Transcript The Human Psychic: Genes, personality, character

The Human
Psychic: Genes,
personality,
character
The South African Society of Occupational Medicine
(SASOM, SASOHN, SAIOH & MMPA) Annual Conference
Kopanong Hotel, Benoni
11 June 2016; 09:20 – 10:00
Phia Kotze, Counseling Psychologist, Private Practice
Vista Clinic ,Centurion
Psychological Perspective?
• Attempting to speak about this topic
• The Human Psychic: Genes and personality
would depend on your psychological
perspective and the angle you are positioning
this question
• To position this answer, first a story and then a
short overview
The Two Headed Python
• Read the story of The Two Headed Python: A
story from Malawi referenced by Schoffeleers
& Roscoe (1985)
Psychological
Perspective An Overview
Psychological
Perspective
• In short, psychology is the study of human
behaviour
• It is the study of the thoughts, feelings and
actions of people
• Human behaviour is often difficult to explain
• Human behaviour is complex, there are
different explanations about human behaviour
in the field of psychology
Psychological Perspective –
Pre-modern and Modernism
• Human behaviour can be studied from different
angles/perspectives
• Pre-modern period also referred to as the “prescientific” period, in the time of the church fathers
such as Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
• During the modernist paradigm, knowledge about
human behaviour was assumed to be attained in
the same way as the other sciences, namely
applying the concepts of reductionism, linear
thinking, causality, objectivity and empiricism
Psychological Perspective –
Systems Paradigm
• In the 1950’s the focus in the western scientific world
began to shift away from modernism - ie
reductionism, and so the systems paradigm was born
• Sayings like “the whole is more that the sum of the
parts” began to influence the thinking of this time.
• Different elements of a phenomenon only had
meaning because they were part of a pattern of
interconnected elements, this paradigm referenced
family systems and terminology such as circularity
Psychological Perspective Post-modernism
• The systems paradigm was followed by Postmodernism
• Post-modernist view would not look for the real cause
behind behaviour
• The post-modernist psychologist would listen to how
the various parties would talk about behaviour and
listen to the “discourse”
• Living in Africa, referencing what is referred to as an
African worldview (anthropocentric view), in this view
“man” is positioned as the centre of this universe
Psychological
Perspectives on Human
Behaviour
Biological Basis of
Human Behaviour
• The principle here is that behind all of our behaviour
lies a complex an coordinated biological activity
• A specialised field in psychology – neuropsychology specialises in the study of these biological processes
• The nature-nurture debate is reference here
• Behaviour and different biological processes have a
circular link – biological processes influence behaviour,
but behaviour also shapes and alters some of these
biological processes
Psychodynamic Perspective
of Human Behaviour
• Psychodynamic thinking revolves around
intrapsychic processes such as drives and instincts,
anxiety and defense mechanisms, and the
ongoing role that past experiences play in our
lives
• Whilst the environment plays a decisive role from
the point of view of how it is experienced by, and
interacts with the intrapsychic processes within
the individual
• The psychodynamic school places emphasis on the
structure of personality as well as on
developmental processes
Behaviourism and
Human Behaviour
• Behaviourism aims to understand humanity by means
of scientific enquiry
• Emphasis is on the mechanism of the learning of
behaviour
• Problem behaviour and behaviour change will help to
gain understanding of how behaviourism focuses on
maladaptive behaviour as being learnt. If maladaptive
behaviour is learnt this school of thought reasons
more adaptive patterns can be learnt
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has it’s origin in
the behavioural paradigm
Humanistic Psychology
and Human Behaviour
• Humanism reacted strongly to the behaviouristic stance that
human behaviour could be predicted and controlled by
scientifically examining the laws that govern human behaviour
• The humanists shifted the focus to the uniqueness of the
individual human being, who is as they saw it, more than the sum
of his or her parts
• In line with this, the humanists thought that unseen processes
such as emotions and perceptions were not only valid areas of
study, but were in fact essential in understanding human
behaviour.
• The humanists sought to understand the subjective experience
of the individual
General Systems Theory
and Human Behaviour
• The individual cannot be separated from, in order to be
understood/explained, from the members he/she interacts with
• Each individual is part of a system of interacting and
interconnecting parts or individuals
• Each individual is part of many and different interconnecting
systems
• An individual’s behaviour can only be understood if the pattern of
these interconnecting systems is understood
• The different parts of a system are meaningfully connected, each
part of the whole fulfilling a function so that the system as a
whole survives
Family Systems Theory
and Human Behaviour
• Family Systems Theory, focus on how family
members are interconnected
• Linking the individual to the family and to the
cultural system
Social Constructionism
and Human Behaviour
• Social Constructionism is a post-modern school
of thought
• All behaviour is seen within the social context
or social domain in which it takes place and all
knowledge is understood and interpreted by
understanding the social context in which it
was created
• Social-constructionist theorists points out that
different context create different outcomes
Narrative Psychology and
Human Behaviour
• Narrative Psychology has developed from the
post-modern school
• Narrative Psychology holds similarities with
social-constructionism
• and place strong emphasis on stories
• Stories we have about ourselves, about others,
and stories and histories we share in our
communities
Anthropocentric
Perspective on Behaviour
• Traditional perspective is anthropocentric because
it places humans at the centre of this universe, the
point from which everything else is understood
• In order to understand behaviour from this
perspective we cannot separate the person from
the community
• Whereas in most western cultures as well as in the
large body of work in psychology, separation,
individuation, autonomy and independence is
supported and encouraged
What Paradigm does
todays topic reference?
• The topic under discussion - The Human
Psychic: Personality and Character, what
paradigm does it reference? Personality
structure and character is a psychodynamic
perspective
• Referencing the Human Psychic from this
perspective would imply Freudian thinking, in
other words Id, Ego and Super-ego
The Occupational Health
Practitioner Narrative
• How does the Occupational Health
Practitioner think about human behaviour, the
human psychic, personality and character?
• What is the discourse in this field about the
Employer and Employee and the system they
represent
• How would the heads of this python get
along?
Limiting Risk from this
perspective
• MCMI III – Million Clinical Multiaxail Inventory
Thank You