
appropriate’ or not, but there are a number of processes that make it more
likely that a child will reproduce the behaviour that its society deems
appropriate for its sex. First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate
those people it perceives as similar to itself. Consequently, it is more likely to
imitate behaviour modelled by people of the same sex. Second, the people

around the child will respond to the behaviour it imitates with either
reinforcement or punishment. If a child imitates a model’s behaviour and
the consequences are rewarding, the child is likely to continue performing
the behaviour. If parent sees a little girl consoling her teddy bear and says
“what a kind girl you are”, this is rewarding for the child and makes it more
likely that she will repeat the behaviour. Her behaviour has been reinforced.
Reinforcement can be external or internal and can be positive or negative. If
a child wants approval from parents or peers, this approval is an external
reinforcement, but feeling happy about being approved of is an internal
reinforcement. A child will behave in a way which it believes will earn
approval because it desires approval. Positive (or negative) reinforcement
will have little impact if the reinforcement offered externally does not match
with an individual’s needs. Reinforcement can be positive or negative, but
the important factor is that it will usually lead to a change in a person’s
behaviour. Third, the child will also take into account of what happens to
other people when deciding whether or not to copy someone’s actions. This
is known as vicarious reinforcement. This relates to attachment to specific
models that possess qualities seen as rewarding. Children will have a
number of models with whom they identify. These may be people in their
immediate world, such as parents or older siblings, or could be fantasy
characters or people in the media. The motivation to identify with a
particular model is that they have a quality which the individual would like to
possess.
Psychodynamic perspective
In psychology, a psychodynamic theory is a view that explains personality in
terms of conscious and unconscious forces, such as unconscious desires and
beliefs. In the early 20th century, Sigmund Freud proposed a psychodynamic
theory according to which personality consists of the id (responsible for
instincts and pleasure-seeking), the superego (which attempts to obey the
rules of parents and society), and the ego (which mediates between them
according to the demands of reality). Psychodynamic theories commonly
hold that childhood experiences shape personality. Such theories are
associated with psychoanalysis, a type of therapy that attempts to reveal
unconscious thoughts and desires. Not all psychologists accept
psychodynamic theories, and critics claim the theories lack supporting
scientific data. Other theories of personality include behavioural and
humanist theories.
In deliberate contrast to behavioural psychology, psychodynamic psychology
ignores the trappings of science and instead focuses on trying to get ‘inside
the head‘ of individuals in order to make sense of their relationships,
experiences and how they see the world. The psychodynamic approach
includes all the theories in psychology that see human functioning based

upon the interaction of drives and forces within the person, particularly
unconscious, and between the different structures of the personality. Our
behaviour and feelings as adults (including psychological problems) are
rooted in our childhood experiences.
All behaviour has a cause (usually unconscious), even slips of the tongue.
Therefore all behaviour is determined. Personality is made up of three parts,
the id, ego and super-ego. Behaviour is motivated by two instinctual drives:
Eros (the sex drive & life instinct) and Thanatos (the aggressive drive &
death instinct). Both these drives come from the “id”. Parts of the
unconscious mind are in constant conflict with the conscious part of the mind
(the ego). This conflict creates anxiety, which could be dealt with by the
ego’s use of defence mechanisms. Personality is shaped as the drives are
modified by different conflicts at different times in childhood.
Biological approach
The biological approach believes us to be as a consequence of our genetics
and physiology. It is the only approach in psychology that examines
thoughts, feelings, and behaviours from a biological and thus physical point
of view. Therefore, all that is psychological is first physiological. All thoughts,
feeling & behaviour ultimately have a biological cause. A biological
perspective is relevant to the study of psychology in three ways:
1. Comparative method: different species of animal can be studied and
compared. This can help in the search to understand human behaviour.
2. Physiology: how the nervous system and hormones work, how the
brain functions, how changes in structure and/or function can affect
behaviour. For example, we could ask how prescribed drugs to treat
depression affect behaviour through their interaction with the nervous
system.
3. Investigation of inheritance: what an animal inherits from its
parents, mechanisms of inheritance (genetics). For example, we might
want to know whether high intelligence is inherited from one
generation to the next.
Each of these biological aspects, the comparative, the physiological and the
genetic, can help explain human behaviour.
Twin studies provide geneticists with a kind of natural experiment in which
the behavioural likeness of identical twins can be compared with the
resemblance of dizygotic twins (whose genetic relatedness is 0.5). In other
words, if heredity affects a given trait or behaviour, then identical twins
should show a greater similarity for that trait compared to fraternal twins.
Research using twin studies looks for the degree of concordance (or

similarity) between identical and fraternal (i.e. non-identical) twins. Twins are
concordant for a trait if both or neither of the twins exhibits the trait. Twins
are said to be disconcordant for a trait if one shows it and the other does not.
identical twins have the same genetic make-up, and fraternal twins have just
50 per cent of genes in common. Thus, if concordance rates (which can
range from 0 to 100) are significantly higher for identical twins than for
fraternal twins, then this is evidence that genetics play an important role in
the expression of that particular behaviour.
Humanistic approach
Humanistic psychology, also often referred to as humanism, emerged during
the 1950s as a reaction to the psychoanalysis and behaviourism that
dominated psychology at the time. Psychoanalysis was focused on
understanding the unconscious motivations that drive behaviour while
behaviourism studied the conditioning processes that produce behaviour.
Humanist thinkers felt that both psychoanalysis and behaviourism were too
pessimistic, either focusing on the most tragic of emotions or failing to take
into account the role of personal choice.
Humanistic psychology was instead focused on each individual’s potential
and stressed the importance of growth and self-actualization. During the late
1950s, Abraham Maslow and other psychologists held meetings to discuss
the development of a professional organization devoted to a more humanist
approach to psychology. They agreed that topics such as self-actualization,
creativity, and individuality, and related topics were the central themes of
this new approach. In 1961, they officially established the American
Association for Humanistic Psychology. The fundamental belief of humanistic
psychology is that people are innately good and that mental and social
problems result from deviations from this natural tendency.
Humanism also suggests that people possess personal agency and that they
are motivated to use this free will to pursue things that will help them
achieve their full potential as human beings. This need for fulfilment and
personal growth is a key motivator of all behaviour. People are continually
looking for new ways to grow, to become better, to learn new things, and to
experience psychological growth and self-actualization. The humanist
movement had an enormous influence on the course of psychology and
contributed new ways of thinking about mental health. It offered a new
approach to understand human behaviours and motivations and led to the
development of new techniques and approaches to psychotherapy. Some of
the major ideas and concepts that emerged as a result of the humanist
movement include an emphasis on things such as:

 Self-concept
 Hierarchy of needs
M1 assess different psychological approaches to study
In this assignment I will be discussing the strengths and weakness of each
psychological perspective.
Strengths and weaknesses of the behaviourist approach
The strengths of the behaviourist approach are that behaviourism is based
upon observable behaviours, so it is easier to quantify and collect data and
information when conducting research. Since research and experiment is a
very powerful tool in providing explanations and clear evidences about a
certain phenomenon, early theorists and proponents of behaviourism took
pride in initiating the studies of observable behaviours rather than those that
cannot be observed and measured.
Effective therapeutic techniques such as intensive behavioral
intervention, behavior analysis, token economies and discrete trial training
are all rooted in behaviorism. These approaches are often very useful in
changing maladaptive or harmful behaviors in both children and adults.
Much has been said about the values of reinforcements like rewards,
punishments, Premack principle and others when it comes to facilitating
learning. In conclusion, when these techniques are properly used and
considered, it will aid in learning things. Otherwise, it will be counter-
productive.
Another strength of the approach is that it is scientific, for example, Pavlov’s
work was used to create objective and therefore scientific approach to
psychology. The approach aims to study behaviour that is observable and
directly measurable. This is done because thoughts and opinions are
operationalised, so that it is possible to analyse and compare behaviours.
The weaknesses of the behaviourist approach are that there is much
emphasis on nurture as it focuses on how the environment affects and
shapes behaviour. This means that the role of nature is ignored, as
behaviourists usually ignore that genetic-make up could have an impact on
the way in which we behave. Many internal factors govern behaviour; one
example of this is the role of motivation and emotion are not taken into
account in the behaviourist approach.
The behaviourist approach has had many successful applications in the real
work (particularly in the treatment of mental disorders). Pavlov’s work into
Classical condition has been applied to aversion therapy in order to help
those with addictions. It has also contributed to systematic desensitisation to
help people who suffer from phobias.

Although this approach has been deemed as overly deterministic, as it
suggests behaviours are learnt through associations made with
environmental stimuli and/or the response that we get (reinforcement). This
view states that the environment controls our behaviour and that it’s not our
conscious thought and processes that governs behaviour.
Many critics argue that behaviourism is a one-dimensional approach to
understanding human behaviour and that behavioural theories do not
account for free will and internal influences such as moods, thoughts and
feelings. As my professor told us, behaviourism tends to be “superficial” or
shallow in explaining behaviour and learning. It only considers what is
observable and measurable, well in fact there are various unseen aspects of
an individual that are very vital in his or her personalities and learning
capabilities.
Strengths and weaknesses of the social learning theory
The social learning theory has many strengths but one of its key strengths is
the fact that Bandura verified the first concept. His findings were that
children do copy aggression; this was confirmed in his case study of 1961.
This study revolved around vicarious reinforcement as he would have a child
watch an adult bash and play aggressively with the Bobo Doll/inflatable doll.
Afterwards the child would also repeat the same thing he/she had been
shown as long as the role model was not punished for his/her actions.
Another strength of the Social Learning Theory was that many acts of
aggression or tragedies (e.g. School shootings, murders, homicide, suicide
etc…) were linked to violent and gruesome television shows (Most Shocking,
Burn Notice, Castle, CSI NY etc…) and video games (e.g. Call of Duty 1-8,
Grand Theft Auto 1-5, Ninja Gained Sigma, Demon Souls etc…). This links
back to all three concepts of the theory. Because the first concept states that
it is learnt from watching others in other words violent acts can be learnt
from these video games and T.V shows. The second concept states that it an
internal mental state, in other words it’s at the back of our mind but we
never really consciously think about it. So we may pick up some things from
T.V shows and video games but may never actually think about it until
something is triggered. Lastly the third concept states that the persons’
behaviour is not changed even if something new is learnt. This may be a
common trait between all tragedies that happen in school as most people
that commit a crime still act the same way the night before.
Another one of the great strengths of SLT is that it combines several
important models of learning. It is clearly behaviourist in that it advocates
that children are motivated to imitate behaviour if that behaviour is seen as
resulting in praise or some other kind of reward. It is cognitive in that this
learning process goes from imitation to mastery–a point is reached where

the model is no longer necessary, and the child can then go her own way.
Using certain insights from these other general models makes SLT attractive
as a educational theory.
Although the Social Learning Theory also has several weaknesses, one of
these weaknesses is that it cannot explain why some children watch these
violent T.V shows and play these games yet they never copy it. This is one
weakness as many people today are exposed to all sorts of violence yet
there isn’t a problem of mass terrorism everywhere around the globe each
day. One other problem is that there are some people or children who are
naturally aggressive even if they play violent games or watch gruesome T.V
shows. This clearly defies the concepts of Social Learning Theory as it states
that violence or any other behaviour can only be learnt through either
experience or watching another person experiences it.
Another weakness of this theory is that it does not stress the child’s actual
cognitive development. While there are some cognitive insights in SLT, this is
not stressed. A child is seen as a sponge, absorbing information through
modelling. The actual child’s contribution to how such models are absorbed,
processed and worked out through time is not present to any great extent in
the theory. Modelling is a theory based on imitation via observation. It does
not stress what happens later–innovation. While the initial blueprint for
activity is seen in the model (the expert who is observed) can easily be
visualised, there seems to be no model for innovation. Innovation is too
abstract to be modelled.
Strengths and weaknesses of the psychodynamic perspective
The strength of the psychodynamic approach is that they focused on the
effects that childhood experiences have on the developing personality. This
is strength because Freud was the first psychologist to realise the
importance of childhood. It also led to other psychologists including Piaget
developing theories on childhood. An example of this is the Little Hans case
study. Hans had a fear of castration which led to him having a phobia of
horses. Another strength is that it takes both nature and nurture into
account. This is strength because it emphasises the importance of both. An
example of this is that Freud’s assumption of childhood experiences focused
on nurture whereas the ID, Ego and Super-ego focused on nature.
A strength of the Psychodynamic Approach is that it is the first approach to
try and attempt to explain mental illness in psychological terms and has had
an enormous influence on the understand and treatment of mental disorders.

One of the weaknesses of the Psychodynamic Approach is that most of
Freud’s is based on findings of case studies, single individual where cases
are often unique and there are problems with generalization.
Another weakness of the Psychodynamic Approach is that Freud did not take
into account cultural variations. Most of his research was done on white,
middle class people. Every class and culture of people have differ ways and
values, so his findings cannot be generalized to all cultures.
Another weakness of the psychodynamic approach which I found out is that
it is unfalsifiable. This is a weakness because the assumptions cannot be
scientifically measured or proved wrong. An example of this is the idea of the
mind being split into three parts. It is also deterministic. This is a weakness
because it suggests that behaviour is pre-determined and people do not
have free will. An example of this is the psychosexual stages.
Strengths and weaknesses of the biological approaches
One of the strength of the biological approach is that it is very scientific. This
is strength because the experiments used are measurable, objective and can
be repeated to test for reliability. Also, the researcher has more control over
the variables which is evident in Selye’s study of rats which led to him
developing the theory of General Adaptation Syndrome. Another strength of
the biological approach is that it is deterministic. This is a strength because it
increases the likelihood of being able to treat people with abnormal
behaviour and provides explanations about the causes of behaviour. This
understanding can then be used to improve people’s lives.
Another great strength of the approach is that it has made a positive
contribution to the understanding of human behaviours and disorders. This is
a strength because it means society has benefited in that those with
psychological disorders can be diagnosed more easily and treated more
effectively. This means a higher quality of life can be given to those with
psychological disorders. For example, a strong link between lower levels of
serotonin and the occurrence of reactive unipolar depression. It is supported
by the effective use of Prozac, an antidepressant that encourages the
production of serotonin. As a result, the symptoms of depression were
reported to be reduced. Therefore, this is known as strength because it helps
the sufferers of depression alleviate their symptoms and lead a happier life.
One weakness of the biological approach is that it focuses too much on the
‘nature’ side of the nature/nurture debate. It argues that behaviour is caused
by hormones, neurotransmitters and genetics. One theory is that
schizophrenia is genetic; however, twin studies show that it is not completely
genetic and the environment has a part to play.

One weakness of the biological approach is that it is nomothetic. This is a
weakness because it develops theories about disorders and generalises them
to apply to everyone. It does not take into account the view that humans are
unique. An example of this is that General Adaptation Syndrome assumes
that everyone responds in the same way to stress but does not take into
account that some people have more support than others.
The other weakness of this approach is also reductionist as our behaviour is
explained by physical things and there is no room to study the impact of the
environment on our behaviour. For example, if a patient lost his wife and
mother within a week of each other and became depressed, this approach
would deal with the depression without looking at the context (more than
likely with drugs). It could be argued that the depression is the symptom and
that therefore the individual needs counselling and a support network, rather
than drugs.
Not all treatments are as scientific, for example, there is no certainty how
electric charge treatment (ETC) works, and several drugs have become
available first as a treatment for something else before people notice that it
helps mental illnesses. The fact that a drug works on one patient, and not on
the next, means that the approach is far from being conclusive. Some of
these drugs have very bad side effects, which can lead to further problems
such as addiction or dependency. It’s reductionist, because it ignores the
other approached. It ignores the role of environmental factors and those
such as experiences and feelings. Cause & effect can’t always be
determined, e.g. does a disorder cause higher levels or a neurotransmitter,
or do high levels of a neurotransmitter cause a disorder?.
The use made of animals in experiments is concerning, both scientifically
and ethically. Scientifically because a number of Psychologists argue that
there are vast differences between people and animals (e.g. use of language
and social complexity). Ethically because the experiments often result in the
death of the animal as the brain, or the effect of a chemical or something
similar is being studied. There is also the issue of the greater the animal is
like people (better scientifically), the greater the problem that occurs during
experimentation (worse ethically).
This approach has little room for free will due to the belief that our behaviour
is determined by our physical features such as chemicals in our bodies and
genes. Therefore, people are regarded as robots that live their lives through
a programme which is written in their genes.

The biological approach exaggerates the importance of genetic factors in
determining behaviour while minimising the importance of environmental
factors.
Biological explanations are more appropriate for some kinds of behaviour
(such as vision) than other kinds where higher-order thinking is involved
(e.g., emotion; reasoning). However, even vision involves some higher-order
mental activity. Therefore, biological explanations on their own are usually
inadequate.
Researchers within the biological approach use several different methods.
Some researchers use physiological measures to increase our understanding
of human behaviour.
Strengths and weaknesses of the humanistic approaches
One of the major strengths attributed to Humanistic theory is the idea that
the subject is fully accountable and in control of their actions. This is in stark
contrast to the notions behind psychoanalysis. Leading from this assumption
is the notion that humanistic theories promote the idea of being human, self-
fulfilment and realistic and observable goals that can be obtained. A final
strength to Humanistic theory is the idea that from a clinical perspective it
offers an open space in which a patent can express any feeling of thought
without being led down a path to revisit traumatic events which they may
not feel comfortable discussing.
Like every theory, some people find the humanistic approach to be valid
while others see it for the numerous inherent flaws. Some of the strengths of
this theory include the focus on both the positive nature of humankind and
the free will associated with change. Unlike Freud’s theory and the biological
approach, which focus on determinism or our lack of power over ourselves,
Maslow and others see the individual as very powerful.
A second positive aspect of humanistic theory is the ease in which many of
its aspects fit well with other approaches. Many therapists have adopted a
humanistic undertone in their work with clients. While they may argue
humanistic theory does not go far enough, they see the benefit of the core
components in helping people change.
Finally, most have seen the benefits of humanism carry over into different
professions. If you take a health class, you are likely to discuss Maslow’s
hierarchy. If you study economic or business, you will also focus on moving
upward in our lives in order to be more aware of who we are and where we
fit in with the world. The same holds true with other professions, including