Behavior-Anything that a person does (writing, thinking, etc.)
Behavior may be overt meaning anything that is observable and measurable or covert, something that cannot be measured e.g. mental representation of the world, i.e. memory, strategies, and attitudes.
Modern Schools of Psychology
Psychodynamic approach- this is concerned with motives, conflicts and other forces that influence over behavior. The guiding factor being that most things are done in the unconscious state. Understanding just how much our world was changed because of Freud's work can just be difficult to grasp (or worth an MW debate!), but fact is we are immersed in a world of Freudian concepts. Every time we make reference to doing something "unconsciously", or refer to someone as having a big "ego", we are after all using Freudian terms.
Behavioral Approach: (Erickson, Skinner, Watson et al) – According to Watson, people learn by conditioning. Examples: going to school; induction process for a new corporate recruit. Infact, Watson claimed that psychology was not concerned with the mind or with human consciousness.
Skinner said that people learn by re-enforcement.
According to studies:
* It takes 30 days for our brain to establish or understand a new idea or concept.
* At around 90 days of consistent behavior, a new fragile pattern starts to run automatically.
* Miss a day during this 90-day training period and the brain kicks back to day one.
* At a year your new lifestyle is stable and you have new behaviors that you will find pleasant and comfortable. This new pattern is not like the old behaviors of the past. Your new habits continue to need low-level re-enforcement on into the future or they will revert back to the old ones.
Humanistic Psychology/Phenomenological (Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslowe et al)
Here we are talking about Problems, Potential & Ideals. Humanists reject the Freudian idea that unconscious forces rule personality. Humanists have immense faith in human nature. They say that human nature is in general good (what does law keepers have to say about this?). Though this school has gone (and is going) through lot of flux, the most notable contribution is Maslowe’s "hierarchy of needs."
Cognitive Approach: Proponents of the cognitive approach say that what people think will affect what they do. This approach is concerned with thinking, knowing, understanding, and information processing. Cognitive approach, thus, has special significance for educators/trainers. The following link may be of interest to readers: http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/guides/bloom1.html
Neurobiological Approach: According to this school there are psychological processes that’ll explain behavior. Influence of hormones and genes are predominant. For e.g., a victim of an accident may undergo some behavioral changes. More than anything, neurobiological approach is useful in providing basic data for Cognitive Psychology.
(Credits: Prof W. Slater, my Psychology Professor at Ohio, US, whose discourses acquainted me to the power of the human mind)
Rajib Kumar, Offline (The Material World Online Management Journal) Volume-4, No- 7, June 2006
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