Approaches to psychology

Read the text and get ready to speak about approaches to psychology.

Huge, subject, special, approach, mental, emotional, to interpret, to influence, environment, to uncover.

1. to find out or discover smth;

2. the conditions in which you live, work;

3. connected with people’s feelings;

4. to explain or understand the meaning of smth;

5. very big;

6. an area of knowledge that you study at school, university;

7. not usual or ordinary; important for some particular reason;

8. a way of dealing with smb/smth;

9. involving the process of thinking;

10. to have an effect on or power over smb/smth so that he/she it changes.

12. Give the English equivalents to the following words and phrases:

особенно сложный, взаимодействие, генетический код, подход, бихевиористский подход, познавательный подход, биологический подход, социальный подход, развивающий подход, особенный потенциал, культурное развитие, умственное развитие, внутренний психологический процесс, понимание людей, научный подход, человеческое поведение, вести исследование, делать вклад (в науку), быть заинтересованным в чем-то.

Psychology is a huge subject. Human beings are extremely complex, so individual psychologists have to specialize: they conduct research into particular areas and they have their special interests. Studying psychology means becoming aware of main approaches to it, and how they can contribute to our understanding of human beings.

There are six main approaches to psychology. These are partly concerned with different ways of doing psychology and partly with different areas of interest. Each area of psychology has its own research methods and its own ways of going about research. However, all of them contribute to our awareness of human behavior. The various approaches give us different ways of looking at things, and each of those ways can tell us something useful.

The six main approaches in psychology are:

1. The behaviourist approach which looks at the way our environment affects our behavior.

2. The cognitive approach which is all about the study of our mental process. It is interested in how we interpret and make sense of the world around us.

3. The biological approach which is all about how our internal psychological process and our genetic make-up influences our behaviour. Biological psychologists are interested in the interactions between our environment and our internal psychology, and how those interactions influence our experience.

4. The social approach which is to do how we interact with other people.

5. The developmental approach which is to do with how human beings change over time. Developmental psychologists are interested in three areas of human development: emotional development, social development and cognitive development.

6. The humanistic approach which focuses on individual experience, rather than on people in general. Humanistic psychologists regard every individual as unique and are interested in helping people to uncover and use their own special potential.

We can see that the different approaches each have their own areas of interest and their own views on what is important about human beings.

Psychology is a very real and living subject. People are not simple but they are extremely interesting and studying them in a systematic, scientific way can be great fun. It can also tell us a great deal about ourselves.

14. Answer the following questions:

1. Why have psychologists to specialize?

2. How many approaches to psychology do you know?

3. Name the main approaches to psychology.

4. What does the behaviourist approach study?

5. What does the cognitive approach mean?

6. What is the subject of the biological approach?

7. What do the social psychologists study?

8. What is the developmental approach?

9. What does the humanistic approach focus on?

10. Which approaches is the most interesting to you?

15. Complete the following sentences:

1. Individual psychologists have to …

2. Studying psychology means …

3. The main approaches are partly concerned …

4. The behaviourist approach …

5. The cognitive approach …

6. The biological approach …

7. The social approach which …

8. The developmental approach …

9. The humanistic approach …

10. People are not simple …

16. Agree or disagree with the following statements. In your arguments use: I quite agree with …; I don’t think so …; I can’t agree with …; on the contrary …; quite so …; exactly ….

1. Psychology is a very narrow subject.

2. Psychologists have to specialize because psychology is a huge subject.

3. There are only two main approaches to psychology.

4. The approaches are concerned only with different areas of interest of the scientists.

5. The various approaches give us different ways of looking at things.

6. Psychology is a very real and living subject.

7. Different approaches don’t contribute to our awareness of human behavior.

17. Put in the right prepositions and postpositions where necessary*:

1. Studying psychology means becoming aware … main approaches … it, and how they can contribute … our understanding … human beings.

2. There are six main approaches … psychology.

3. These are partly concerned … different ways … doing psychology and partly … different areas … interest.

4. The behaviourist approach which looks … the way our environment affects our behavior.

5. The developmental approach which is to do … how human beings change … time.

6. The humanistic approach which focuses … individual experience, rather than … people … general. 6.

7. It can also tell us a great deal … ourselves.

18. Look through the given words. Choose a suitable word to put it into each gap:

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27