4 min read•june 18, 2024
Dalia Savy
Sadiyya Holsey
Haseung Jun
Emily Pedrazzi
Approach | Definition | Key Figures | Disorders |
Behavioral 📖 | Studies the connection between our minds and behavior. | Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner | Could explain learned phobias. Think about the Little Albert study 🐀 |
Biological 🧬 | States that behavior is based on physical processes such as those relating to the brain, hormones, and other chemicals. | Paul Broca, Carl Wernicke, Roger Sperry | Disorders are a result of a misbalance in the brain 🧠, whether it be with neurotransmitters or hormones. |
Biopsychosocial | Acknowledges the person as a whole and tries to look at all of the patient's circumstances. It looks at biological, psychological, and social factors to understand a person’s behavior. | Modern Psychology | Disorders are as a result of genetic predispositions, a misbalance in the brain, maladaptive thoughts, and culture. |
Cognitive 🧠 | States that thought processes impact the way people behave. A cognitive psychologist may study how an emotion such as fear affects one’s thinking. | Jean Piaget, Albert Bandura | Disorders are a result of maladaptive thoughts |
Evolutionary ❤️ | Uses evolutionary biology to explain human behavior. Also, it looks at how natural selection of traits promotes the survival of genes. An evolutionary psychologist may study how anger could be a gene inherited from our ancestors. | Charles Darwin | Anxiety helped us survive, therefore we have it. It was part of natural selection. |
Humanistic 🔺 | believes that humans have free will and the ability to grow 🌱 All individuals are striving to reach self actualization with this approach. | Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers | Anxiety disorders are as a result of not having the environment to grow (not having an unconditional positive regard) and therefore being unable to reach self-actualization. |
Psychodynamic 🙊 | Focuses on the study of the unconscious mind. It states that behavior is determined by past experiences stored in the unconscious mind. | Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Erik Erikson | Could explain that anxiety disorders are a result of unconscious thoughts from childhood or the instability of the ego and not being able to balance between the id and superego. |
Sociocultural 🗣️ | Studies how thinking and behavior vary across cultures and situations. A sociocultural psychologist may study how expressions of fear vary across cultures. | Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram | Anxiety occurs as a result of norms that exist within a culture. |
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths | Weaknesses | |
Behavioral 📖 | Uses theories of conditioning which have been proven to help in rewiring behavior. | Has little to no focus on biological aspects. |
Biological 🧬 | Experiments are objective, providing concrete data. | Has little to no focus on environment, upbringing, etc. |
Biopsychosocial | Provides a more complete picture by using three different approaches. | Relationship between each section may be difficult to understand. |
Cognitive 🧠 | Used to successfully rewire thoughts in clinical settings. | Extremely logical and rarely accounts for emotional responses. |
Evolutionary ❤️ | Can compare humans throughout different evolutionary stages. | More effectively used on animals than humans. |
Humanistic 🔺 | Methods are adaptable to various types of people. | Little objectivity is used. |
Psychodynamic 🙊 | Uses concepts from both nature and nurture arguments. | Theories cannot be proven. |
Sociocultural 🗣️ | Observations are most commonly made in real-world situations. | Variables are challenging to control. |
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