Searching for Explanations

As noted earlier, one of the goals of scientific psychology is to explain behavior.

When someone does something, particularly something unexpected, often the first question that pops into our minds is why. If the answer can be resolved to our satisfaction, we have an explanation. There is often more than one way to explain the same behavior. Sometimes rational thinkers disagree. This has resulted in a set of viewpoints, major ways in which behavior can be explained. These viewpoints greatly influence how research is done, how psychologists approach the study of behavior.

The first viewpoint to be identified is the biological viewpoint. The biological viewpoint asserts that behavior can be explained in terms of such factors as genes, the endocrine system, or the brain and nervous system. The biological viewpoint assumes that we are all organisms, made out of protoplasm, and the most solid explanations are those that recognize this.

Let us say that a child is suffering from mental retardation. Assume that the child receives a diagnosis of Down’s syndrome, a set of signs and symptoms suggesting that the child has three chromosomes on what is normally the twenty-first pair of chromosomes. Mental retardation is very frequently associated with this condition. Consequently, the genetic condition provides an explanation of the mental retardation.

Assume that thirty-four-year-old Jane C. says, tfI feel lazy.” This may seem to be a psychological condition. If it is later discovered that she has a sluggish thyroid gland and a low basal metabolism, her laziness may be explained in terms of her low thyroid production.

Bill, a forty-five-year-old engineer, suffers from chronic depression. If it is discovered that he has low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a chemical messenger in the brain, he mar be prescribed a psychiatric drug that brings the serotonin to an optimal level. His depression has been explained in terms of the brain’s neuro transmitters.

As you can see. the biological viewpoint is a powerful and useful one. It is the viewpoint that tends to be favored by psychiatry, a medical specialty, and physiological psychology.

The second viewpoint to be identified is the learning viewpoint. The learning viewpoint assumes that much, perhaps most, behavior is learned. Behaviors are acquired by experience. The learning viewpoint owes much to the influence of the philosopher John Locke (1632—1704), who said that the mind at birth is a tabula rasa (i.e., a ^tfblank slate""), meaning that there are no inborn ideas.

Let’s say that Opal smokes two packages of cigarettes a day. She thinks of it as a “bad” habit, and the learning viewpoint agrees with this commonsense way of looking at Opal’s smoking behavior. The behavior was acquired by processes such as observation and reinforcement.

According to the learning viewpoint, both “good'"' and ‘'bad” habits are acquired by experience. We acquire more than habits by learning. We learn to talk a specific language, we learn attitudes, we learn to like some people and dislike others, and so forth. Learning is a vast ongoing enterprise in every human life.

The third viewpoint to be identified is the psychodynamic viewpoint. This viewpoint owes much to the influence of Freud and psychoanalysis. It asserts that a human personality contains a field of forces. Primitive sexual and aggressive impulses are often in conflict with one’s moral and ethical values. An individual’s emotional conflicts can induce or aggravate chronic anxiety, anger, or depression.

The psychodynamic viewpoint is of particular value when one seeks to understand the behavior of a troubled person.

The fourth viewpoint to be identified is the cognitive viewpoint. This viewpoint asserts that an immediate cause of a given action or an emotional state is what a person thinks. For example, before you actually go to the supermarket you usually think something such as, “I’ll stop at the store to get some milk and cereal on the way home from work.” For a second example, when a person experiences depression, he or she may first think something such as, “My life is pointless.

Nobody loves me.”

Interest in the thinking process can be easily traced back to the writings of William James. He is often said to be not only the dean of American psychologists but the first cognitive psychologist in the United States. The cognitive viewpoint has lead to a great interest in concept formation, rational thinking, and creative thinking.

The fifth viewpoint to be identified is the humanistic viewpoint. This viewpoint asserts that some of our behavior can only be understood in terms of psychological processes that are uniquely human. This viewpoint owes much to ixisiiHiislisfK, a philosophical position originating in Europe that places an emphasis on the importance of free will and responsibility.

Two processes that tend to receive emphasis are the need for self-actualization and the will to meaning. Self-actualization, as defined by the psychologist Abraham Maslow, is the need to fulfill your talents and potentialities. The will to meaning, as defined by the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. is a deep desire to make sense out of life and discover values to live by.

The sixth viewpoint to be identified is the sociocultural viewpoint. This viewpoint assumes that much of our behavior is determined by factors associated with society and culture. For example, when a country has a great long-lasting depression, there is often a rise in personal problems such as depression and alcohol abuse. Society and culture find their expression in the family and its values, in religious traditions, and in general codes of conduct.

Very few contemporary psychologists identify with a single school of psychology or subscribe to a single explanatory viewpoint. Eclecticism is the point of view that there is something of merit in most of the schools of psychology and in the various viewpoints described. The majority of today’s psychologists describe themselves as eclectic. Eclecticism is by and large desirable. It is integrative and reflects an open-minded attitude. On the other hand, critics of eclecticism say that it is vapid and stands for nothing. Consequently, a competent psychologist must make an effort to steer a clear course between either a dogmatic adherence to a single viewpoint or

an opposite extreme characterized by a lack of conviction and confidence.