psychological perspectives

This assignment is an addition to my P2 and P3 which was a PowerPoint and I discussion I took part in about psychological perspectives. Throughout this assignment I am going to compare and discuss two psychological approaches. There are many similarities and differences between all of the psychological approaches, however the two approaches I’m choosing to compare and evaluate are the humanistic approach and the cognitive approach.

The humanistic approach is patient centred and understands individuals all have different needs ad these can change depending on the individual’s characteristics, health state and their moods. The humanistic approach shows a lot of individualised care and looking mainly at the individuals themselves and how the care is meeting their set needs. The humanistic approach suggests behaviour is determined greatly by internal factors such as our emotions.

The cognitive approach is based around the notion that if we want to know what makes the human mind function and why certain behaviour is displayed, and then we need to understand the internal process of the mind. Cognitive psychology bases its focus on the way the human process information, it looks at how we use the information that we receive and how this lead to our behaviour. The cognitive approach refers to the human body as a machine. Similarities: Cognitive approach & humanistic approach.

These two approaches to health and social care are very much alike in terms of both theorists focusing on the promotion of positive self-acceptance and trying to discourage the user from negative thoughts and not to judge themselves on past encounters. Both theorists want the user to accept any failures or mistakes as a part of their life and not to let it affect other situations, and to process there mistakes to improve their coping strategies, within health and social care both theorists try and promote there user’s acceptance of who they are.

They try to remove negative experiences and focus on the present time or problem they are encountered in, to improve self-esteem and how they manage their problems. Both approaches look at the learning and understanding process of that individual and the ways in which they learn, although the cognitive approach looks only at the intellectual side of learning, and the humanistic approach looks at it as a whole. Differences: Cognitive approach & Humanistic approach.

Where there is similarities there are always differences, the humanistic approach is very individualised in context of the client themselves and them as a whole; every part of the client being considered, whereas the cognitive approach only looks on one set part, this being only looking at the intellectual side of learning and our behaviour. The cognitive approach is all to do with the brain and the way it works. It looks at the human body as a mechanical object, this suggest that the cognitive approach sees the human body as very structured and that every client is the same and that everyone’s thought process is the same.

In health and social care Psychological perspectives are very essential to the care being given; each professional they will display different perspectives. Different professionals have different ways of provided there care, and have their own view on what approach is best to be applied. Strengths&Weaknesses. The humanistic approach has many strengths and weaknesses; I believe the strengths to this approach is that they look at the individual as a whole and not just in sections and that holistic approach is widely shown.

The individual is put at the centre of their care, this is very important as the client needs to be able to trust you and know that you are giving them the right care they need. When the client feels they can trust you the client can then open up to you when they feel down or feel things need to change. Although this approach has strong strengths the weakness it has it that the approach is based simply on evidence based practise and primary research, there is no scientific prove that this approach works as there is no evidence to back it up.

The cognitive approach also has strengths and weaknesses. One strength of the cognitive approach is that it looks at thought processes which were ignored by other psychologists, especially behaviourists. Processes such as memory, attention and perception have been studied as they have an effect on our behaviour. A weakness of this approach is that it is too mechanical; it compares the human to computers in that they have similar processes. This is a weakness as humans are more complex than computers, for example emotions can affect a humans output.

I believe the humanistic approach is the best approach to be taken within health and social care as its important the patient you are caring for feels comfortable and that they have trust in you and the other professionals caring for them. I believe in the patient has trust in you they are more likely to open up and share confidential information with you. As there is no scientific evidence to back this approach up I do not think that is a problem as there is enough primary evidence to back this up. If there was no humanistic approach I believe care wouldn’t be at its best.