Psychological Perspectives in Health and Social Care

Behaviourist theories might say Katya has turned out the way she has due to the way she has been treated by her father. Katya did not get the love or attention she needed as a child, and because of this when her father sexually abused her, she saw it as a reward by showing her love. Her father also had a drug problem, and as a reward could have possibly given them to her, and is why she deals class A drugs. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist came up with the classical conditioning theory. This involves putting an unconditioned response with a conditioned stimulus, which is the new learnt behaviour from putting the response and stimulus together.

As Katya has been sexually abused at such a young age, she thinks that being sexually active is a normal thing to do at her age. This possibly has lead her to become a prostitute, which is extremely dangerous fro a girl of her age, due to catching STD’s and not knowing the people she is sleeping with. Katya has never gone past the psychosexual stage of the 3-5 year olds. This is when children start to realise about sex. During people’s life stages, there are different psychosexual stages they go through. If they don’t go through those stages, problems will occur in a change in personality. Sigmund Freud came up with this theory. He believed the mind can be divided into 2 main parts; the conscious mind, which is everything we are aware of, and memory is a part of this as we can retrieve information once it is made aware of again. This is also known as the preconscious mind is unpleasant, such as feelings, thoughts, urges. Most of the unconscious mind is unpleasant, such as feeling of pain, conflict, anxiety. It influences behaviour even though we are unaware of it. Erik Erikson agreed with Freud’s theory, but Erikson also believed that we move through a series of psychosocial crises with a different social focus at each stage, e.g. between the age of 0-1 the life crisis concerns developing thrust or mistrust in self or others. The social focus in this stage is the mother.

The biological approach can make us understand how Katya has developed due to the environment she has been brought up in, (nurture) and her genes/behaviour (nature). Nature may have made Katya the way she is from the genes that have been passed on to her. Therefore, Katya may have got her father’s tendencies towards drinking and drug taking. Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) believed children went through development norms, which meant at a certain age they should be able to learn and understand certain things. Nurture could have influenced the way Katya behaves, as she does not really understand about certain things in life from not being told by role models, e.g. father, and does not know what her boundaries are. She also has not had any proper love, so that has leaded her to do other things, and from seeing what her father does, influences her to do things she should not.

Task 2

The Social Learning Theory was developed by an American psychologist called Albert Bandura. He recognised that we learn things by observing people, also known as observational learning.

Katya’s assessment will be based on the impact in has on her life. Katya’s emotional development has been because of seeing what her father has done to her as a child. Her father has been violent, and has locked her in the bathroom, so has not had good visible care, and does not understand how important it is and reacts against what people see. This is because she has seen her father act in this way and has copied him, as she sees him as a role model. For Katya’s care plan, it would involve looking at different role models, as it can affect behaviour, as shown by Katya.

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In health and social care provisions, in order to promote anti-discrimination practices and behaviour, messages must be put forward which maximise attention. This can be done by using positive images, for example, people we admire like celebrities with messages which help promote anti discriminatory behaviour, so we copy what they do.

The humanistic approach focuses on the idea of free will and the belief that we are capable of making choices. The 2 psychologists that approached this theory were Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.

Abraham Maslow believed that every human being require certain basic needs before they can approach the next level. This can be shown on the hierarchy of needs. Firstly, basic physical needs have to be met before progressing further, for example, food and water, well housed, and once those have been met, we then focus on our emotional needs. These are things such as feeling loved, high self-esteem and feeling or belong. Once all the needs are met, we strive to self actualise, which means reaching full potential in life.

Carl Rogers was more interested in the concept of self. This is how we view ourselves. If children get praised, encouraged to succeed, and told they are valued, their self-concept will be positive and see themselves as someone who is worthwhile and competent. If they are told they are naughty or no good, it will have a negative affect and will affect part of their self-concept aspects.

For Kayta’s assessment, the humanistic approach can be applied on how it affects her life. Katya got treated badly as a child, making her feel not wanted by her father and un-loved. He would often shout violently at her, and if she cried or complained, and once Katya’s father calmed down he would sexually abuse them. This will affect her self-concept as she has not been valued enough, and also it has affected her self-esteem as she has not had the love from others and does not know how to look after her appearance due to not being taught. On Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Katya has not been able to progress further from the basic physical needs. This is because she has not been cared from properly, and is unable to move to the safety and security needs due to her father not being there for her.

The humanistic approach can be applied for to health and social care provisions to help the problem. Unconditioned positive regard refers to a totally judgemental way of being with or viewing a client. The therapist supports client’s feelings, beliefs and emotions un-conditioning. This means without judging whether their emotions are good or bad.

Empathy is also used in helping others. It requires care workers to listen to clients, and respect them for whom they are and any emotions they have had to deal with.

Jean Piaget came up with the cognitive theory, saying that cognition develops through a series of stages building on the previous stage, and so on. He believed we can only achieve certain things in certain stages in life, for example, a baby is only able to experience the world through sense perceptions (smell, touch, sight) and motor activity. This will then develop into the next stage which involves language, memory and thought and so on.

For Katya’s assessment, this theory has an impact on her life as she grew up to fast. This means that she has to cope with things at a certain age which her brain could not deal with. Am example of this would be her father’s behaviour towards Katya, not allowed to have any creative play by making things or decorating a dolls face and playing with its hair.

In health and social care provisions, keeping a diary or record of negative thoughts and feelings can help to identify why they are feeling like the way they are. By identifying why they are feeling like that, care workers can help support the individuals through their problem.

Task 3

The psychological perspectives I have chosen to analyse are the behavioural theory, biological theory and social learning theory. I have chosen these theories because they apply more for the way Katya is behaving.

Psychological Perspectives

Katya’s Challenging Behaviour

Behaviourist Theory

Ivan Pavlov-reward good behaviour

Ignore her bad behaviour that she shows. Is used to being rewarded for bad behaviour so when shouts and screams walk away.

Make sticker reward chart, so when Katya shows good behaviour gets a sticker and when completes chart gets a reward, e.g. money.

Biological Theory

Arnold Gesell

Nature/Nurture

Katya may possibly be more sensitive to drugs because if her mum took drugs whilst she was pregnant with Katya, she may have been born a ‘crack baby’

Could put Katya into rehab to get her weaned of the drugs and alcohol.

Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura

Observational Learning

Remove or separate Katya away from those who are a bad influence towards her, e.g. father. This is the responsibility of a social worker.

Arrange for Katya to see/meet a person who experienced and went through the same issues as her, and speak to her about how they have dealt with it and how they have turned out today- can be seen as a role model for Katya to help her deal with the problem she went through

Health and Social care organisations can help Katya’s behaviour through different types of therapies. The therapies that will help Katya come under the Psychodynamic theory (child psychotherapist), humanistic theory (child therapist), and cognitive theory (CBT-cognitive behavioural therapy).

Psychological Therapies

How it will help Katya

Psychodynamic theory

Child psychotherapist

Help her to manage her difficulties with behaviour

Help Katya develop new skills

Help resolve her issue that she has dealt with

Boost communication skills

Lets her play and do activities and then once comfortable help her problems

Humanistic theory

Child Therapist

Form strong relationships with the therapist- ‘mode of communication and type of relationship facilitates change and growth in children experiencing emotional distress’ http://www.bapt.info/playtherapycareers.htm

Cognitive Theory

CBT

Helps Katya make sense of overwhelming problems by breaking them down into smaller parts

Focuses on the cause of her distress or symptoms in the past, it looks for ways to improve her state of mind now.

Identify Katya’s individual patterns of thoughts, emotions, bodily feelings and actions and keep a diary record

Help Katya to work out how to change her unhelpful thoughts and behaviours

Helps Katya to replace unhappy thoughts with positive thoughts