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4 pages/β‰ˆ1100 words
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APA
Subject:
Psychology
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English (U.S.)
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Topic:

Personality and Behavioral Patterns

Essay Instructions:

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Now that you are familiar with some of the psychologists and main theories within psychology, it is time to apply the viewpoints of Humanistic, Cognitive, Psychoanalytic and Behavioral Psychology, which are some of the broadest and most widely used theories in psychology. For this case study you will look at an event through the lenses of these psychologists.
School violence is a terrible tragedy that has affected many children. One of the most infamous events was the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. This involved two students who killed 13 people and then killed themselves. Most recently there was the tragedy at Newtown Connecticut in which 26 people were killed.
Dr. Humine, is a humanistic psychologist, Dr. Cogent is a Cognitive Psychologist, and Dr. Bean is a Behavioral Psychologist, and Dr. Freed is a psychoanalyst. Your assignment is to describe how 3 of these Psychologists might view school violence from their specific psychological perspective. Your paper should include a general description of their psychological theory, and then interpret school violence in general or choose a specific incident to evaluate more specifically. Your paper should show the lens in which these psychologists see their behavior, and also address potential treatment options to try and prevent further instances of violence.
Your paper should be 4-5 pages long, and include 3 of the 4 approaches and 4-6 references.
Psychoanalytic: Emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes and early childhood, as well as sexual instincts. Believes things can be hidden within the unconscious mind, and these can be explored through psychoanalysis.
Behaviorism: Maintains that behavior is learned through previous learning experiences or interactions with social environment. Behaviorists don't traditionally focus on mental processes because they believe that mental processes are too difficult to observe and measure objectively. Behaviorism is involved in the ongoing controversy of the influence of television and video game violence on children.
Cognitive: Focuses on the mental processing of information, including the specific functions of reasoning, problem solving, and memory. Cognitive psychologists focus on thoughts that guide and cause behavior.
Humanistic and existential: A more positive approach that emphasizes the uniqueness of each individual person and our ability and responsibility to make choices in our lives, and believe that a person's free choice, free will, and understanding of the meaning of events in his or her life are important. Individuals may be driven by goodness and the desire to self-actualize.

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PERSONALITY AND BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS
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In Psychoanalytic Theory, there is an emphasis on the lived experiences of the person during his childhood. Genetic traits and the lifestyle of the individual form the corresponding personality. The theory also proposes that behavior and cognition are interrelated with innate instinctual drives. It subdivides the personality into the conscious, unconscious, and subconscious. An individual has certain defense mechanisms which are used to shield the vulnerable side of the person. When a person undergoes trauma, it can result in conflicts between the consciousness of the person. According to Freud, personal growth and development center on bridging the unconscious of the person toward the conscious. This results in a therapeutic process wherein introspection creates a positive change in the person. In this perspective, a violent person may have had experienced intense trauma in childhood. A child cannot easily understand and make sense of traumatic experiences. A violent individual maybe expressing anger and rage from his triggers. His expressions of evil act maybe remnants of pain and severe punishment in childhood, which he was not able to resolve to go to adulthood. Repressed emotional trauma can be carried on in life, without ever reaching maturity. These problems need to be addressed in the therapeutic intervention so that a resolution can be achieved.
Another important theory is Behaviorism. This focuses on objective elements that can be studied in the actions of people. It relates how observable actions instead of thoughts and feelings translate into responses and decisions of individual beings. A term coined in this theory is a conditioning, wherein a being learns to act on his environment according to rewards and punishments. An animal or human creates a behavior according to previous experiences. These experiences create a framework for decision-making according to the type of interactions that were present in the individual’s life. In this perspective, a violent person may have learned that violence is a valid form of expression because that is what he experienced. The person may have grown up in a social environment wherein physical pain was used to enforce individual will. As such, the person, in his adult stage used violence as a way to express himself. This kind of individual lacks experience in how to make meaningful and kind interactions with other people. Also, this person might have had violent media such as video games and movies that normalized brutal acts. Violence in school in the form of bullying and aggression can also lead to more expressions of viciousness.
Cognitive psychology offers an opportunity to perceive the human through his or her thoughts and cognition. This theory highlights internal mental processes as the determinants of a person’s behavior. The cognitive theory also emphasizes that the mind’s internal processes facilitate the memory, decision making, problem-solving, and general response of an individual. Cognitive psychology puts importance on the physical structure and make-up of the brain, which connects it to other fields of science such as neuroscience. It also looks into social ...
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