Psychology

Introspective Papers

            The word perspective can be defined as a way in which different people look at things. In his book “Psychology in Everyday Life”, Myers describes behavioral perspective as “the way of observing and thinking about people’s behavior” (Myers 34). Behaviorism is the evaluation of human activity to discover intermittent patterns and infer from the observations what rules and regulations govern the actions. It is believed that the way people carry themselves depends on an ABC structure. A represents antecedent of behavior, that is, what took place before the behavior of concern occurred, the behavior and the consequences.

From this perspective, people get to understand the reasons as to why others keep on doing the same things repeatedly. People will tend to do things that worked out for them before and stay away from doing thing that did not work well for them. There are some rules and regulations that guide the way people behave (Weiten, 2008). For instance, in case children are rewarded for good performances in school, chances are that they will continuously repeat the same thing. Therefore, it can be concluded that the child was reinforced to do so.

In addition, if the child is punished for a poor performance, it is less likely that the child will repeat the same mistake again. If a child performs well and he/she is not congratulated, the child would stop doing it altogether. It can be said that the action has been extinguished. The problems that can be associated with this kind of perspective are when people decide to react to prompts in different ways than expected. For instance, once a child is congratulated for performing well in school, it is expected that he/she will maintain good performance. At times, these children may react in different ways by having poor grades. It can be drawn that the behavioral perspective at times it can be unpredictable.

Considering Humphrey’s research in determining factors associated with homosexual behavior in public washrooms, some ethics were violated. This is because other than shunning the actions, it can be said that the researcher encouraged the homosexuals in their deeds (Weiten, et al, 2008). This is where he offered to guard them in exchange for watching their sexual behavior. The study was necessary and it was only that the researcher used the wrong channel in carrying out his research since during the time when the study was carried out, homosexuality was illegal and it was difficult to interrogate individuals who were engaged in these acts.

His study provided information about lives, feelings and the mental health of both homosexual and heterosexual men indicating that their lives were not different. According to Myers, “homosexuality is a trait that individuals are born with and getting rid of the situation would be impossible” (Myers 42). This supported the removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 1973. If the study were to be repeated, the alteration of data and information collection would have been necessary. This should have been accomplished by making use of surveillance cameras in recording the automobile license numbers of the men other than keeping watch over them as they practiced their sexual behaviors. After getting the information, it would then be wise for him to get their addresses later from the Department of Public Safety.

In conclusion, psychology can be defined as the scientific study of mental processes and related behavior (Myers 7). The way people behave and the way they do things can be described by their behavioral perspective, which provides individuals with reasons as to why an individual will either continue repeating the things he/she has done before, or stop practicing deeds of the past. It can be said that mental processes trigger people’s behaviors for people will tend to do things depending on their ways of thinking. For instance, from Humphrey’s case, the researcher collected information from homosexuals by guarding them as they carried out their activity, which was unethical. He repeated this action for he knew that it was the only way to get reliable results. It is evident from behavioral perspective that he repeated the same unethical behaviors for they had worked for him in the past.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Myers, David. Psychology in Everyday Life. Kansas City, MO: Worth publishers, 2008. Print.

Weiten, Wayne. Psychology: Themes and Variations. Francisco, CA: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.

Weiten, Wayne, Lloyd, Margaret, Dunn, Dana & Hammer, Elizabeth, Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century. Holland, MI: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.