PSYCHOANALYTIC

Emphasized the recognition of childhood events that could potentially influence the mental functioning of adults1.

Viewed that personality is fashioned progressively as the individual passes through various psychosexual stages. Freud proposed that people operate from three states of being: the id, which seeks self-gratification; the superego, which seeks to do what is morally proper; and the ego, the rational mediator between the id and superego. Involves a series of psychosexual stages. Each stage poses a unique conflict that the individual must resolve before passing on to the next stage2.

Composed of a conscious mind, a preconscious mind and an unconscious mind. The conscious mind has knowledge of what is happening in the present. The preconscious mind contains information from both the unconscious and the conscious mind. The unconscious mind contains hidden or forgotten memories or experiences3.

“The mind is like an iceberg; mostly hidden”

Psychoanalytic Model has been credible over the years. Some psychoanalytic theorists built upon Freud’s work, although they placed greater emphasis on the role of ego and still paid greater attention to social factors in determining behaviour. But this model lacks supportive scientific data and inadequate in making predictions. I think that Freud’s psychoanalytic may have flaws because its conclusion was, early childhood is a significant stage but he studied mainly adult patients. Some have asked, were this psychoanalytic model of Freud, the best of his time or were they simply incorrect because current research contradicts many of Freud’s specific ideas. Development does not stop in childhood, development of human nature may happen during teenage years even though you did have bad childhood; and dreams may not be unconscious that drives wishes according to the conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind in the model. And I think, it appears to encourage analytic and psychodynamic practitioners to overlook great importance of ordinary common sense. Because psychoanalytic model deals chiefly with unconscious motives and blocked emotions, common sense is no longer seems to be applicable. While some other critics believe that it is increasingly important for analysts to be aware of common sense and the role that it can, should, and does play in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic.

Free association and dreams does not predict behaviour nor traits. And I, myself, have to contradict with this model because of the “penis envy” part of certain stage which have included because of based on the biases of the male-dominated culture of the Victorian Era of the late 1800s and maybe this may have been a cover-up of the author of the model for the rampant child abuse in Victorian Venna that the author may encountered in his female patients. But nowadays, I really believe that early development in childhood stage is really important on what would become with regards to human nature.

BEHAVIOURISTIC

Concerned with the observable behaviour of people—what they actually do and say. This is in contrast to psychoanalytic theory which focuses on the mental and emotional processes that shape human personality, and the data it uses come largely from the self-observations provided by introspection. Use concepts such as reinforcement, which can be either rewards or punishments, to shape desired behaviour. Behaviour modification is an approach that applies behavioural/learning theory to the problem of altering maladaptive behaviour4.

Human beings are shaped entirely by their external environment. If you alter a person's environment, you will alter his or her thoughts, feelings, and behaviour5.

I believed that the environment determines behaviour. I think people have consistent behaviour patterns because they have particular kinds of response tendencies. This means that over time, people learn to behave in particular ways. Behaviours that have positive consequences tend to increase, while behaviours that have negative consequences tend to decrease. Unlike other models, this doesn’t think that childhood played an especially important role in shaping personality. Instead, this model I think, personality develops over the whole life span. People’s responses change as they encounter new situations. One very good example is when you’re used in driving fast in rural area. You developed a liking for fast driving because your friends enjoyed riding with you and you never got speeding tickets. After moving to the city. Whenever you drove fast, you got a speeding ticket. Also, your new friends were much more cautious about driving in fast cars. Now you doesn’t like to drive fast and considers yourself to be a cautious person.

This model also showed that people are more likely to imitate some models (role models) than others. People tend to imitate models they like or admire and models they consider attractive and powerful. People are also more likely to imitate models who seem similar to themselves. Furthermore, if people see models being rewarded for their behaviour, they will be more likely to imitate those models. Advertisers often use these research results when they design ads. One very good example, ads that tries to persuade to purchase a certain brand of soft drink often show young, attractive models who are being rewarded with good times for their soda-drinking behaviour.

With some of other models, I think this model may also have flaw. Behaviourist researchers often do animal studies of behaviour and then generalize their results to human beings. Generalizing results in this way can be misleading, since we have complex thought processes that affect behaviour. They often underestimate the importance of biological factors. By emphasizing the situational influences on personality, some underestimate the importance of personality traits.

HUMANISM

Maintains that human beings are different from all other organisms in that they activelyintervene in the course of events to control their destinies and to shape the world around them6.

There is a hierarchy of needs, with each need requiring fulfilment before the next need becomes relevant. As Frederic Bastiat said, "A man can neither be a very good lover, nor soldier nor poet unless he has comparatively recently had something to eat." (No, Bastiat was not a psychologist, he was a French philosopher.)7

Is a reality based and to be psychologically healthy people must take responsibility for themselves, whether the person’s actions are positive or negative. The goal of life should always be to achieve personal growth and understanding. Only through self-improvement and self-knowledge can one truly be happy8.

Humanism rejected the psychoanalytic and behaviouristic view of human nature. This model taught us of having a self-actualization, with the saying, “Be all you can be”. It includes the focus on both positive nature of humankind and free will associated with change, unlike the psychoanalytic approach with lack of power over ourselves, while this model sees the individual as very powerful. And I think the only bad side of this, is that, it falls short in its ability to help those with more severe personality. With the right environment, we can reach our full potential. One must satisfy first the lower needs before he can proceed to higher needs. Personally, this humanism may have some very practical applications. For example, after students took the breakfast or lunch (lower needs), they will be focus more on higher needs such as esteem and achievement. The hierarchy of needs is one possible explanation for why children in low-income schools often have lower achievement. I’m not saying that this is the only explanation, by any means. While I believe that unlike other species, we are unique in being motivated by such needs as approval, recognition, achievement, and being the best that we can be and having the goal of human development; self-actualization. This is really contradicting to the behaviour modification ideas that the teacher, counsellor and parents set goals to be changed about the person that sometimes referred to as targets or subjects and then you arrange the environment with the appropriate rewards or punishments.

As what is being taught in humanism, I think some likely or would like to place themselves on the top – self-actualization. I know this may be an easy task for some, but we can’t overlook the struggles with the ups and downs of life. And for many of us, life is not that straightforward. We often have one foot in one level and the other foot in the next level, and are reaching at time trying to pull ourselves up while making sure we don’t fall backward at other times. We must remember that as we climbed to the top, we often make shortcuts but also notice that two steps forward can mean one step back. Sometimes it even feels like two steps forward means three steps back. The goal of some, however, is to keep an eye on the top and to climb as steadily as possible. We may fall at times and we may leap forward at times. No matter how far we fall backward, however, the road back up is easier since we already know the way.

EXISTENTIALISM

Existentialism is more recent philosophy that believes that each of us creates our own nature. Denies any essential human nature. In other words, there is no fixed, rational purpose or nature. Most influential figure to existentialism is Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre believes that we cannot rely on God or Society to justify ourselves. Sartre stated that there are no truths about what humans should or ought to be; only that we are free. Friedrich Nietzsche believed that there is no universal morality or rules that govern us. Emotions are the ways we freely chose to perceive the world9.

Emphasizes that we are free and conscious, but not necessarily rational or mechanical beings. Human beings are actually a collaboration of everything they do, not what they experience10.

It emphasizes the present; it emphasizes what is happening in the client's world today and how to better live in it11.

After hearing the word existentialism, some may think that it’s a complicated thing to study and we’ll make ourselves confused. In my own personal opinion, this is hard to study than being said that it is easy. But this model accepts the premise that our choices are limited by external circumstances, existentialism rejects the idea that our acts are determined. There are a range of choices available to each of us and we are free to choose and therefore responsible for our own choices and actions. We must create and live with our own individual freedom. This model focuses on creating our own environment. Freedom means "openness, readiness to grow, flexibility, and changing in search of greater human values. It entails our capacity to take hand in our own development. Freedom is basic to existentialist understanding of human nature because it underlies our ability to choose. People are free to choose among alternatives and therefore have a large role in shaping their destinies. With freedom, we must also accept the responsibility for directing our lives. Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. I think the goal of this model towards human nature is to enable individuals to accept their personal freedom.

We are encouraged to take seriously our own personal experience in our world. We are challenged to take responsibility for how we choose to live in our world. This model seeks to help us to experience our existence as real. Existentialism helps us face the concern of choosing for ourselves. There are harder decisions in life that requires a lot of thinking and people never want to make the wrong decision because they always want to pick the right path in life. Existentialism also believe that “truth” is not more than a human creation, but how do we know that anything is true?

I think that it is important for people to make the right choices in life and live the life that they truly deserve. We are all responsible for our choices but even good choices won’t always be good ones. You will still feel guilty over failing to fulfil all the possibilities in your life. Guilt, anxiety or angst is inescapable. Freedom is hard to find and a constant struggle.

What model best explained the human nature? Explain.

Humanism best explained the human nature. I would make this generation my standard for making the choices. Nowadays, we are all, may not be all, but most of us, wants to go to the top as soon as possible and they sometimes forgot the meaning of self-actualization. But regardless of that, this model focuses on our own personal growth and understanding. I believe that with all of us, having this kind of human nature, will make us or maybe our own country even better. And I also believe that we should act according to our priorities regarding with the needs. If you can’t get what you need, start at the bottom and slowly reach your higher needs. This model requires freedom and responsibility, so we already have choices to make, as with the existentialism as this two model has similarities, but of course differences too. We are the only ones who can control our destiny and our world. I, myself, is taking my time for my own personal growth, still improving my knowledge and fulfilling my needs for me to feel gratefulness.

I think it’s too late even with this model, our own human nature have already been decided. Crab mentality is there, taking advantage of weak is there, and we forgot that as we go up, as we experience growth and reach near the top, we forgot to help others, that is I think should be included in this model, as a human being created by God.

1 Tyson, Phyllis. (2002). The challenges of psychoanalytic developmental theory. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 50, 19-52

2, 4, 6highered.mheducation.com/sites/dl/free/0073370428/666687/Crandell9e_ch02.pdf3http://lcdcexamreview.com/2013/01/04/freud-psychoanalytical5http://www.siue.edu/~ptheodo/foundations/behaviorism.html7http://www.spiritlakeconsulting.com/devpsych/humanist.htm8http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/humanistic/#.VbgrxSGqpHx9-10http://hzt4ur.wikispaces.com/Existential+View+of+Human+Nature11http://home.earthlink.net/~andyda/psych/exist/keyexist.html