Psychology Schools of Thought

The Simpsons Edition

Patient: Bart Simpson

• Oldest of three children• Only male child• Mischievous behavior• Parents caught him hitting cars with a

slingshot and took him to 7 different psychologists…

Biological/Neuroscience School

• Focus: brain and body chemistry. • Bart's behavior = something physically going

wrong with his body. • They would look at Bart's brain for

abnormalities, check his blood chemistry and diet, and maybe put him on medication.

Evolutionary School

• Focus: process of natural selection.• Way back in the caveman days, Bart's great

great great great great great great great great great great grandfather also misbehaved.

• For some reason this trait helped Bart's ancestors to survive and they passed this trait all the way down to Bart.

Psychodynamic School

• Focus: unconscious drives (Freud)• In Bart's case, a person from the

psychodynamic school might say that Bart acts out because he actually has sexual feelings for his mother (hidden in the unconscious)

• To ignore those feelings, he does the opposite of his true desire (a defense mechanism called reaction formation) and tries to annoy her.

Behavioral School

• Focus: observable behaviors • If Bart was angry and shot a stone at Flanders’

car, the behavioral school would only focus on the behavior and not his feelings.

• They might do something like shock Bart every time he tries to use his slingshot. Bart would eventually associate the shocking behavior with his misbehavior and stop it.

Humanistic School

• Focus: self-actualization • They would listen to Bart and hear out his problems.

They would tell him to focus on the healthy person they know he can be.

• For Humanists believe that everyone has thepower to solve their own problems if they can shed themselves of that negative vibe.

• Scientists always have the most trouble dealing with the Humanistic school because it is really hard to tell if it works.

Cognitive School

• Focus: how we interpret, process and remember events.

• They would say that Bart acts out because he has learned that that is the best way to deal with the world.

• They would help Bart develop alternative cognitive strategies

Social-Cultural School

• Focus: Social and Cultural Influences • We all grow up in different environments, with

various religions, family structures, money etc... All of these things effect the way we think and act.

• In Bart's case it could be a number of things:–A smarty-pants little sister–A baby sister fixated at the oral stage–A busy stay-at-home mom–A father who may not be the best male

role model

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Adapted from www.appsychology.com