HEALTH CARE

Health Care

Health care

Introduction

In nursing, psychology is an extremely influential component of practice. This is due to the extensive interaction nurses have with their patients. The medical condition of a patient may lead to mental illness or emotional disturbances. Comprehending the psychology of the patients potentiates the nurses in providing optimal patient care by addressing the mental aspects of the illnesses. They also provide a source of encouragement and compassion (Harklute, 2013).

In order to comprehend the psychology, there are various approaches/perspectives associated with contemporary psychology. Each approach comprises of certain assumptions regarding the behavior of humans. Every psychological assumption has various strengths and limitations. However, the nursing staff is required to understand all perspectives for understanding the human behavior of their patients. Most popular approach is behavioral perspective, which focuses on the learned responses or behavior of every individual. The basis of behaviorism approach is on the environment, contributing a scientific methodology to the observations. The psychodynamic approach is based on the unconscious mind and its effects on the behavior of individuals. Lastly, the humanistic approach presents the optimistic views of the human behavior (Harklute, 2013). This paper elaborates the three perspectives of psychology for nursing and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses.

Discussion

Behaviorism perspective

Behaviorism is a school of psychology that was prevalent in the England since a long time. The model was proposed by Ivan Pavlov. It proposes a scientific approach to the study of observable and measurable component of human behavior, a characteristic that was missing in the psychoanalytic theory. According to the theory, behavior can be unlearned when it becomes unacceptable. Behaviorism opposes the introspective, structural approach to psychoanalysis. It further emphasizes the environment as the primary component in shaping the behavior of an individual. Since behaviorism perspective is not concerned with the mind, interventions about the conditions maintaining and reinforcing human behavior can be studied via animal behavior. Animal research has formed the basis of behavioral approach (Elder, Evans, & Nizette, 2009).

The goal of behavioral approach is on observable behavior, as well as, conditions eliciting and maintaining behavior, known as classical conditioning; or on contributing factors that reinforce behavior, known as operant conditioning; or vicarious learning that is adapted by watching and imitating somebody else, known as modeling. The systemic desensitization is a type of classical conditioning learning used for treating phobias. On the contrary, token is a type of operant conditioning used for institutionalization (Sammons, n.d.).

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, was one of the most prominent figures in the development of behavioral psychology. He describes the association between stimulus and response, which he demonstrated when dog learned to salivate (respond) to a non-food stimulus, such as a bell (stimulus), when presented with food. His theory is called classical conditioning (Elder, Evans, & Nizette, 2009). In mental illnesses, behavioral model can be used for a wide array of presenting problems. Most importantly, it is can be used for treating disorders of impulse control, like obesity, excessive drinking, sexual problems, anxiety, or ...