A Case Example Extra Credit

Explanations for Miguel’s problems:

Psycho-dynamic: The idea behind psycho-dynamics is that your unconscious mind is affecting all your decisions. So, Miguel’s issue is that he can’t sleep because his unconscious mind is too concerned with his schoolwork and it being perfect.

Behaviorist Psychology: Miguel has been conditioned to think that his work needs to perfect and he has expectations that are too high. He is so concerned with his work that he is losing sleep and thinks that his work being perfect is more important.

Humanistic Psychology: A psychologist from the humanistic perspective would work on the issues in Miguel’s life that is causing the lack of sleep and the irritable behavior. A humanist would tell Miguel he needs to not focus on being perfect and simply do the best that he can and he should be satisfied with that.

Cognitive Psychology: Cognitive psychology focuses on mental processes rather than behaviors. So, a psychologist would look at what is going on mentally with Miguel rather than the resulting behaviors. Miguel is struggling mentally with the idea that he needs to be perfect. He is also struggling with irritability and inability to sleep. One focus is attention in cognitive psych so a psychologist might find the correlation between Miguel’s attention to his schoolwork and his lack of sleep.

Psycho-biology: Miguel might have insomnia and that is the reason he can’t sleep. Because he can not sleep, then he is irritable during the day and that is why he is picking fights with his roommate. Psycho-biology would look more at the biology behind Miguel’s behaviors like neurological disorders.

Cultural Psychology: In Miguel’s culture he may have pressure to be perfect in all of the work he does and that is why he is unable to sleep because he is too concerned with everything going perfectly.

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