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Psychology theorists essay
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An essay I wrote to do with theorists in health and social care level 3. Has information about what the theorists did and who they were.
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Psychology task 3 (C2)In this essay psychological theories will be spoken about. Theories can be three different
things, which are: views, ideas, or perspectives. Psychological theories explain human
behaviour and they are most helpful in health and social care (Wyatt et al, 2017). Some
examples of psychological theories are: Cognitive, Social learning and Behaviourist.
Cognitive theory focuses on “how we understand the world through perception, language,
thinking and memory” (Wyatt et al, 2017, pg131). This theory links with development of an
individual’s process of thinking. The cognitive theory also looks at how the individual’s
process of thinking influences the acknowledgement and interaction with the world (Cherry,
2020). This theory also involves focusing on how people take in information from the world
and how they make use of that information they have found. Also, within this theory there
is focus on the information inside the mind and how it is processed (McLeod, 2020).
Cognitive theory links with everyday skills that help us understand the world. Some
examples are: problem solving, analysing, reasoning and memory recall.
Jean Piaget is a cognitive theorist. He studied and looked further into the cognitive
development in children, for example: how they develop the understanding of the world. It
was suggested by him that forming schema is how all children begin with their development
(Wyatt et al, 2017). A schema is knowledge and patterns of thought. His idea within the
theory was published in 1936, however it is still used today. He suggested that children’s
knowledge is built by experiences, he also suggested that children learn on their own
without influences from other people. Linking to that he suggested children can learn by
nature and they are motivated to do so. He has 4 stages that he believes children pass
through in cognitive development, these are: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete
Operational and Formal Operational. Piaget has contributed with detailed ideas and tests to
this theory. For example: “His contributions include a stage theory of child cognitive
development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple
but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities” (McLeod,2020).
, The 4 stages suggest what this theory says about behaviour. Starting with sensorimotor,
senses are used to understand the world and the surroundings. Baby’s start to discover
objects and start licking them, touching them, and putting them in their mouths. They start
to develop their fine motor skills which affects the way they adapt and behave. The second
stage (preoperational) suggests symbols are used by children to help represent their words,
images, and ideas. They start to engage in pretend play with family, friends or just by
themselves, this helps them learn how to behave sensibly. Children may understand
language but not the adult logic and the mentally manipulative information. Concrete
operational suggests there is a major turning point in development and behaviour. Thought
process changes. Children are now mature enough use logical thought but can only apply it
physical objects. They start to understand and solve problems, they also have gained
abilities needed for conversation. The final stage (formal operations) suggests they start to
think in an abstract manner, and they become independent. Their behaviour starts to
become more controlled. Children begin to do mathematical questions and think more
creative. They begin to use more reasoning and thinking about outcomes of problems.
Social learning theory is the theory that suggests that individual’s social behaviours are
learnt by observing and copying behaviours of others around. This theory states 4 ways to
tell if the new social behaviour has been acquired by the individual, the 4 ways are:
attention, retention (remembering behaviour), reproduction and motivation
(Onlinemswprogrammes, 2020). Social learning theory is about modelling the behaviour of
others and how the behaviour is observed then copied. It suggests learning is social and it
builds on the ideas of behaviourists, this includes classical and operant conditioning (Wyatt
et al,2017).
Albert Bandura is a social learning theorist. He worked in 1960s, he created the idea that
individuals learn from others and it’s in a social context. He used a bobo doll to experiment
this theory. Bandura did this to infer that children copy behaviours they see others do. He
also suggested that children who watch films or play video games with guns in they are
more likely to become violent when they are older (Wyatt et al,2017). The bobo doll
experiment is “a study in which researchers physically and verbally abused a clown-faced
inflatable toy in front of pre-school aged children, which led the children to later mimic the
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