TEAM 3:

Seah Ka Min (2128467)

Adam Amirul Bin Haji Mohamed Noor (2137533)
Muhammad Ilhan Daanish Bin Taib (2122474)
Toledo Matthew Xander Miguel Aracan (2204187)
Teh Zhou Jie (2203920)
Tang Chee Keen Kevin (2202750)

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES (RESEARCH)

1. COGNITIVE APPROACH
Study of mental processes - memory, attention, language use, perception, problem
solving, creativity and reasoning.
It is involved in everything a human does - cognition encompasses all processes by
which sensory input is processed, stored, reduced, transformed and used.
Input: Sensory information
Program: Sequence of mental operations
Output: Perceptions, memories, behaviours, etc.
Same way as how a computer processes information.
Cognitive processes are often influenced in complex ways by emotions. Hence used to
understand human behaviours.
Unconscious biases, automatic thinking and stereotyping
ANTS - automatic negative thoughts
Memory - encoding, storage and retrieval. What we retrieve might not be what we
encoded. (Remember the exam retrieving example during class)

2. BEHAVIOURISM
This approach emphasises the study on how behaviour can influence mental processes.
Behaviours can be modelled through interaction with the environment.
 Classical Conditioning
- The involuntary response to changing a behaviour by learning through
association.
- A neutral stimulus that usually should not elicit a response is repeatedly paired
with another stimulus that would elicit a natural response.
- Over repeated exposure to this duo stimulus paired together, the neutral stimulus
will elicit a response due to conditioning

Operant Conditioning
- The voluntary response to changing behaviour by modifying the consequences that
follow by changing behaviour
- If a reward is added after changing or normalising a behaviour, behaviour will be
reinforced overtime
- If an unpleasant consequence is accompanied due to a stimulus being acted upon,
likelihood of the stimulus being repeated in future is decreased

Observational learning
- The voluntary response to changing behaviour by observing this behaviour being
replicated in other individuals
- The individual must first pay attention to a model and must remember the behaviour
exhibited by the model
- The individual tries to imitate the actions of the model and must have the desire to
perform the action

- Reinforcement: To increase behaviour

- Punishment: To decrease behaviour
- Positive: To add a stimulus
- Negative: To remove a stimulus

3. SOCIAL APPROACH
How interaction with people and social context influences an individual’s thoughts,
feelings and behaviours.
● Social Cognition - How individuals perceive, interpret and make sense out of
social information. Includes studying topics such as,
- Attitudes: Evaluations or opinions someone may have towards other
people, things or concepts. It can be positive or negative and is shaped
by a person’s belief, emotions and past experiences either separately or
together. (Eg. A boy being afraid of the ocean or lakes since a loved one passed away
from drowning)
- Attributions: Explanations or inferences people make about the causes of
behaviour. Usually when someone observes another’s behaviour, they try
to associate it with internal factors (such as personal traits) and/or
external factors (situational influences) to make sense of the motives or
intention behind it. (Eg. A genuinely nice waiter being rude to customers could lead to
customers believing he’s inherently rude in general)
 - Stereotypes: Generalised beliefs or expectations about members of
certain social groups. They can be positive or negative based on the
simplicity or overgeneralization of the characteristics and traits that are
associated with the group. It influences social judgements and
behaviours, explaining biases and discrimination based in group settings
and membership. (Eg. Racism)
- Social Judgement: Simply judgements made by an individual about
likability, trustworthiness, competence, attractiveness and etcetera that’s
influenced by personal biases, cognitive process and social norms. (Eg. If
you’re in support of a political candidate, you’re more likely to agree with their messages)
● Social Influence - How individuals can have their emotions, behaviour and
thoughts influenced by their environments and others. It includes studying topics
as,
- Conformity: Refers to the tendency of an individual to adjust themselves,
their thoughts and behaviour to align with the predetermined social norms
and expectations of a group. Social pressure forces people to conform,
although they don’t agree and could be due to the desire for acceptance
or that others have more accurate beliefs/judgements.
- Compliance: A form of social influence where individuals respond to
demands or directed requests from others. Could be due to the motivation
of the desire to gain rewards, maintain social harmony or in avoidance
punishment of any kind.
- Obedience: Involves the act of following the instructions or orders given
by a person of authority. Like compliance, it can be due to avoiding
punishments, a sense of obligation, the belief of an actual authority. This
can even conflict with personal moral beliefs and overpower them.
- Persuasion: Refers to changing someone’s behaviour, belief or attitudes
towards certain ideas through well-reasoned communication. Usually taps
into appealing toward their emotions, arguments with logical reason to
them or leveraging social norms.
● Group Dynamics - How individuals in groups interact, form and develop, their
behaviours and their impact on influencing change in people as a whole. This
can include studying topics such as,
- Group Formation: The process of individuals coming together to create
the aforementioned group. Can be due to having found common
purposes/goals or having a shared identity and then developing it into
establishing norms and roles.
- Group Cohesion: Refers to and how well their unity and attractiveness is
to other individuals. Reflects the emotional connection and commitment
between its members. More cohesive groups tend to stay together longer
with higher levels of cooperation, collaboration and morale.
- Decision-Making processes: Involves how groups reach conclusions or
decisions when discussing it together or agreeing to leadership. Groups
identify issues of all, and if not, the majority of their members and plan to
 adapt themselves to resolve it, discussing options together or even
reaching a consensus on a collective decision.
- Intergroup Relations: This refers to how groups interact and relate
towards one another. Encompasses the studies of concepts such as
prejudice, stereotyping, cooperation and competition between different
groups. This can be due to how groups may find their similarities as a
reason to ally, or how their differences can cause conflict.
● Social Relationships - How the connection between individuals inspires
relationships between friends,romantic partners, family and co-workers. This
includes studying topics that come as factors like,
- Attraction: The psychological or emotional pull/draw towards another
individual. This can be due to a desire to be closer to the other,
companionship or intimacy. Attraction can be the result of physical
attractiveness, shared interests or personality traits which all do play a
role in maintaining such a relationship.
- Communication: Refers to information, feelings, ideas or thoughts being
exchanged between individuals. It involves the actions of actively
listening, verbal/non-verbal cues and being able to express oneself
clearly. It helps to promote understanding, improves emotional connection
and can resolve conflicts more easily.
- Relationship Satisfaction: Simply refers to the overall evaluation and
subjective experience of individuals in their social relationships. It reflects
the level of fulfilment, happiness, and contentment they derive from the
relationship. Relationship satisfaction is influenced by various factors,
including compatibility, trust, communication quality, shared values,
emotional support, and the ability to meet each other's needs.

4. DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH
Scientific study of human development, exploring changes that occur across our lifespan
Nature vs nurture(Hereditary vs environmental factors)
Meeting physical,emotional and social milestones at certain life stages
Cognitive developmental theory
Psychosocial developmental theory

Cognitive developmental theory

- Developed by Jean piaget
- Form schemas(mental concepts) while experiencing new events/situations
- Schemas formed by assimilation(existing knowledge) and accommodation(change to
new information)

Piagets 4 stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
- Building understanding through senses and motor abilities
- Object permanence by the end of stage
 - Egocentric
- Simple repetitive actions
- Symbolic thought

Preoperational (2-7 years)

- Language+abstract thought
- Symbolic play(roleplay)
- No logical thought
- Animism(believing everything is alive)
- Egocentric
- Centration(focusing on one detail of an object)
- Conservation(cannot understand changing appearance doesn't change nature)
- Irreversibility(Unable to reverse an action)
- Capable of conversion and reversible thinking

Concrete operational (7-11 years)

- Logical rules of objects
- Properties stay the same despite its appearance
- No more centration
- no abstract thought
- not egocentric
formal operational(12+ years)
- logical rules to understand abstract concepts/solve problems
- Capable of abstract thought
- Involved in hypothetical thinking

Strengths of piaget theory of cognitive development

- views children as active explorers
- Useful for educators, plan hands on experiences
- Informs educators on appropriate teaching concepts

Limitations of piaget theory of cognitive development

- Not completely accurate
- Children may not be egocentric and may have object permanence earlier
- May limit educators planning curriculum
 ●

5. PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

According to Sigmund Freud, the unconscious mind is the primary source of human behaviour.

The important part of the mind is that which cannot be seen. It is influenced deeply by past
experiences and stored in the unconscious mind.

No behaviour is without cause and is therefore determined.

The perspective is to understand what is going on in the mind of a person or "to get in the head"
of a patient to see what is going on in the unconscious part of the mind.

This provides insight into how the patient views relationships, experiences and the world and
how that affects preferences, behaviours, and drives.
Importance on the mind

- An unconscious mind brings an unconscious effect that is able to make a person

conscious of their thoughts and beliefs.
- This influences the actions, judgement and behaviour of a person, even if he is not
aware about it.
- Unconscious activity is the key factor of how we behave

Possible causes
1. Personality traits - Having defence mechanisms such as being angry in an event where
stress and anxiety could not be dealt with.

Defence mechanisms - Repression, denial,anger

2. Childhood experiences such as trauma which may trigger. Childhood events have a
significant influence on when we grow, helps to shape personality
3. Underlying desires and anxiety which are present deep within their minds > influence the
behaviour and personality.
4. Various conflicts throughout childhood development shape overall personality.

BPS
1. BIOLOGICAL
Age, gender, genetics, physiologic reactions, tissue health

2. PSYCHOLOGICAL
Mental health, emotional health, beliefs and expectations

3. SOCIAL
Interpersonal relationships, social support dynamics, socioeconomics

ABC (COGNITIVE MODEL)

1. ACTIVATING EVENT
The situation or event that leads up to the particular behaviour.

2. BELIEFS
Thoughts/Interpretations/Perceptions that the person has about the event. Using the
experiences, the beliefs of a person can be rational or irrational and impact how they
 interpret and respond to the particular event.

3. CONSEQUENCES
The result and consequences in response to the belief. It can be negative or positive and
it will definitely have an influence on the person's future behaviour.

CASE STUDY DISCUSSION

The BPS model is a framework that aims to understand and explain human behaviour/health by
exploring the biological, social and psychological factors and how they interact with one
another.

- Biological refers to a series of variables such as genetics, age, tissue health and
physiological reactions.
- Psychological refers to an individual’s thoughts, emotions, mental health conditions and
personal experiences.
- Social refers to the influence of an individual’s environment, be it family or friends,
culture, social norms and relationships with others.

Biological
Dominic’s drug use could permanently damage organs (liver, kidney, heart) in his body and
could eventually lead to his body having a reliance on the drug, which leads him into purchasing
more and contributing to even more illegal activity and buying. This can damage his reputation
when looking for a job in the future, and could heed his academic progress.

- Mood-boosting drug use

 - Anger from drug use
- Drug usage leading to reliance and addiction
- Organ damage etc.

Social
The consistent drug use eventually can and does affect his mood and emotions (snapping at his
parents) and can lead to a broken relationship with the people around him, and especially with
those he loves. It can impact his academic performance since he’s still in secondary school and
does lead him to committing towards more criminal activities (selling to his schoolmates), which
if caught, can impact his reputation when he’s seeking jobs or his studies in the future.

- Bad company (Group of boys influenced/persuaded him to take the pills as well as
selling them)
- New class, no one to talk to
- Negatively affect relationship with his parents
- Impact on academic performance
- Larger likelihood of committing more criminal activities

Psychological
Dominic was from a different country. This meant that the culture he grew up in was, social
norms, language and environment would be different from where he is now. This meant that
Dominic had troubles fitting into this new environment making him feel more lonely, reclusive
and desperate for someone to acknowledge him. When he took the drugs, Dominic felt more
relaxed and sociable. This helped him to improve his social ability and meet new people.
However, the drugs also altered his emotions making him more prone to mood swings, getting
mad and could alter his brain chemistry leading to withdrawal symptoms when off the drugs.

- Improves his mental health (stress from having no friends)

- Improves his social ability
- Contributes to altering brain chemistry, leading to withdrawals symptoms when off of
drug usage
- Mood-swings (Snapping at parents)

ABC

Activating event
He moved to a new school in the middle of the school year and had no friends+isn't sociable
Group of boys persuaded him into taking the pills
He ended up ingesting the pills.
Beliefs
Taking the pills will allow him to make more friends and be more confident in himself

Consequences
His behaviour changed dramatically
This makes him continuously take the pill causing him to get addicted.
Behaviour change was noticed by his parents (Anger/outbursts)

Cognitive approach
Mental process is ingesting the pills = making new friends, this is his NEW input after meeting
the group of boys.

That was how the information of ingesting pills (the sensation of being more relaxed) was
processed and stored. And Dominic being addicted to the pills was his way of using that
information to make himself more outgoing.

His automatic negative thought - without the pills, he cannot make any friends
Without the calling of the police, this perception won’t be changed as he is not intaking any
NEW information from his parents or his social circle.

This mental process of the drugs affected his perception of the pills as well as his behaviour.
Perception - originally, it was horrible to take drugs. This can be seen from his refusal to intake
the pills when the group of boys first approached him. However, this perception ended up
changing because of the NEW information he took in (taking pills will help him to make friends).
Behaviour - cause him to have uncontrollable emotional outburst - snapping at his parents. As
well as being addicted to drugs.

With the calling of the police, we believe that the police can help him change his perspective of
intaking drugs from “taking drugs is good” to “taking drugs is bad”

Behaviourism
Could be an example of observational learning. Dominic observed the group of boys with the
pills and after much persuasion, had a voluntary response to trying out the pills stamping from
the desire to make friends with his classmates. After he tried taking the pills, he felt more
relaxed and confident. This made him increase the desire to take more pills following this
incident. After much usage, this behaviour could be also reinforced by his friends leading to an
addiction. This can lead to disastrous consequences as having this behaviour being habitual
could make him reliant on the drugs. If this case gets reported earlier on, it might be easier to
get rid of this behaviour he may not have caved in to the behaviour yet.
Social approach
Dominic was persuaded by the group of boys offering the mood-boosting drug who appealed to
his incapability to make friends, which ultimately convinced him into taking the drugs. Although
he’d been persuaded and was almost completely out of Dominic’s control, he’s still capable of
convincing others into taking the harmful drug. If his parents do report him to the police, he’s
able to go through a rehabilitation process and eventually get better rather than his parents
doing nothing about it. But there is a possibility that Dominic would view his parents negatively
as to him, the drugs had been helping him make friends and become more social with his
classmates.

Although it does improve his ability to socialise and make friends easily, it can eventually be
harmful to those concerned (his parents) of the consequences of taking the drugs and the
relationships that he has with them (his parents)

Psychodynamic

Being from a different country with different childhood experiences, it has a significant influence
on how he grows up, and how his personality is.

Dominic trying the pills can be his underlying desires/unconscious activity that he may have in
his past which is present in his mind but he is just not conscious about it. Unaware, this
influences his actions, which is to take the drugs and how he is behaving now.

Dominic snapping at the parents is part of him having a defence mechanism on the situation of
his pills usage.

It is his personality trait (maybe anxiety or stress because the question is being asked by his
parents) that is an effect where the situation with his parents, whenever they tried to talk to him,
he would be angry and avoid the question by his parents by having a defence mechanism

It is favourable to have his parents report him to the police to further stop him in continuing his
underlying unconscious influence that in the future he may do even more. The relationship with
his parents can be more tense.
If it is not reported it may get worse, with him doing more illegal things, will affect his future
career and future life.

Opening statement
Good morning,Mr. Kelvin and members of the audience, My name is Ilhan and these are my
group members. Today we are here to discuss whether Dominic's parents should report him to
the police on account of his recent drug use after transferring to a new school. Dominic had
recently moved to a new school in the middle of the school year and from a different country .
As many of us know, moving to a new school and a new country is far from an easy thing. He
had no friends, had no social life and had no one he could relate to at all. He had effectively
restarted his social life.

That is, until one day when Dominic had been approached by some group of boys who
persuaded him to take some “relaxing” pills so that he would be more confident in himself and
could become more sociable. When he did, his behaviour changed drastically He became more
sociable and could make more friends, as compared to before where he was awkward and
unsociable.His behaviour was even noticed by his parents who noticed his more frequent
outbursts and suspect that he has been abusing drugs.

Therefore, our team stands by the view and decision of Dominic’s parents reporting him to the
police. Reason being, his social circle has already been negatively influenced. He was not only
negatively influenced by the group of boys, he has also affected his schoolmates by selling
them the pills. His parents are also soft-hearted, hence unable to affect his decisions on taking
the pills. As for his psychological well-being, he was unable to socialise with his schoolmates,
which may have caused him stress and anxiety. Biologically, the intake of those pills will affect
his health negatively, such as organ damage, impacting his mood in various ways. It has been
noted that he is already experiencing mood changes - he never used to snap at his parents, but
he now does. Socially, while he has gotten more confident and has more friends, it is clear that
he is experiencing mood changes. As stated before he never used to snap at his parents, but
after taking drugs he has been snapping at them whenever they try to talk to him. Therefore, we
believe that reporting him to the police will in turn help him get the help he needs. Not as a form
of punishment, but instead a form of help.

Closing statement
Therefore, with all that we have mentioned, our team is firmly in favour of Dominic’s parents
reporting him to the police. From the pointers we have listed above, Dominic is prone to
irreversible consequences from this repeated usage. From the psychological aspect of BPS, it
can be seen that the drugs could alter his brain chemistry in the long run leading to a reliance
upon taking drugs and making it harder to quit the habit in future. This might also exacerbate his
social issues as can be seen from the social aspect. The main issue was that Dominic only felt
comfortable when on the drugs. Afterwards, he tends to be more unpredictable in his actions
and behaviour leading to people avoiding him and making issues that were already pressing to
him all the more difficult to find a solution to. As can be seen by the other psychological
approaches, this repeated drug usage is repeated making things worse. From the behavioural
approach, after seeing this behaviour being replicated by other people, he observed it and
decided to try it out. Overtime, this behaviour would be reinforced leading to a reliance on the
drugs. From the cognitive approach,

REBUTTALS

1. Drug use can be discouraged. How to do without the police/rehab?

 2. We believe that the drug use will have more negative effects than the positive effects
that you have mentioned (being more socialised)

3. It was mentioned that he never used to lash out that way, and he does not only lash out
when his parents bring up the topic, he lashes out even when his parents talk to him
normally.

4. If subtly shown, he is still friends with the people who brought him into drugs in the first
place so what will it do?

5. Not impulsive thoughts/actions, he WANTS to make friends, hence resulted in that

action of selling and being addicted to drugs

6. He is in secondary school, therefore needs to cut him some slack? He is able to think
that his actions are wrong and it is getting worse as the days go. The parents need to
intervene as soon as possible in case it escalates more.

7. Watch documentaries about addiction - It does not solve the root cause of the problem.
Drugs are very addictive and it could not be solved using documentaries. Also, his
parents cannot even talk to him about his problem, how can they convince him to even
watch documentaries?

8. Guidance doesn't matter if he doesn't want to stop.

9. “Reporting makes it worse” Main thing here is about his drug usage and not about his
relationship with his parents. Even if Dominic can be guided along, overtime usage of
drugs can lead to a reliance and can make him relapse.

List of citations

Cherry, K. (2020, May 30). Social Cognition and the World Around Us. Verywell Mind.
https://www.verywellmind.com/social-cognition-2795912
Cognitive. (n.d.). PSYCHOLOGY WIZARD. Retrieved May 13, 2023, from
https://www.psychologywizard.net/cognitive.html

Cognitive Psychology Archives. Toolshero. (n.d.).

https://www.toolshero.com/tag/cognitive-psychology/

‌ cleod, S. (2023, May 10). Psychodynamic approach in psychology. Simply Psychology.

M
https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychodynamic.html#Summary-Table

What is Cognitive Psychology? - Definition & Theories - Video & Lesson Transcript |
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