Megan Durgan PSY 100L Professor Prewett 9 December 2014 Psychology Term Paper Over the course of this semester I have learned substantial information regarding not only psychology, but also about how these concepts relate to leadership and my life. In this paper I am going to discuss the five major approaches to psychology, how different concepts relate to these approaches, and how both these approaches and concepts relate to leadership. The first approach that will be addressed is the biological approach. The biological approach is, “the view that behavior is the result of physical processes, especially those relating to the brain, to hormones, and to other chemicals. (Bernstein A-102) After analyzing this approach, it proved to be fairly easy to relate this approach to leadership because all people, whether they are leaders or not, undergo changes that effect our brains as well as our hormones. The second approach that we will address is the behavioral approach. This approach states that behavioral psychology is, “a view based on the assumption that human behavior is determined mainly by what a person has learning in life, especially rewards and punishments. (Bernstein A-102) The behavioral approach was also quite easy to apply to leadership because many leaders either operate on a rewards and punishment routine, or they utilize other behavioral concepts in their relationships with their followers. The next approach that was examined was the psychodynamic approach. The psychodynamic approach was, “a view developed by Freud that emphasizes unconscious mental processes in explaining human thought, feelings, and behavior” (Bernstein A-107). This was definitely the hardest approach to apply to leadership because much of the approach deals with an individual’s unconscious and the different aspects that are hard to measure and compare. Following psychodynamic we have the cognitive approach. This approach can be explained as, Durgan 2 “a view that emphasizes research on how the brain takes in information, creates perception, forms and retrieves memories, processes information, and generates integrated patterns of action” (Bernstein A-103). Similarly to the biological and the behavioral approach, the cognitive approach proved to be fairly easy to relate to leadership because it can be related to how we process information and oftentimes leaders follow certain patterns. Finally we will be discussing the humanistic approach. This approach to psychology can best be described as, “a view of behavior that is controlled by decisions that people make about their lives based on their perceptions of the world” (Bernstein A-105). This was also easy when relating it to leadership because leaders often times make decisions based mainly on how they perceive different parts of their world or their tasks. Ultimately, this paper will be a reflection of the information that I have learned over the course of the past sixteen weeks and how I have been able to relate and apply these ideas to leadership and my own life. As I stated above, the first approach that we will be examining is the biological approach. The biological approach can be helpful in understanding why leaders behave in certain ways. Within this next section we will be examining four concepts that relate directly to both the biological approach as well as leadership. The first concept that we will be discussing is the concept of stress. Stress is the, “process of adjusting to circumstances that disrupt or threaten to disrupt a person’s daily functioning” (Bernstein A-109). Stress relates to the biological approach because it is controlled by the hormones in your body and your body’s physical reactions in response to being pushed to its limits. This idea correlates with leadership because all leaders experience stress at one point or another in their lives; however, it is how a leader handles his or her stress that determines whether or not he is being a good leader. A good leader takes the time to plan out and organize his days or weeks so that he can minimize as much stress as possible. Durgan 3 However, when stress does arise a good leader is able to sit down and analyze the situation and determine what the best plan of action would be. A bad leader tends to snap under pressure and effect his teammates in a much more negative fashion. Not only does stress effect how leaders performs, but sleep deprivation can also play a big role in a leaders performance or behavior. Sleep deprivation is, “a condition in which people do not get enough sleep, may result in reduced cognitive abilities, inattention, or increased risk of accidents” (Bernstein A-108). Sleep deprivation is related to the biological approach because it causes physical harms to the body. It is common for a leader to experience sleep deprivation at some point or another due to the fact that leaders are often very busy and because of that tend to lose sleep. Sleep deprivation can cause a leader to perform poorly because of the negative effects it can have on ones body. For example, if a leader is the chair of the homecoming committee for his high school and experiences sleep deprivation during the middle of homecoming week, he is more likely to make mistakes and forget information. This experience with sleep deprivation would cause him to perform poorly as a leader. Although stress and sleep deprivation can affect a leader negatively, a leaders intelligence can have positive effects on how they perform. Intelligence is, “the possession of knowledge, the ability to efficiently use that knowledge to reason about the world, and the ability to use that reasoning adaptively in different environments” (Bernstein A-105). Intelligence is related to the biological approach because your intelligence is a physical process; your hormones help to determine how intelligent you are and how quickly and efficiently you learn information. A good leader needs to have at least some level of moderate to high intelligence in order to perform well when it comes to leadership skills. These skills involving intelligence could range from public speaking ability to problem solving to writing a 15-page psych paper. Durgan 4 The final concept that we will be discussing is bottom-up processing. Bottom-up processing includes, “aspects of recognition that depend first on information about stimuli that come up to the brain from the sensory systems” (Bernstein A-103). This concept relates to the biological approach because it has to do how our brains process information. When relating to leadership, bottom-up processing can allow you to make logical decisions based on your emotions. For example, when faced with a difficult decision as to judging whether or not your class float looks good for the upcoming homecoming parade, when using bottom-up processing you are able to tell your classmates that it is not adequate enough or up to your standards for the parade because you are not reacting with your emotions. Rather you are making a logical decision and reaction. The next approach that we will be examining is the behavioral approach. When discussing this approach we will relate it to the four concepts: habituation, observational learning, operant conditioning, and punishment. First we will discuss habituation. Habituation is the, “reduced responsiveness to a repeated stimuli” (Bernstein A-105). This relates to the behavioral approach because it is something that is learned over time and it affects your behavior. When relating this concept to leadership, habituation can be both a good and bad thing. Habituation can be good when leaders get used to public speaking therefore they are good at it and are willing to do it whenever needed. However, it can be bad if a leader experiences habituation in response to a team member’s negative attitude. Rather than help to fix this persons negative attitude, the leader may simply become unaware that it is happening all of the time and is hurting their progress as a group. The next concept that we will discuss is observational learning; observational learning occurs when watching the behavior of others. This relates to the behavioral approach because Durgan 5 observational learning occurs when you watch the behaviors of others. This can be beneficial to a leader if he is observing good leadership behavior because he may pick up these traits and utilize them in his own leadership toolbox, however, he may also observe poor leadership qualities and learn how not to behave in order to be an effective leader. Operant conditioning is the idea of shaping behavior based on rewards and punishments. This idea relates to the behavioral approach because operant conditioning effects the way a person behaves and how they react to rewards or punishments. Leaders react to operant conditioning in various ways. For example, a leader may be more inclined to finish an assignment early if they will be given a reward such as more time at recess, but if they finish early and are punished by being given another assignment, odds are the leader will not strive to finish early. The final concept that we will relate to the behavioral approach is the concept of punishment. Punishment can be defined as, “the presentation of aversive stimulus or the removal of a pleasant one following some behavior” (Bernstein A-107). This relates to the behavioral approach because you learn whether or not a certain behavior is good based on whether or not you receive a punishment. This relates to leadership because leaders occasionally need to provide punishment to their followers if they are not doing what they have been instructed to do. For example, my high school student council advisor had to take away Fun Fridays in our leadership class because we were not getting all of our work done on the other days of the week. Therefore our punishment was taking away our fun break time on Fridays. Following the behavioral approach we will discuss the psychodynamic approach. The first of the four concepts we will be analyzing is the idea of implicit memory. Implicit memory is, “the unintentional recollection and influence of prior experiences” (Bernstein A-105). This Durgan 6 concept relates to the psychodynamic approach because you are unaware of the memories that are being encoded. Implicit memories can relate to leadership because often times leaders are unaware of why they feel a certain way about something. For example, leaders often support one cause more than another, such as relay for life, odds are that they have an unconscious memory relating them to this organization; this would be an example of an implicit memory influences ones behaviors. Next in our discussion is the concept of unconscious desires. Unconscious desires are the wants that are present in the unconscious mind as are influenced by Sigmund Freud. The idea of unconscious desires is directly related to the psychodynamic approach because we are unaware that we are experiencing them. Leaders can be influenced by their own unconscious desires and this can have an effect on the things they are striving for. A leader may focus his or her efforts very hard during the spring semester unaware that he is working way harder during these months than during the fall months. Unconsciously the leader may be working so hard because he knows in the back of his mind that his scholarship is up for renewal and he must have a certain grade point average in order to guarantee he earns it. Similar to unconscious desires is the idea of achievement motivation. Achievement motivation is, “the degree to which a person establishes specific goals, cares about meeting them, and experiences satisfaction by doing so” (Bernstein A-102). This concept is related to the psychodynamic approach because people often times use the achievement motivation subconsciously without necessarily knowing what they are doing. Leaders can apply the achievement motivation concept to group projects without their team members being entirely aware of what they are doing. For example, when given a deadline to create a display case within Durgan 7 the next week, a leader may create group goals for the group members and offer mini rewards throughout the week leading up to the deadline. The final concept that we will relate to the psychodynamic approach is the concept of defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms are, “unconscious tactics that either prevent threatening material from surfacing or disguise it when it does” (Bernstein A-104). This is related to the psychodynamic approach because it is an entirely unconscious process. Leaders use defense mechanisms to sway themselves to believe that something isn’t so bad. For example, a leader may be using a defense mechanism when he realizes that they only have two days until prom and the DJ has backed out. Rather than panic, the leader unconsciously convinces him that it is okay and that everything will work out so that he doesn’t go into panic mode. Now that we have discussed the psychodynamic approach, we are going to work our way into the cognitive approach. The concepts that we will cover in the cognitive approach are: grouping principals, recency effect, primacy effect, and schemas. The first concept that we will relate to the cognitive approach is grouping principals. Grouping principals are ideas such as similarity and proximity that lead us to group people together. This concept relates to cognitive because it is a way to organize thoughts and ideas. This concept can relate to leadership because leaders are often grouped together. For example, although many people who live in Barnes are not LAS scholars, Barnes dorms are often viewed as the leadership dorms because LAS students live there as well. Therefore, everyone who lives in Barnes is grouped together based on the proximity principal. Following the grouping principals will be the recency effect. Recency is, “a characteristic of memory in which recall is particularly good for the last two or three items on a list”. (Bernstein A-107) This relates to the cognitive approach because it has to do with your mental Durgan 8 processing of information and how your brain takes in information. This concept relates to leadership because it can determine how well you remember tasks that are given to you. For example, when your instructor reads off to you a list of seven tasks that need to be accomplished, odds are that you will definitely remember the last two or three of the tasks that are on the list. This is because they are the most recent in your brain and you are reacting to the recency effect. Similarly to the recency effect is the primacy effect. The primacy effect is a characteristic of memory in which recall is particularly good for the first two or three items on a list. This relates to cognitive because it has to do with how your brain processes and stores information. This concept can be related to leadership in similar terms as the recency approach. However, the primacy effect states that you remember the first few tasks read off in a list because they are the first few things that your brain encodes. The final concept that we will be relating to the cognitive approach is the concept of schemas. Schemas by definition are, “what we know and expect about the world” (Bernstein A108). This relates to the cognitive approach because it has to do with how your brain processes information and relates it to the real world. Leaders can often be identified by their own schema. When someone is viewed as a leader, others often view him or her as though they are above all others. For example, here on campus non-LAS students often think of LAS students as privileged or special because they know to expect leaders as they are above them, when we know that to not be true because that is what we have experienced. The final approach to psychology that we will be discussing is the humanistic approach. Within this approach we will discuss Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, emotions, gender roles, and conditions of worth. We will start with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be defined as, “human behavior is influenced by a ranking of needs, physiological, Durgan 9 safety, belongingness, esteem, and self actualization”. This concept relates to the humanistic approach because it has to do with ones emotions and overall well-being as a whole. Leaders may all practice Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. True leaders strive to achieve self-actualization above all else and at the same time will encourage others to follow suit. The second concept in the humanistic approach is emotions. Emotions are, “temporary positive or negative experiences that are felt as happening to the self” (Bernstein A-104). This concept relates to the humanistic approach because emotions are determined by the decisions that people make and how they are perceived by the world. Emotions relate to leadership because all people, whether they are leaders or not experience emotions. However, emotions can also make or break a leader. A good leader needs to be able to handle his or her emotions and keep them within an acceptable range. A bad leader on the other hand may cry often when stressed or take their anger out on their teammates when they are stressed. Following emotions we will discuss gender roles. Gender roles are, “patterns of work, appearance, and behavior that society associates with being male or female”. This idea relates to the humanistic approach because society determines how we feel, react, and relate to people that are male or female and how they are expected to behave. Gender roles can also be related to leadership because it is often expected that females are more patient and understanding leaders where males tend to be more aggressive leaders. In a stressful situation, if you have a female leader in charge of your group, you may feel more comfortable admitting your mistakes because she may be more likely to provide empathy and understanding. A male leader however may provide harsh feedback and cause you to feel poorly about your mistake. The final concept that we are going to address in regards to the humanistic approach to psychology is conditions of worth. According to Carl Rogers, conditions of worth are, Durgan 10 “circumstances in which an individual experiences positive regard from others only when displaying certain behaviors or attitudes”. This concept relates to the humanistic approach because a person experiences conditions of worth based on how he perceives himself in relation to the rest of the world. Leaders often experience conditions of worth when they are interacting with their followers. Followers often express their gratitude when they are following good leaders but do not express gratitude when working with poor leaders. Although there are only five main approaches to psychology, there are hundreds of concepts that accompany each approach. Each approach, whether it is the biological, the behavioral, the psychodynamic, the cognitive, or the humanistic approach, relates to both my own leadership abilities and myself in general. This class has taught me that there is more to leadership than just meets the eye. Durgan 11 Work Cited Bernstein, D. A. (2011). Essentials of Psychology (5th edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage.