--Original published at Emily Garvin's Psych Blog

“Miguel has been struggling with his coursework lately. He has felt very tired in recent weeks and has found it difficult to focus on his studies. Even though he is always tired, he has trouble falling asleep at night, is irritable during the day, and picks fights with his roommates. He is a bit of a perfectionist and gets mad at himself when he makes even tiny mistakes. It’s gotten to the point where he doubts his ability to do anything right.”

Psychodynamics: Through the psychodynamic method of study psychologists would study Miguel’s upbringing and early childhood to see how that affects him now. Miguel could be classified as an anal person because he has tendencies to be a perfectionist. His unconscious mind is causing him to obsess over his study causing him to not get an antiquate amount of sleep and lashing out at his friends.

Behavioral: A behaviorist would focus on Miguel’s actions. They attribute to his irritable attitude to his lack of sleep and his lack of sleep to his perfectionist attitude. Miguel has been conditioned to be perfect causing him anxiety and a sense of fear if he fails perfection. His recent lack of sleep is causing him to lose focus and resulting in an inner conflict in Miguel

Humanistic: Psychologists would study Miguel’s school environment and his interaction with others. Miguel’s doubts could be considered a condition of worth and the common denominator to all of his problems. The stress of school and the threat of failure is causing Miguel to question his self-worth. A humanist would tell Miguel to focus on one thing at a time and not to worry about tiny mistakes. they would tell him to take advantage of tutoring and helpful services his school has to offer.

Cognitive: From a cognitive perspective a psychologist would study Miguel’s conscious thought. Meaning they would evaluate the way he studied, solved problems, and critically thought. Since Miguel is not getting an adequate amount of sleep he is unable to critically think and solve problems correctly because he is not focused or alert. When interacting with friends Miguel is not making rational decisions and treats them with disrespect.

Neurological: Miguel is predisposed to certain parts of his personality simply because of his genes. For example, perfectionism could be a trend in his family causing him to always complete every assignment perfect. Along with Miguel’s predisposed neurological thinking patterns, he could also feel the pressure of perfectionism due to an evolutionary factor. Human evolution has caused a movement of hard work and higher level of “critical thinking” to be successful.

Cultural: Miguel’s culture refers to his morals and beliefs that have been learned through his family and from his environment. The way he values school could differ than an average due to the morals instilled by his parents and upbringing. This also may be why he places a tremendous amount of stress on himself to succeed.

--Original published at Jessie's PSY105 Blog

The prompt outlines the problems that Miguel has been having with school/life. He is struggling to keep on top of his work, get a good sleep schedule, and to control his emotions. This is affecting his ability to do well in school and it is affecting his social relationships, as well as the way that he looks at/treats himself.

From the psychodynamic perspective, Miguel’s problems are stemming from an unconscious conflict that is directing his conscious mind. Miguel may be unconsciously losing interest in school, his friends, or the way that his life is at the moment. This could cause his conscious mind to lash out at his friends and fall behind on his school work. He could also be feeling unconsciously overwhelmed by his life, which is causing him to become angry with those around him. His unconscious mind may be struggling with the idea that he is not ‘good enough’, which could be driving his conscious mind from keeping up with his school work.

From the behavioral perspective, Miguel’s problems arose due to an issue with his learning or something that is motivating him to continue this problematic behavior. A behaviorist may suggest that Miguel’s bad grades have been associated with negative feelings towards himself. As he struggles to keep up with his work, he feels worse and worse about himself, causing him to respond by lashing out at others.

From the humanistic perspective, Miguel’s problems are because of an issue with his conditions of worth. It is possible that Miguel is unhappy with the life that he is living and that he feels that this is not the path for him. In trying to fit in, and be the type of person that will be liked and accepted by others, Miguel may feel that he does not have the freedom to choose in his life. This hindrance of his personal growth could be hurting him emotionally, thus causing these negative outcomes.

From the cognitive psychology perspective, Miguel’s problems are a product of his mental processes. He could have a mental difficulty in solving problems or decision making which is keeping him from functioning properly. For example, Miguel having difficulty with the mental processes involved in processing information could be keeping him from doing well in school. Also, issues with problem solving could play a role in how he is picking fights with others.

From the neuroscience perspective, Miguel’s problems are stemming from a biological issue in his brain. It is possible that the neurotransmitters in Miguel’s brain are at incorrect levels, thus causing some kind of mental illness such as depression. He could have also genetically inherited some of these negative behavior patterns.

From the cultural psychology perspective, Miguel would be having these issues based on his environment. Since this psychology is based on understanding culture and group behavior, the problems could be coming from Miguel feeling as if he does not fit in to his environment or even that he does not fit into his social group.

--Original published at Collin's Blog

Beginning with a psychodynamic perspective, Miguel may be feeling overly stressed due to the increasing amount of coursework, which could lead to his darker unconscious thoughts to begin to show as he often shows anger towards classmates and roommates regularly. From a behavioral perspective, Miguel seems to show frustration within himself due to his difficulties. This could be a result of early childhood experiences where parenting situations of either reinforcement or punishment had failed to give him any confidence in later life. Humanistic psychology, suspects that Miguel may not be pursuing goals he is truly passionate about and instead is trying to force himself to be someone he is not. Therefore, as a perfectionist, making mistakes and not feeling confident in the coursework is breaking his state of mind and causing him to feel unaccomplished in his work. From a cognitive perspective, Miguel’s mental processes are becoming very chaotic, as he doubts his ability to do anything right his mental stability is very damaged. Not only are his problem solving and mental processing abilities damaged, but his social abitlties seem to be affected as well. If he is constantly fighting with his peers, then his cognitive abilities to function within society are under great stress. Biologically, he may be lacking neurotransmitters and hormones that allow the brain to problem solve and perform quick and accurate analysis of his coursework. An obvious reasoning for the loss of neurotransmitters would be his lack of sleep. Without adequate sleep, Miguel’s brain function is greatly depleted which would make him exhausted and irritable through the day, and stressed throughout the night not allowing him to recover. Also, he may not have adapted to the college life, which could be due to cultural reasoning. For many people college is a completely different lifestyle than their previous culture. Some go through culture shock during their first few weeks and gradually begin to adapt to their given lifestyle. Miguel’s previous background may have been completely different from his current situation. It may be troubled parenting, lack of reinforcement, high standards and expectations, or certain ideals and values of his that no longer have the same meaning now that they did in the previous culture. College culture is highly demanding and incredibly stressful however, it leads to better problem-solving skills and urges students to go out of their normal traditions to enforce teamwork and friendship that can endure through hardships, with Miguel continually having a negative personality he is isolating himself from a large network of similar students who can help him to adapt his mindset.

--Original published at Sierra's College Blog

Lately, Miguel is facing many difficulties with his focus, coursework, friends, sleeping habits, and alertness throughout the day. Different lenses and modern perspectives of psychology can give an explanation to why Miguel is struggling.

From a psychodynamic perspective, Miguel is facing difficulties dealing with his unconscious thoughts and feelings. Miguel is unaware that his mind is having thoughts about previous experiences where not being perfect causes his family to be disappointed. His mind is hoping for no mistakes to be made. He is not aware of these high expectations being so important, but his brain and body remembers from the past.

From a behavioral perspective, Miguel’s struggles are viewed by a psychologist who see his observable behaviors. Miguel’s thoughts are not focused upon, but the measurable and countable aspects are viewed. He has a low temperament level, which allows him to become irritated quickly and pick unnecessary fights with his friends. He usually is a well-rounded student, answering questions correctly. Having difficulties may lower his self-esteem and cause him to act out.

From a humanistic perspective, a psychologist wants to understand how his school environment is affecting Miguel’s growth and self-worth. They view his learned behaviors in the past, and see how they are preventing him from achieving freedom. Psychologists see the school environment is causing Miguel to stress, having little self-worth and growth in academics. They want Miguel to pick a few strengths, and create goals he can achieve to feel important again.

From a cognitive perspective, Miguel’s mental processes will be viewed including his ability to process information, solve problems, and think. At this point in time, Miguel is struggling to solve and answer problems correctly due to his lack of sleep, focus, and alertness. He is not able to think in the same way he previously once did. Psychologists may offer new ways to improve his thought process for the future.

From a neuroscience perspective, behavioral genetics and evolutionary psychology will be used to view Miguel’s problems. Also, looking at the brain activity of Miguel can show why he is having difficulties. His personality comes from specific genes in his body, causing him to act out. Also, Miguel is stressing over problems due to his lack of perfection. The idea of nature-nurture and natural selection are also viewed in this category. In previous decades, being the best or fighting may have been traits passed down through reproduction.

Lastly from a cultural perspective, Miguel’s morals and beliefs, which have been passed down through his culture and society, will reveal where his struggles are originating. Miguel may have come from a culture where men are supposed to be the best, and there is no excuse for anything less than perfection. His culture influences his decision to pick fights with friends, instead of pleasantly working out any little problems.

All of these psychology perspectives can give insight on why Miguel is having a difficult time.

--Original published at Brittany's Thoughts

“Miguel has been struggling with his coursework lately. He has felt very tired in recent weeks and has found it difficult to focus on his studies. Even though he is always tired, he has trouble falling asleep at night, is irritable during the day, and picks fights with his roommates. He is a bit of a perfectionist and gets mad at himself when he makes even tiny mistakes. It’s gotten to the point where he doubts his ability to do anything right.”

From a psychodynamic perspective, Miguel’s negative thoughts have been repressed for a long time. Now, they are “leaking” out and bringing negative symptoms with it. They are causing him to not believe in himself, lose sleep and alter his behaviors with his roommates.

From a behavioral perspective, Miguel’s perfectionist behaviors are hurting him in the long run. Because he has conditioned himself to require perfection, anything less than that causes him to be negative towards himself. He has conditioned himself for perfection, and not attaining it is causing issues.

From a humanistic perspective, Miguel’s perfectionism is not allowing him to be his true self. Since he is limiting himself from making mistakes, he is holding back his true self. This in turn causes negativity in his mind, which can begin to create adverse physical and mental side effects.

From a cognitive perspective, Miguel’s mental processes are off. Since he focuses on perfection so much, other mental processes, such as positive thought, focus and interaction are all being affected. His focus is on unhealthy, repetitive thoughts rather than coursework and relationships.

From a neuroscience perspective, Miguel is predisposed to his perfectionism and the effects that it brings. One of Miguel’s family members may be just like him and passed the trait down to him. This results in being predisposed to negative thought, low self esteem and mental health issues.

From a cultural perspective, Miguel lives in a culture built on success. It is important to get good grades and achieve some sort of perfection to move forward in life. Anything less contributes to failure, which Miguel does not want. This leads him to be a perfectionist and become very negative when he fails.

--Original published at Madison's Blog

Miguel has been having trouble lately in school and in his personal life. His symptoms vary from being tired, but not sleeping at night, being irritable, picking fights with his roommate, and being too much of a perfectionist. These symptoms all are leading him to believe he cannot do anything right. From a psychodynamic point of view, Miguel’s unconscious mind is taking control of his behaviors. There might be an internal conflict happening within his own mind that is causing him to lash out at his roommate so frequently. If his aggression is stemming from his unconscious mind, he wouldn’t be able to control his behaviors. A behaviorist psychologist might argue that Miguel’s tiredness has direct correlation to his irritability. Since he noticeably can’t seem to get good sleep, that creates his tired feeling during the day and creates aggression that he lets off by picking fights. His actions have a stem that is observable to the human eye, which is how behaviorist psychologists view the world.

A humanistic psychologist would see Miguel’s case, and immediately think of his needs not being properly met. They may think of Miguel’s actions as being part of his self worth not being accepted by peers. Peers not accepting someone could be harmful to the mental mind, causing some of Miguel’s issues, like losing focus in class because he is too busy thinking of why he isn’t accepted. In a cognitive psychology viewpoint, Miguel’s actions can be related to how he solves problems and thinks. If Miguel’s brain makes him think he needs to be perfect all the time, that can cause stress. That stress could be keeping him up at night without him knowing it, since stress doesn’t allow someone to relax easily. Miguel could have a chemical imbalance that is causing him to over think his daily life and make him irritable.

From a biological perspective, Miguel could have a genetic personality trait that makes him think he needs to be a perfectionist. It may be a gene that was inherited, which means he can’t help but think that. His brain could be sending too many mixed signals throughout his body, which could cause his tiredness, yet lack of quality sleep. Too many signals can cause his body to be confused as to what it is supposed to be doing. Cultural psychology can explain Miguel’s behavior by his cultural beliefs and how his specific culture deals with stressful situations. They may deal with problems by keeping them pent up inside, which is causing him to lash out at his roommate and be irritable. He may process his daily life differently than other peers, and not know how to deal with his emotions properly. This could cause his perfectionist personality as well, since his culture might often expect perfection. Since he knows it is expected, he beats himself up over any slight mistakes in fear of disappointment from elders.

--Original published at MelanieBlevins

Miguel is facing multiple problems in college that have caused him to fall behind and struggle with his school work. He is having trouble sleeping at night, causing him to be irritable and sensitive during the day. Miguel is a perfectionist and has lately been letting himself down. There are multiple modern day perspectives that may explain Miguel’s actions.

From a Psychodynamic perspective, Miguel’s unconscious mind has the desire to be perfect and achieve good grades. Because his mind does this automatically, he is unable to react in a positive manner when he does anything below his high standards. This causes him to act out aggressively towards others because he is truly upset with himself. It also causes him to have trouble sleeping at night because his unconscious is always unhappy and worrying about perfectionism. From the viewpoint of a behavioral psychologist, Miguel would be observed staying up throughout the night and getting into fights with his roommates. Miguel’s behavioral habits rely on past experiences, showing that him picking a fight may be a habit he had learned previously in his life through friends, family, or peers. Additionally, his parents may have pushed him throughout his life convincing him he was not good enough and could always do better. This would be an explanation for his perfectionist personality and behavioral outbreaks. From a humanistic viewpoint,  Miguel believes he is failing and will never be good enough to impress anyone. In Miguel’s reality he is imperfect, causing him to be distracted away from any others strengths he may have. This is causing him emotional trouble and a lack of happiness, which he may be coping with by fighting. Cognitive psychology would focus on the way Miguel is feeling and what is noticeably going on in his head. His thought process is jumbled and he is constantly bringing himself down because he cant be confident unless he is perfect. These thoughts are controlling his life and his lack of sleep is making it so he is unable to think about anything else. From a biological perspective, Miguel’s brain may be experiencing a chemical imbalance that has caused him to develop anxiety. His anxiety may be triggered by stress, making him very sensitive at times because of the stress of college and achieving perfection. This imbalance may also cause an obsession with being perfect and angry outbursts to those who try to help him. Lastly, a cultural perspective of Miguel may show his mental processes to be specific to his cultural group. Where he is from, perfectionism may be a way of life and those who achieve it are respected. However, those who do not achieve perfection may be punished for their failures. Going to college, Miguel may have left his typical environment and began interacting with students that have a different background from him. Students that are considered “lazy” may anger Miguel or confuse him because of his different views.

--Original published at Nadia's Blog

From a Psychodynamic perspective, Miguel is being affected by his unconscious mind which is what is ultimately in charge of his human behavior. Since he has an underlying issue it is causing him to behave in a certain way, which is why he is picking fights with his roommate and struggling with his coursework. He does not realize that there is an internal conflict which is why he is irritable. From a Behavioral perspective, based on observations Miguel seems to be tired since he has not been sleeping well and has had trouble falling asleep. Another observable trait would be his behavior to pick fights with his roommate which could be his way to handle his internal conflict and let out his frustrations. From a humanistic perspective, it would be noted that Miguel is a perfectionist and that he is now doubting his ability to do anything right. In order to help Miguel, the psychologist should focus on his strengths in order to build up his self-esteem and that it is ultimately his decision if he wants to grow in a positive way. From a cognitive perspective, Miguel’s ability to process information, think and solving problems would be observed. The psychologist could possibly focus on Miguel’s lack of sleep which could be causing him to be less focused and would affect his ability to process information. From a Neuroscience perspective, Miguel’s brain would be observed as well as the chemical imbalances. Since Miguel is stressed and irritable his chemical’s are imbalanced which is causing him to act out in irrational ways. In a cultural perspective Miguel could’ve been raised in a very strict family where education was the most important aspect of their lives. He also could’ve possibly been apart of a community where there was a lot of competition in academics which is causing him to be a perfectionist. Miguel’s culture and appreciation for education could be vastly different than his roommates perspective which could be a possible reason for him to pick fights with his roommate.