Specification

The basic assumptions of the following approaches:

• Learning approaches: i) the behaviourist approach, including classical conditioning and Pavlov’s research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner’s research; ii) social learning theory including imitation, identification, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura’s research.

• The cognitive approach: the study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of models to explain and make inferences about mental processes.

• The biological approach: the genetic basis of behaviour: genotype, phenotype and evolution. Influence of biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. Cognitive neuroscience.

• The psychodynamic approach: the role of the unconscious, the structure of personality, that is Id, Ego and Superego, defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages.

• Humanistic Psychology: free will, self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, congruence, the role of conditions of worth.

• Comparison of approaches.