Psychological Perspectives Essay

Nurses can utilize psychological theories and research to enhance their practice, and in fact, most of their training is based on psychology, biology, and sociology. Therefore, there are some relations between varying psychological perspectives and the nursing and midwifery practices. This paper discusses these perspectives regarding how various theories can be applied to the practices of nursing and midwifery. Biological Perspective Bio psychologists maintain their understanding of an individual to their biological components (Barker 12). They have often been accused of reductionism since they narrow down the behaviors of a person to various changes such as physiological or anatomy aspects. In this field, psychologists look at biological factors that influence human differences and behaviors such as anatomical differences, biological systems (nervous and endocrine systems), genes and lifespan development (Barker 24).

In practice, the biological perspective tends to look at the biological causes of people’s problems. For instance, if an individual is exceedingly aggressive, the biological aspect will consider whether issues such as brain damage or injury can be the cause of the individual’s aggressiveness. Additionally, it might look at genetic factors that may cause such behaviors. This is to show that the biological perspective can be utilized in the nursing and midwifery practice through the analysis of how biological influences affect human behavior and in turn coming up with appropriate interventions when providing care. However, the behavior of mice can be observed in a laboratory but it is difficult to observe human behavior in such environment. Therefore, the criticism arises from comparing the outcome of animal behavior to human beings.

Although there is some similarity between the two, the difference between them is significant and it is hard to compare human being and mice. Mice have different reasoning and logic capabilities compared to people, thus they cannot facilitate the opportunity of aggressiveness but a human being is able to reason logically and act in an aggressive manner. Humanistic Perspective The humanistic perspective emphasizes the study of people as a whole. According to these depictions, the perspective deems it necessary for the provision of individualized care that recognizes the holistic requirements of every individual. Nursing and Midwifery practitioners should emphasize on client-based or centered care. Patients should be motivated to achieve self-actualization since they are unique and have unique potentials or abilities.

Practitioners should understand that the well-being of individuals could be addressed through positivity in one’s self and the acknowledgment of people as independent and unique beings are exceedingly critical to care. For instance, if a patient is distressed (incongruent) and shows no positive response to medication, the clinician needs to show that he is not distressed (show that he/she is congruent) too but should show hope to the patient regardless of the present condition and show him/her that he understands the condition (show empathy) and cares a lot. Behavioral perspective Behavioral perspective was put forward by psychologists such as Edward Lee Thorndike, B. F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov, and John B. Watson. These individuals contributed differently towards this psychological perspective.

One of the premises is that environment in which an individual is in influences how he or she behaves. According to behaviorists, the situation around an individual dictates how the person responds to the various phenomenon. The environment plays the role of molding an individual act in a particular way. Another assumption is that learning is described through stimuli and responses. Behaviorists believe that the inner being of an individual, i. In such a case, a midwifery may feel attracted sexually to one of the patients but he/she forces the same feeling out consciousness. Further, rationalism refers to getting an appropriate excuse for intolerable behavior. For instance, a midwife might be irritated by a patient he/she has been supportive but decides to rationalize such a behavior as a result of illness.