The Psychological Perspectives Essay Example for Free

The Psychological Perspectives Essay A perspective is basically a view that includes specific assumptions about human behaviour. Contemporary psychology covers six perspectives including Behaviourism, Social learning, cognitive, psychodynamic, humanistic and biological. There can be several different theories within an approach however they all share common assumptions. Behaviourism Behaviourism is a leaning theory that has scientific evidence to support it. Behaviour is observable which is why scientific methods are used as they are carefully controlled. Behaviourists use animals within their studies because they are more convenient to study rather than humans, they also assume that animals learn in the same way as humans. Behaviourists believe that we are born blank and as we grow up we learn everything that comes to us â€Å"Tabula Rasa† which means blank slate. The environment is very affective towards our behaviour as the people surrounding you and life events always has an impact on how you act, think, as well as feel. According to this perspective classical and operant conditioning is the only two ways in which we learn from the environment. Classical Conditioning is when someone associates one thing with another, for example a child might be afraid of the dentist because he/she associates it with injections and pain, and this might be because of an experience in the past. After this experience they will always remember being at the dentist and also might become scared of people wearing a face mask, just like the people at the dentist. Pavlov gave evidence of this with dogs. Firstly he observed how much a dog salivated whilst eating, and then he came to notice that before the dog even got the food it was salivating already. He then tested if a dog salivated whilst the food was hidden which it didn’t, so it then lead to wanting to know if the dog could learn to know when its food was coming. To do so Pavlov used a bell sound every time the dogs were fed. In a result of Pavlov’s observations the dogs came to learn when their food  was coming because they associated it with the bell noise. ‘Little Albe rt’ also gave evidence of this. When he was 9 months he had shown no fear when a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey and various masks were present. However he did show fear and ‘burst out in tears’ when a hammer was hit against a steel bar behind him, resulting a loud noise. When Little Albert was just over eleven months he still didn’t show fear of the white rat and again became startled when the hammer was hit against the steel bar. This was repeated every week for seven weeks and by the eighth week Little Albert instantly showed fear of the white rat as he would start to cry and attempt to crawl away although the hammer hadn’t yet hit the steel bar. This is because he associated it with the loud sound of the hammer hitting the steel bar. http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/a/little-albert-experiment.htm Operant Conditioning is when someone learns from either a reward or punishment in the past. For an example of punishment, if a child does something wrong their carer might tell them to sit on the naughty step; the child will then know to not do it again because of the unpleasant consequences that has happened in the past. However a reward is different for example, if a child did all their homework they would get a reward of something like some sweets. This makes the child more likely to do her/his homework in the future because of the pleasant reward they was given in the past. If rewards and punishments were not given to a child they will not learn within operant conditioning (learning from consequences), which means it is unlikely that they will grow up to know their rights and wrongs. Skinners result of his observation gave evidence of this theory. He observed how rewards encourage learning as he used a rat inside a box with nothing but a leaver. Once the rat had discovered that by pushing down the leaver it is rewarded with food, the rat continued to do so because of the pleasant reward it was given in the past, which is in the exact same situation with the child’s home work. B.F. Skinner took the work from operant conditioning a developed the reinforcement and punishment theory. http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html http://www.learning-theories.com/operant-conditioning-skinner.html Another one of B.F Skinners main ideas was the reinforcement theory which  holds how behaviour is a function of its consequence, meaning that the behaviour that we engage in depends on the consequences that we receive. For example of positive reinforcement, a child will engage in a positive behaviour if they know they will receive a pleasant reward. This pleasant stimulus encourages strengthening behaviour as it is now more likely that the child will increase their frequency of positive behaviour in the future because of the consequence of reward in the past. Behaviour can also be strengthened with negative reinforcement, however we do this to decrease the frequency of negative behaviour for example, a child will not engage in negative behaviour if they know that they will receive an unpleasant reward e.g. the naughty step. http://www2.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/reinforcement.html http://bcotb.com/the-difference-between-positivenegative-reinforcement-and-positivenegative-punishment/ Negative reinforcement has a large link to the punishment theory. This theory encourages us not to repeat negative behaviour for example; the consequence of a reward encourages a child to repeat the same behaviour in the future, where as punishment cancels out that desirable consequence and replaces it with an unpleasant consequence. This weakens the child’s unwanted behaviour which makes it less likely to occur in the future as it encourages them not to repeat it. http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/negative-reinforcement.htm This is nurture because it takes account of people’s experiences, upbringing, culture and environment. This is good if someone’s environmental surroundings are positive but could also be bad if their environmental surroundings are negative for example, if someone’s social group associates around drugs it is likely for them to start doing drugs as well. However some people may behave differently also due to nature as genes, hormones and brain structure/damage may affect behaviour as well; Someone can be born with disabilities which will have an effect on their behaviour; this can be a bad thing because they may have no control of the way they behave. Careful  and controlled scientific methods took place which resulted reliable results, this also has strength because it can be repeated to see if the results are accurate. Individual animals are tested; I think that testing on animals is more acceptable than testing on humans as these methods could have had a negative effect on behaviour, also everyone’s behaviour is unique, this gives more accurate results. A weakness of this is that some people do not trust Freud’s results because he cannot prove wrong or right. Social Learning Theory Everybody socially learn by copying other people’s behavior because most of the time we want to fit in and be normal. When people try to fit in they might change their appearance, how they speak or even the way they act especially when trying to fit in to a certain social group which is likely to lead to peer pressure e.g. drinking and smoking. We also learn by observing and imitating our role models, these are people we look up to or even sometimes wish to be. Everyone has a role model for a verity of reasons for example because they have a good sense of fashion, because they look pretty, because they seem lucky or kind hearted, because you like the way they act, because their rich or famous, because of their competence, because they are successful, or even because they are similar to yourself e.g. gender. Most people imitate famous people because everyone else likes them for example when Rihanna dyed her hair bright red a lot of girls reinforced her behavior and did the same which made Rihanna one of their role models. http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html Bandura showed evidence of how we learn socially in the Bobo Doll study. He did this by splitting a number of children into two separate groups. The first group began by watching and observing a video of an adult violently hitting the Bobo doll with other objects in the room as a part of the experiment, and then each child separately went into the room with the doll and did exactly what they had seen beforehand on the video. These children imitated the adult on the video probably because they looked up to him as he was older or even because they thought that’s what the doll was made for. However the other group of children didn’t watch the video beforehand and  when each child went into the room they showed no signs of violence and aggression towards the Bobo doll. This is mainly nurture because the children were taught what to do with the doll however it is also slight nature because we are born imitating people. http://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html Another experiment that has evidence of how we learn socially is the Asch study. He did this by asking a group of six people, one at a time, to choose which one of the three lines on the right of the card matches the length of the line on the left of the card. This was repeated seven times with different cards. On some occasions the people in on the experiment purposely choose the wrong line. The participant would go along with what the rest of the group is answering although it was clear to him that they are wrong. This was due to demand characteristics and group pressure/peer pressure. This study demonstrates how we go along with a group, he repeated what the other people in the group thought was right because he was convinced that he was wrong so he didn’t want to make a fool of himself or even because he certainly knew he was right but he just didn’t want to be different to the rest of the group. http://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html Everybody imitates other people without realizing, people mainly do this when they don’t know what is the right or wrong thing to do for example wait to be seated or just go and sit down in a restaurant. We are more likely to imitate models that are similar to us, famous, respected or even if we see them being rewarded for their behavior simply because we want to follow in their footsteps and be rewarded as well. Also social surroundings can have a negative effect on a person’s behavior, this might be because the people that they look up to are a bad influences. However social surroundings could have a positive impact on behavior, there for they will look up to someone that is respective, kind hearted and has manors. The social learning theory is nurture as we are influenced by others in the environment, I believe this can be good if someone’s environmental surrounding are positive however can sometimes have a negative effect on people if their environmental surroundings aren’t as great, also it is a  weakness because it doesn’t take account of peoples genes. This has being scientifically supported which is good because the results are more trustworthy and it has being tested on groups of people, this is a good idea because they gained more accurate information when comparing the different groups for example; Bandura tested two separate groups of children to see if all the children that watched the video beforehand acted in the same way, he also did this with the group of children that didn’t watch the video. This is strength because they considered that just because one person might act a certain way doesn’t mean everyone else will as an individual child may have acted upon their specific unique behaviour. Cognitive Perspective The mind generates cognition and cognitive processes; cognition involves knowing, understanding, remembering and communicating, whereas cognitive process uses that existing knowledge then retains it into new knowledge. Cognitive is range of intellectual skills you can do within your mind such as memory which is what we remember, learn, store then recall, for example your age, we learn it and store it in our memory then when someone asks ‘how old are you?’ you will respond with the recall. When being educated you remember 80% more if you recall by explaining things to other people rather than just learning from someone. Language is the way we speak, read and write. Decide is how we make choices for example what to do in the future. Imagine is the way we picture things without actually seeing it for example we could imagine a dog driving a car which is impossible. Attention is the way we concentrate and focus for example in a lesson. Learning is a way we ingest information for example a boss could tell you to go for your break now and you would now have ingested this information on when to go for your break. Thinking is how we problem solve, process ideas and thoughts and lastly perception is the way we see things. http://www.holah.co.uk/core-studies/cognitive/ The mind has a hypothetical Construct which is how we think of the consequences if something happened for example, if someone was about to commit a crime they would think the consequence of going in prison before  hand. Schemas are packets of information about the world that makes you understand things more clearly. Each individual packet contains its own purpose for example, when you go to a posh restaurant you schema is to firstly wait to be seated, read the menu, when the waiter comes to your table order your meal, wait for it to be served, eat it and lastly pay the bill. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s physiologists became interested in how the human mind processes information as an alternative to the behaviorist approach however because the mind is not a physical object behaviorists cannot prove any perspectives of the mind scientifically. http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive.html The brain of a human is very similar to a computer as they both transmit information, have a memory that can grow, can adapt and learn, have evolved over time, need energy, can be damaged, can do maths and other logical tasks.. However the brain needs nutrients like oxygen and sugar for power whereas the computer needs electricity to keep working. Piaget was the main theorist of the cognitive perspective. He believed that children are actively constructing their understanding of the world which means as their bodies develop their mind naturally develops as well. He thought this happened to individual children generally in 4 stages: 0-2: The sensory motor stage, this is when a child learns through the 5 senses; sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch. As they discover how to use their senses they also learn how to become active by moving around. The main awareness that develops in this time is object permanence, this is when a baby doesn’t recognize that an object still exists when they can’t see it therefore, if a child had a rattle then had it taken away they wouldn’t look for it because they don’t understand that it still actually exists. 2-7: the pre-operational stage, which is basically when a child learns mental operations such as imagine things and mentally reverse actions. This phase is when children start to engage in pretend play and use symbols to represent things however around 2 years a child begins to learn how to talk  which makes it easier for them to symbolize objects. At this age children become very egocentric, therefore they don’t understand that other people have a different point of view for example they cover their eyes and think that you can’t see them because they can’t see you. 7-11: The concrete operational stage: This is when a child learns mental operations concretely and learns the idea of conservation for example, if you have two identical glasses with equal amounts of water then ask the child which one has more they will reply they both have the same, while the child is still watching you take one of the glasses and pour it into a small fat glass then pour the other into a tall thin glass, you then ask the child again which one has more and if they haven’t yet reached the concrete operational stage they will say the tall thin glass where as if they have reached this stage they will again say they both are the same even though they look different. At this stage they also begin to reason about mathematics. 11+: The formal operational stage: This is when children are able to reason about abstract moral reasoning, abstract is when they can think about consequences of certain actions and what might occur, whereas moral reasoning is how children reason more like adults which continues to develop over time. http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/DLiT/2000/Piaget/stages.htm http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/a/keyconcepts.htm Piaget also created another study which discovered at what age children become no longer egocentric called the three mountains study. He did this by firstly letting the individual child look at all three mountains from different angles. One mountain had snow on top, a hut on another and a cross on top of the other. The child was then sat at one side of the model and a doll was placed at different positions towards the model. The child was then shown 10 photos of the mountains taken from different positions, and asked to choose which photo showed the dolls view. If their answer is incorrect this results that they are still in the pre-operational stage, however if the child’s answer is correct they are no longer egocentric and will have reached the concrete operational stage. However this is an unfair test because a child doesn’t have the ability to know that mountains look different from different angles as they are such an unusual feature. To make this more of a fair test I suggest that using a sheet to cover what you can  see on the other side would make it a lot easier for children to understand, then ask ‘what can I see?’ rather than using a doll and asking ‘what can the doll see?’. http://www.simplypsychology.org/preoperational.html Cognitive psychologists believe that this perspective is nature as it looks at genetics, hormones, the brain and how we are born with mental structure which is a good thing because it gives us certain abilities we need. They also think that nurture takes a part in this perspective because we learn as we grow up, which is also a good thing because we are able to increase our knowledge and gain a wider range of abilities, such as learning different languages. This is a big strength because it has also taken account of people’s environment, experience and upbringing. It is scientifically tested, this is strength because the results are reliable and it can be repeated to test if the results are accurate. Individual children at different ages are tested which I believe is good because they went into depth in one to one to result a fuller understanding. This gained accurate results as it gives the ability to concentrate on why an individual is behaving in the specific way however, you cannot generalize an individual’s results as they might not act in the same way as everyone else. The Psychodynamic Perspective Freud made a model of personality known as an iceberg and compared it to the mind which makes it easier to understand the psychodynamic approach. At the top of the iceberg is the part of your mind where you have your conscious what makes us aware of everyday thoughts and feeling for example, what’s happened on Eastenders. Secondly under conscious is your pre-conscious which is where your thoughts and memories are however they are sometimes not accessible but can be recalled easily. Also ego is part of the mind that makes you aware of other people’s feelings as well as your own feelings, things that make you cry and that you can’t always have your own way, this will have developed in a child’s mind by the age of three. Below ego is your superego which is a sense of mortality and is passed on by parents, it is where all your guilt, worries and fears come from. This appears around age five. At the bottom of the iceberg is ID which is already  present at birth as babies are completely selfish, in this part of the mind anxiety can occur a lot and could possibly lead to mental abnormalities if ID and su perego are unbalance as it is up to the minds ego to keep them equally balanced. Both of these come under the unconscious part of the mind which can repress sad thoughts, memories also feeling as this is known as the deep dark shameful part of mind that is in constant struggle. One of the main assumptions is that this part of the mind is what our behavior is mainly driven by because of our unresolved unconscious conflicts that have rooted from our childhood. According to Freud we all have three characters in our mind, ID, superego and ego. He believes that ID and super ego constantly fight in the mind because they are the total opposite which is a sense of morality e.g. right and wrong as he said that ID wants to take risks, superego wants to be safe and ego is stuck in the middle looking for compromise. Freud called body’s bundles of ID and created a Freudian slip which is when you say one thing but mean another. Freud had noted a number of defense mechanisms which he refers to during his written work such as: Denial, this is when you think what you want to think and refuse to face reality because the truth is too hard and painful to accept for example, losing someone close or being cheated on. Projection, which is when you cannot deal with certain unacceptable thoughts and feelings you have so you project them onto someone else for example you might hate someone although you can sometimes feel bad because they don’t hate you back so you make yourself think they do hate you to feel better about yourself. Reaction Formation, this is a reaction against your own desire as you do the opposite to what you really what to for example, being homophobic when you’re gay. Sublimation, which is when you change a specific unacceptable behavior for something more acceptable for example, punching a punching bag rather than a person. http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/psychology/psychology/psychology-personality/psychodynamic-perspectives Psychosexual stages, each of these stages represent the fixation of libido (sexual energy) on different areas of the body. Freud believed that children are born with a sexual urge. There are many stages of childhood during which the child seeks pleasure and if every stage is not completed successfully mental abnormalities could occur. The first stage is called the oral stage; it is called this because the mouth is the main focus of pleasure as a baby enjoys sucking, tasting, biting and breast feeding. This develops approximately from birth to eighteen months which is the ages that babies like to put all sorts of objects into their mouth to satisfy the libido. Once this stage is successfully completed a child will demonstrate this by weaning. The second stage is the anal stage which usually develops from eighteen months to three years. During this stage a child can become anally retentive or anally expulsive. Anally retentive can lead a child to becoming a person that likes to be very tidy, stubborn, enjoys order and being in control. However a child being anally expulsive can make them become more disorganized, messy as well as rebellious (doesn’t like to follow rules) however, more generosity will take place. The next psychosexual stage is the phallic stage which takes place around ages three to seven years and is slightly different for boys and girls. Boys have an Oedipus complex as he wants his mother as his ‘primary love object’ and his father out of the way. However he fears that his father will find out and castrate him as punishment. He identifies how to stop castration anxiety with his father by acting like a man. Whereas girls have an Electra concept, they want their mother out of the way rather than their father. They desire the father but realize they do not have a penis which then l eads to penis envy; also she will believe that her father can give her a baby so she then becomes more attracted to him. Lastly he does not fear castration as she will believe that her mother has already castrated her. The fourth stage is the latency stage which takes place from the age of six until they begin to develop puberty. Freud thought that sexual impulses are repressed during these ages as no psychosexual development appears within this stage. The urges in the child’s un-conscious mind is sublimated into different hobbies such as developing new skills and knowledge for example sports. The last stage of the psychosexual development is the genital stage, which should happen when beginning to develop puberty up to adulthood if earlier stages have being successful. At this age teenagers will begin to focus on genitals however differently to the phallic stage. They will begin to develop healthy adult relationships as well as know how to maintain intimate relationships. Around this stage they should have the ability to get through puberty without  problems and direct their sexual instinct to heterosexual pleasure rather than self-pleasure. Lastly the genital stage is shown to be successful if a person becomes settled down in a relationship during adolescence. http://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.html Psychoanalysis is a way that we can access out un-conscious mind and is psychologists have the ability to see psychological problems. We can do this by using things such as: Ink Blots – When using ink blots a person has to say what they see on the paper. This can help you find out if people might see things abnormally for example, most people will see a butterfly however depending on your un-conscious mind you might see something differently. Free Associations – This is a task that is used to find out what comes to your head when specific words are mentioned and is a good way to see if people associate the correct things with the correct words, for example most people associate a baseball bat with sport however someone might associate it with a weapon. Interpretation Of Dreams – When you are dreaming your un-conscious mind takes over which means primitive feelings, fears and urges takes place. This is a good way to translate your dream and identify your repressed feelings as well as thoughts you have within your un-conscious mind. Little Hans was one of Freud’s psychodynamic research studies. Little Hans was a young boy that had a phobia of horses, especially horses with black around their mouth and blinkers. Freud believed that the horse represented the boy’s father as his father had a mustache and glasses. Little Hans had a fear of being bitten by a horse but Freud thought that he was actually scared of his father biting him (castrating him) due to his desires towards his mother. When Little Hans became nineteen he announced that he has had no further issues during his adolescent years which supports Freud’s psychosexual stage; the Oedipus complex in boys. http://www.simplypsychology.org/little-hans.html This is known as nature because you are born with drives of sex and aggression inside your mind however, I believe it is also nurture because they didn’t take account of social upbringing and experiences in childhood which could have an effect on the psychodynamic approach. It is non-scientific because it is impossible to observe the mind as it is not a  physical object which is bad because it gives not as reliable results however psychologists used psychoanalysis to access an individual’s unconscious mind; because they was un able to observe the mind scientifically they went into depth in one to one interviews which made more trustworthy information. Individuals are observed which I believe is a good idea because everyone has a unique mind and is not exactly the same. They was able to concentrate on an individual’s behavior and went into depth in one to one to result a larger understanding however, they cannot generalize these results to other people because t he individual may have acted differently to everyone else. The Humanistic Approach The main theorists of this perspective are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Both theorists believe that people’s behavior is linked to their inner feelings as well as self-concept. Maslow said that people are motivated to achieve their certain needs for example, The longer somebody doesn’t eat the more hungry they will become which motivates their need to eat. Maslow created a hierarchy of needs in 5 stages. A person has to have met the lower basic needs before meeting the higher level needs. The first stage is the basic psychological needs for instance; food, shelter, water and warmth. The second stage is the safety needs. This includes living in a safe area with safe housing as well as being financially secure, also not being under threat e.g. abuse and crime. The third stage is belonging needs which is things like family, friendships, community, society and religion e.g. a church. The fourth stage is the esteem needs for instance achievements, compliments depending on your appearance and respect. The last stage is self-actualization which is basically being all that you can be, all humans have instinctive desire to achieve something and is also intrinsically good. Carl Rogers was particularly interested in the concept of ‘self’. He made the assumptions of what specific words mean such as: Self Esteem, This is how you feel about yourself for example, someone might have low self-esteem because they don’t like the way they look and this can make someone feel less valuable. If your ideal self (who you want to be) and self-image (how you see yourself) are far apart this would decrease your self-esteem (how you feel about yourself) where as if they were close together this would make your self-esteem increase as you would feel closer to the person you  want to be. Internalize, He said this is how you make it internal about yourself, someone’s external attitudes or behavior has an impact on your internal un-conscious assimilation for example if someone speaks to you aggressively you may think you have done something to deserve it. Self-concept, this is formed at a very young age as we internalize what others judge on us and positive self-esteem can encourage having a more accurate self-concept. It refers to the way you understand as well as see ourselves as we become older for instance, someone that knows who they are and where they are heading as they fit into the world. Ideal self, this is when someone knows who they want to be for example, someone might want to be a good person so will avoid getting involved in bad activities. http://www.simplypsychology.org/self-concept.html Self-image, this is how you see yourself depending on how others respond to you. For example you might see yourself looking over weight because someone had called you fat. Humanism is nurture because it depends on experiences, up-bringing, culture, environmental influences surrounding you as well as choice and free will which I believe is good because as it gives people the ability to make their own choices. However I believe it is also nature because genes, and brain structure/damage wasn’t taken to account and you can be born with something which could have an effect on the way you feel about yourself. It is a non-scientific approach as scientists are un-able to observe this mind because it is not a physical object. Conscious experiences would be recorded in a one to one interview and I believe this is a good thing because this gave more accurate information. It is focused on individuals; this is a good thing to consider because observing groups could lead to un-accurate results. A strength of observing individuals is that they gained a fuller understanding because in depth information was recorded. However they cannot generalize these results to others because everyone’s behaviour is unique. The Biological Approach Theorists are mainly interested in how physical development forms, especially the central nervous system which includes our brain and genes. Genes are inherited from your birth parents. We inherit many different types of genes as they start to develop before we are even born such as; eyes, hair colour,  height, nose, skin colour as well as features you cannot even see e.g. inherited disorders and diseases. Behaviour has a biological cause as the whole body is run by the nervous system which means the nervous system has a large impact on how people develop. Within the nervous system there is a pattern of development. The more complicated our nervous system is, the better we will have the ability to gain more development. The control nervous system provides the biological basis of the psychological experience. Within the control nervous system contains: Peripheral nervous system, this transfer’s information all around the body to and from the central nervous system. Somatic n ervous system: This controls the skeletal muscle and external sensory organs. Automatic nervous system: This controls involuntary muscles. Sympathetic nervous system: controls activities that increase energy. Parasympathetic nervous system: This controls activities that maintains energy intake. The Central nervous system, this transfer’s information all around the body to and from the peripheral nervous system. Spinal cord: This receives and transmits information to and from the brain for example, pain. Brain: This is the control center of the body, it maintains higher life involved functions such as receiving and processing information. Neurons handover chemicals across their synaptic gab to transfer messages around the body for example, ‘take your hand away, it’s too hot!’ or ‘laugh, it’s funny!’ There are different types of neurotransmitters for instance the serotonin, for a stable mood an inadequate amount of serotonin is required; this avoids any unnecessary neurotransmitters firing inside the brain. Another type of a neurotransmitter is dopamine, which basically supports you with depression and focus. Theorists tested this by using twins. Monozygotic is twins that are completely identical and have 100 percent of the same DNA, monozygotic twins are developed when a fertilized egg splits into two. Whereas Dizygotic twins are un-identical, these type of twins are developed when two separate eggs are released and both fertilized, they only share 50 percent of the same DNA which is similar to brothers and sisters. Bouchard explored the Minnesota twin study which was about twins that were separated at birth and raised in different families. He discovered that separated identical twins seemed to have a fair chance of being similar in terms of personality, interests and attitudes. Theorists believed that any difference between  twins is completely due the environment. An example of this would be the ‘Jim twins’. They were adopted at the age of four weeks by two separate families that were unknown to each other. When the twins were 39 years of age the Jim twins had met each other and discovered that they were very similar as they: Both married a woman named Betty and divorced a woman called Linda. Both have an adopted brother called Larry. Both named their pet dog Toy. Both was poor at spelling however was good at math’s. Both did carpentry, mechanical drawing and block lettering. Both suffered from headaches at the age of eighteen. Both gained ten pounds at the same time and weighed one hundred and eighty pounds. Also both were six feet tall. Lastly one named his first child James Allan and the other name his first child James Alan. https://mctfr.psych.umn.edu/research/UM%20research.html The maturation theory was influenced by genetics and environments. It is referred as the way we develop gradually over time. The brain needs to have fully developed every stage before having the ability to use the nervous system and skills. This perspective is nature as you are born with your brain instantly developing which I believe is a good thing because it provides us with abilities we need. This is a strength because they have considered to look at how people’s genetics, brain structure and nerves might affect their behaviour however its weakness is that they haven’t taken account of peoples upbringing, experiences, environment and religion. It is scientific because genes were studied; I believe this is a good thing because it gives scientific reliable evidence of the biological approach and it can be repeated to see if the results are accurate. However it lacks depth and does not take account of people’s feelings. Lastly it is tested on groups; I believe that testing on groups is a good idea because it gives accurate evidence however, you cannot generalize the results because not everyone will act in the same way as everyone’s behaviour is unique.