Comparison between Freud And Skinner
Uploaded by tyson_626 on Feb 23, 2005
Comparing Freud And Skinner
Both classical conditioning and psychodynamic theory have played a pivotal role in the development of social psychology. For nearly all of the past century they have shaped and influenced the way psychologists, philosophers and ordinary people have felt about the nature of the human psyche. It is because of this that we continue to use those theories today to predict the outcome of certain situations.
In our particular case we have a situation where one hundred women have been asked to rate the degree to which they agree or disagree with a certain a statement when associated with a picture of an old man or of a young man. Separately, there is the question of their preferences for being supplied few or many facts. It is in such cases that both theories can be used to predict what their opinions will be.
Classical Conditioning, or behaviorism, began with John Watson and continued with B.F. Skinner. It ultimately became a well known but widely discredited theory based on the hypothesis that human behavior can be explained entirely in terms of reflexes, stimulus-response associations, and the effects of reinforcers. More specifically, it contends that mental states can be analyzed through behavior or through a predictable way of acting, and that the greater the number of presentations of stimuli there are, the greater the produced response is. In our particular case, those aspects will help to predict the influence on the women's ultimate response both to the pictures of the old and young man and to the number of facts supplied them.
Psychodynamic theory, due largely to Sigmund Freud has had a lasting effect on the school of psychology. Unlike Behaviorism, it is still thought to have significant validity. Freud constructed a personality theory made up of three primary components. They are known as the id, ego, and superego. The most primitive of the three is the id. Its basis is the pleasure principle with its prime outlook on life being only a search for passion and personal satisfaction. On the next level comes the ego. It represents reason and common sense, more commonly known as the reality principle. On the highest level is the superego. It is motivated only by its drive for morality. Consequently it becomes the repressive and guiltful component as it attempts to internalize the morals it strives...