Psychological theories free essay sample

Explain the contribution of contrasting psychological theories to the understanding of two specific behaviours and assess the contribution of complementary and contrasting psychological theories to the understanding of two specific behaviours. P2 In this part of the assignment the author will explain the contribution of complementary psychological theories to the understanding of two specific behaviours The two specific behaviours the author has chosen are aggression and addiction. The biological theory on addiction is this theory believes that there are genetic build ups in a person that causes them to react different to addiction, this could mean someone has more of an addictive personality compared to another person. They believe the genetic makeup impact the processing of such chemicals in an individual so they either become addicted easily or not. They believe there is a trigger that in combination with psychological and environmental help causes a person to become addicted easily. There is also evidence to support that addiction can be inherited, or that some individuals may be more likely to developing an addiction than others. Support for this theory comes from twin studies. In these studies, identical twins that were separated at birth (i. e. , raised in completely different environments) were found to have similar levels of alcohol levels at different points in their lives. Even though both siblings may have been raised in different alcohol-free homes, they were just as likely to develop alcoholism. Studies have shown that adopted children have rates of alcoholism closer to those of their natural parents than to those of their adoptive parents‘one study found that 30–40 percent of natural children of alcoholics become alcoholics themselves, as opposed to a rate of 10 percent for the general population (Kolata, 1987). Some experts conclude that the rate of heritability of alcoholism—the chance of inheriting the disorder—is â€Å"similar to that expected for diabetes or peptic ulcer disease† (Schuckit, 1984, p. 62). Now that the entire human DNA sequence has been â€Å"decoded,† it is entirely possible that during the coming decade scientists will discover a genetic link with alcoholism’ (highered. mcgraw-hill. com/sites/dl/free/ /Goode7_Sample_ch03. pdf date accessed 18/04/13 time 12. 35pm) This extract from the website shown is proof that the biological theory was correct or could be classed as being correct. It also shows that there could be a genetic link towards addiction in individuals however this study mainly focuses on alcoholism but it is a study that shows an addiction being passed on through genetics. Aggression is a form of emotion also known as anger, however aggressive behaviour is more violent that anger. An aggressive person may show aggressive behaviour through sharp tones in their voice or by abusing someone. Social Learning Theorists, such as Bandura (1965), claim that aggressive behaviour is learned through observing and imitating aggressive models. Aggressive behaviour is strengthened and maintained if it has a desirable outcome (reinforcement). Banduras series of Bobo doll experiments revealed a number of factors that determine whether observed aggressive behaviour is imitated. Bandura proved this when he conducted an experiment where he had four groups of children, one group of children witnessed the bobo doll being abused by a role model, the second group of children witnessed a violent cartoon, the third group of children witnessed a violent film and the last group of children witnessed no violence at all. When left to do what the children desired the children that had witnessed a form of violence then went on to abuse the bobo doll, the children that had witnessed no violence at all began to play with the doll. The deindividuation complements the social learning theory as it Deindividuation means a person losing their inhibitions because they are no longer identifiable. One way that people can become deindividuated is when they are part of a large group or a crowd. Deindividuation has been used to explain why people who are usually well-behaved can become violent during group interactions, for example, riots. The deindivduation theory complements the social learning theory as agrees that people change depending on role models. The deindividuation theory and the social learning theory compliment each other as they both agree that if an individual witnesses aggressive behaviour the individual could change their personality to match role models which could in turn, change their aggression levels. P3 In this part of the assignment the author will explain the contribution of contrasting psychological theories to the understanding of two specific behaviours Addiction is thought of a biological nature that is past through genetics according to the biological theory as explained in P2. A contrasting theory of the biological theory would be the classical and operant conditioning theory, this was made by Pavlov. The basis of conditioning theories is that addiction is the end result of the reinforcement of drug use. The drug acts as a reinforcer and gains control over the user’s behavior. In contrast to the biological models of the exposure theories, these conditioning models suggest that anyone can show addictive behavior if they are given reinforcements, regardless of their genetics. The advantage of this theory is that it offers the potential for considering all excessive activities along with drug abuse within a simpler group: those of rewarded behavior. There are many reinforcement models that have been defined including the classical conditioning model. This model defines addiction as a behavior that is repeated because of the attention given associated with its reinforcement. An example of where this theory is used is when Pavlov rung the bell to his dog and gave the dog food, the dog then learnt when the bell rang he would be rewarded, this could be used as an explanation to addiction. When the drug user takes the drug they are rewarded as they get a ‘high’ this is the same kind of thing as Pavlov’s dog as the drug is the stimulus as was the bell to his dog and the ‘high’ being a reward as was the food to the dog. Pavlov’s dog had be conditioned to believe that when the bell rang he would be given a reward, so as a drug user you would tend to believe that if you take the drug you are rewarded which could lead to addiction. The Biological and conditioning theory contrast as the biological theory believes addiction is within genetics and the conditioning theory believes that addiction is within positive and negative reinforcement on drug abuse. Aggression is thought to be learnt from surrounding people’s actions and imitating them according to the social learning theory which has been previously explained. However the biological theory suggests that all aggression comes from genetics, this could be because one or both parents have not had enough dopamine in their brain or there is a chemical imbalance in which the individual becomes more aggressive. ‘One classic study in the 1960s (Jacobs et al. , 1965) found that a surprising number of men in prison had XYY sex chromosomes instead of the normal XY. The researchers hypothesized that the extra Y chromosome might make the men more aggressive. Later studies have found that such genetic abnormalities are in fact widespread throughout the general population and therefore can’t explain aggression. More recently, studies have identified genetic trends in twins and families. For example, Brunner et al. (1993) identified a common gene in male members of a Danish family who all exhibited abnormal aggressive behavior’(http://ashbournecollegepsychology. wordpress. com/psya3/aggression/biological-explanations-of-aggression/ date 18/04/13 time 15:48) This extract from the shown website shows that studies have proved that the genetic makeup of an individuals brain makes the individuals more aggressive. These two theories contrast as Bandura believed that aggression is an imitated behaviour that an individual has been shown through a role model for example if the individuals dad beats their mother or vice versa the child would grow up to believe hitting people is the right thing to do, whereas the biological theory suggests that aggression is past through to the individual through chemical imbalances of the brain and genetic makeup. M2 In this part of the assignment the author will assess the contribution of complementary and contrasting psychological theories to the understanding of two specific behaviours. The biological theory contributes to helping addiction as the individual could now be treating and prescribed medication to balance the imbalanced chemicals of the brain to help the individual become less addicted to certain drugs. It also contributes as there can be treatments such as acupuncture, hypnosis and tablets to take to enable the individual to come off a certain drug. These treatments work by conditioning the brain to allow the addiction part of the brain to silence itself. This helps as the levels of addiction decreases. Social Learning Theory on aggressive behaviour has contributed to solving aggressive behaviour as if an individual is displaying actions of aggression which they are imitating from parents or other role models they could be removed from the environment and learn that aggression is wrong. The social learning theory contributes to solving aggression as it also detects which role model could be the aggressor and then the aggressor could be helped to change. The deindividuation theory that complements Bandura’s theory could also contribute to solving aggression through counselling as in a counselling session the councillor could give advice on moving away from the group or other party in which is making the individual act in a way not known for them. The Biological and conditioning theory may contrast as the biological theory believes addiction is within genetics and the conditioning theory believes that addiction is within positive and negative reinforcement on drug abuse. However they have now worked together and contributed to stopping addiction as the individual may have the gene where they are an addictive person but through positive and negative reinforcing done at the right time they could be able to start understanding that drug abuse is wrong. They have done this by getting such businesses and drug help lines to go into educational environments to stimulate the process or reinforcing to an individual the wrongs of doing drug abuse, they have also got drug workers to help people get off drug abuse. This has helped society as there has been a decrease in drug abuse problems. The social learning theory and the biological theory also contrast for the reasons explained previously. However the social learning theory has helped aggression as if an individual is displaying actions of aggression which they are imitating from parents or other role models they could be removed from the environment and learn that aggression is wrong. The social learning theory contributes to solving aggression as it also detects which role model could be the aggressor and then the aggressor could be helped to change. The biological theory which contrasts to the social learning theory has contributed as we can now understand the inside of male’s chromosomes as to why that particular kind of male becomes more aggressive. This helps as if a male has the ‘aggressive chromosomes’ they can get help through counselling and conditioning with reinforcement. This as also contributed as it may not tell us as to why women get aggressive but it will prompt further investigation as to why they do which will give more information and facts of treatment or help the female may need. In conclusion in this assignment the author has explained the contribution of complementary psychological theories to the understanding of two specific behaviours, explained the contribution of contrasting psychological theories to the understanding of two specific behaviours and assessed the contribution of complementary and contrasting psychological theories to the understanding of two specific behaviours.