A 7 page research paper that explores the differences two schools of psychology: the psychoanalytic approach, founded by Sigmund Freud, and the behaviorist approach, founded by John Watson and B.F. Skinner. This examination of the psychoanalytic and the behaviorist approaches to research and the use of the scientific method underscores the differences in orientation between the two schools. This examination will show that, in many ways, the psychoanalytic approach to psychology and research is diametrically opposed to the behaviorist orientation. Bibliography lists 10 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_khpsybeh.rtf
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providing a model for understanding human behavior. The two "founding" schools of psychology are the psychoanalytic approach, founded by Sigmund Freud, and the behaviorist approach, founded by John Watson
and B.F. Skinner. If you ask a psychologist from one of these camps as to which is the prevailing school of thought, you are likely to get very different
answers depending on that psychologists orientation (Robin, Gosling and Craik, 1998). The following examination of the psychoanalytic and the behaviorist approaches to research and the use of the scientific method
underscores the differences in orientation between the two schools. This examination will show that, in many ways, the psychoanalytic approach to psychology and psychological research is diametrically opposed to the
behaviorist orientation. McGrath (1964) defines the scientific method as the "systematic observation and recording of behavior, under known conditions, and the application of rigorous logic to draw conclusions from
the recorded results" (p. 22). Characteristics of the scientific method of investigation include: (1) objectivity of point of view; (2) explicit procedures which can be replicated; (3) reliable measurement under
controlled or known conditions; and (4) a sound logic of interference from results to conclusions (McGrath, 1964, p. 22). Behaviorists and psychoanalysts, however, apply this framework in very different ways,
which are controlled, in general, by their general orientation toward the field of psychology. Psychoanalytic perspective The term "psychoanalysis" refers to the school and the system of therapy based
on the theory of personality and psychopathology that evolved from Sigmund Freuds treatment of the "Viennese upper class at the beginning fo the twentieth century" (Holme, et al, 1972,
p. 638). The basic premise behind Freuds theories of personality is that human beings are driven by impulses derived from the biological demands of their bodies. Neurosis, according to classical