--Original published at marybraun99

From the perspective of the psycho dynamic theory, Miguel’s problems stem from unconscious thoughts, and desires. He does not know what is wrong with him, but there is something that is deep down in his mind that is creating the root to all of his anger and irritability, which might come from him being a perfectionist when school work is getting hard.

The behavioral theory describes Miguel’s’ inner issues as only behavioral, which is something that is conditioning him  to react the way that he is reacting to problems that are out of his control,  which he is trying to control, such as being a perfectionist. Since he is a perfectionist, and is struggling with his course work, that could be the explanation from the behavior theory  on why he is snapping out, and can not sleep at night.

The humanistic psychology theory describes reality as the way that your perceive, and is all about perception. If Miguel is viewing his coursework as impossible, he is unable to perform it because he is already putting it into his mind that he can not perform the work, and is working himself up, trying to do his best, but creating the perception in his mind that he is already not able to do the work, and be the best he can at all of his courses.

In the cognitive theory, Miguel knows that his course load is a lot, and that he will not be able to do them, it focuses on your conscious thought, rather than behavior, focusing on how you process information, and solve problems. If Miguel can not figure out how to untwist his thoughts, and realize that he is actually able to do his work, then he will continue to struggle, and none of his inner problems will work themselves out as well. If  Miguel can figure out how to untwist his thoughts, and realize that if he trains his brain to know that he is able to do the work, he will be able to do better, and be less stressed about everything else, leading to his sleep being improved. If he doubts that he can do anything right, it can start to take a toll on him as a person on a daily basis, which would make his days irritable, and start to affect his conscious thought process, making it harder to process simple information.

If you look at Miguel’s looks from psycho-biology, genetics can play a role in why he is a perfectionist, and the way that everything else falls into place once he knows that not everything can be the way he plans. Maybe his mother or father was a perfectionist, and he got it from them, and they weren’t able to concentrate on other work if their course load was not perfect.

Culturally, Miguel may have been brought up in a culture where he has to be perfect, and if something wasn’t perfect there was consequences to his bad grades, leading him to become a perfectionist, and he is stressed because he believes that there is still the same consequence if he is not perfect on all of his course load, which in turn stresses him out, to where he can not sleep and is snapping out on his roommate.

--Original published at JanellesCollegeBlog

Miguel has been struggling with school and may not realize all the different mechanisms and events occurring in his body and mind that have helped to bring him down and get him to the point where he is currently. From the perspective of the psychodynamic, Miguel has unconscious desires that are telling him what to do, distracting him from his school work, and is causing him to fall behind and lose sleep. Psychologists using psychodynamics would look at the ways to potentially suppress these unconscious desires and thoughts and try to resolve these conflicts going on in his head. From the behavioral psychology perspective, the psychologists would focus on the observable behaviors in Miguel’s life like the amount of sleep that he is getting every night or the fights that he is picking with his roommates and how to fix those. Also, they would look to see if he is getting into trouble because of his learned behaviors from the past. For example, fighting may be considered one of his coping mechanisms and although this is not good for him, it is something that he has learned and practiced through his life. In the humanistic perspective, psychologists would see that Miguel probably places a condition of worth on himself that he has to be perfect or he is not worth anything and no one will like him. They would have Miguel focus on everything that he can do right in life and would have him build a strong foundation in his strengths that would help boost his morale. Also, humanistic psychologists would emphasis that Miguel has the ability and freedom to choose what he wants to do in his life. Cognitive psychologists would focus on the way that Miguel tries to solve problems and how he mentally processes events in his life. They would focus on his thoughts and how these thoughts affect everything else. For example, these psychologists would probably focus on the impact of Miguel’s thoughts like losing sleep at night. From the neuroscience perspective, psychologists would look at Miguel’s brain to see what is going on biologically. They would be able to tell if there are chemical imbalances that are driving him feel depressed or angry a lot of the time. Also, they would be able to tell if he was genetically disposed to this condition from birth or if he has evolved his brain to be wired a certain way that makes him a perfectionist. In the cultural perspective, psychologists would evaluate the way that Miguel was raised and the beliefs and values that he grew up with. For example, if he was taught to strive for perfection from a young age, then the roots run deep into his family and values, and by not being perfect he is not only disappointing himself but also his family. Also, depending on his geographical and cultural upbringing, his brain may be wired differently that would cause his functioning to be different telling him that he has to be perfect or causing him to react in different ways like a loss of sleep.

--Original published at Anneka's 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.”

Miguel has not been doing well in school the past several weeks both in his schoolwork, sleep, and rooming situation. Several modern psychology perspectives have an explanation for Miguel’s behaviors and problems.

From a Psychodynamic perspective, Miguel has been repressing his negative thoughts about himself and his abilities in his unconsciousness so they did not show. Unfortunately, these repressed thoughts have started to spread and toxify his personality and other parts of him. This is seen in his inability to fall asleep and thus sleepiness, focus issues, poor grades, and snapping at his roommates. He also may have parents who from childhood are strict with high expectations. The Behavioral Psychology view is that Miguel’s berating of small mistakes is keeping him up at night resulting in lack of sleep which then affects his schoolwork, focus, and mood swings. His own and possible parent’s punishment towards small mistakes and the reinforcement has caused his perfectionism. Humanistic Psychology focuses on his condition worth. Miguel believes that nobody will accept him if he is not perfect which has negatively affected his mental health. Looking at this subjectively as a phenomenal experience, because he perceives that he does not do anything right, he does not do anything right. Cognitive Psychology values mental processes just as much as behaviors. Miguel is constantly thinking negatively about himself which clouds his focus, thoughts, and thinking process. He is unable to solve problems without doubting his abilities. The lack of sleep has affected his focus and memory. The Neuroscience perspective will look at his brain. The hippocampus that is controlling emotion and memory are affected by the lack of sleep. This causes the emotions of stress towards mistakes and his roommates, and memory lapse in coursework. There may be a genetic behavioral trait where Miguel is prone to anxiety. There also is the Evolutionary Psychology where there is the trait of survival that is driving Miguel to perfectionism. Lastly, from a Cultural perspective, Miguel may live in a strict culture that values highly of perfectionism and cultivates it in the students. Living in a culture that desires high achieving, rich, academic applications for colleges and success could have affected him. The stress of a new environment might have also caused sleep or academic issues.

--Original published at Miguel's College Blog

Miguel is enabling an unhealthy life dynamic. The worst part is that he may not even know what is happening to him or how to help himself. From a psychoanalysis perspective, Miguel may be unconsciously driven to be perfect and to do his very best in his academics in order to feel content with himself. Because Miguel is trying to attain a level of perfection that is unattainable, his own body and mind are sending signals through high levels of stress and mood swings to tell his consciousness that he is not taking care of himself. From a behavioral perspective, Miguel’s lowering grades is evidence that his intensity to strive for perfection is not working. Miguel’s interactions with his roommates show that his social life is becoming impacted by his perfectionistic personality because his desire to be perfect is seeping out into his desire for everything in his life, including things he cannot control such as his roommates, to be perfect as well. Naturally, things out of his control will not be perfect and Miguel continues to become increasingly agitated. From a humanistic perspective, Miguel’s struggles are fueling his success. Miguel may have encountered struggles in the past but seeing that he has made it this far, he may believe that he can continue to work hard and positive results will come at the end. Miguel’s desire to be perfect is one of his strongest characteristics in that he will continually strive for the best, no matter the obstacles. From a cognitive perspective, the stress on Miguel’s mind from trying to be perfect every second of the day, learning during class, managing his roommates’ lives, and lack of rest is making Miguel irritable and fatigued. Miguel lays awake at night thinking about all the problems he has to fix that are out of his control agitating his perception of perfection. Miguel’s grades are slipping and he does not understand where his methods are failing him. From the perspective of neuroscience, Miguel’s high level of stress increases the cortisol released in his brain, keeping him awake at night. His lack of sleep keeps his body and mind from repairing itself and releasing hormones that help him relax. This imbalance of chemicals are causing havoc within himself and produces outbursts towards his roommates and loss of concentration during class. Lastly, in a cultural perspective, Miguel may have been raised to seek perfection in academics from the very start. His familial culture may have conditioned him to strive for nothing less than the best, and anything less than perfect early in his childhood may have resulted in negative outcomes that he tries to avoid. Miguel’s culture may value academics on a much different level than others such as his roommates, causing him to be agitated when they do not share the same views or carry the same value in education as he does.

--Original published at Site Title

From the perspective of psychodynamics, Miguel has an underlying issue that doesn’t allow him to express himself positively. He comes out in anger towards everyone, including himself. It could be something that has made him unhappy. He doesn’t even know that he is so unhappy with something, because it is in his unconscious desires. This also causes Miguel to have a difficult time sleeping at night. From the perspective of behaviorist psychology, Miguel has been triggered by the stress of his coursework. The stress has caused him to be irritable and to lose sleep. He responds in his behaviors negatively, because of the stress and difficulty in class. The difficulty he is facing is interfering with his perfectionist characteristic. From a humanistic approach, Miguel is still thriving. Although he may have theses obstacles now, the perfectionist characteristic in him will help him to get back on track to where he needs to be academically. It’s okay that he is a perfectionist because it’s who he is. The stress is causing him to be irritable with everyone, but he cares about his grades enough to get that way. This shows that he is still motivated to do well, and that he cares about his academics. From a cognitive view, he thinks of himself as not being smart enough to get the grades that he needs. He is aware that he is struggling, and he takes it out on everyone else. His mind keeps him awake at night, just thinking of the things he needs to get done, and the things he should have done better and differently. In neuroscience, the biology makeup of his brain may be off. He may have a chemical imbalance, causing him to become down on himself, and that makes him obsess over being perfect. It may even be genetic that he is obsessed with needing everything to be perfect. The imbalance can cause outbursts of anger as well. The biological makeup of his brain kind of ties into the cultural perspective of psychology. Miguel may have been raised in a community or culture that academics are very important. If you compare his brain to someone who wasn’t raised with such high standards academically, their priorities would differ. The society in which he grew up would influence the way he has been reacting to school. The lack of sleep would be stress induced due to the high standards society expects him to achieve. If his roommates were not raised by that same standard, then that would cause the irritation and fights between them.

--Original published at Max'sPHY105blog

Based on this scenario, Miguel has a lot of problems. Through the different lenses of psychology, we can come up with multiple explanations for Miguel’s issues. From a psychoanalysis perspective, we can say that Miguel has an unconscious desire to be perfect and therefore gets upset at himself, and maybe even his roommates, when they are not perfect. From a behaviorist perspective, we can say that Miguel’s irritable behavior cause him to do poorly in his coursework and keep his body so fired up in order to sleep. From a humanistic perspective, we can say that Miguel might have been disciplined to do work perfectly in the past, and struggles to deal with being unable to do things perfectly in his present time. From a cognitive perspective, we can say that Miguel’s mind is always feeling stressed as he cannot do what he feel he should be able to do. As a result, Miguel gets so irritable that he cannot sleep or function properly. From a biological perspective, we can say that Miguel has relatives who shared and passed down his perfectionist views and Miguel feels stressed because he is not living up to what his relatives expect him to live up to. Finally, from a cultural perspective, we can say that the culture Miguel grew up in gives him self expectations to be perfect. Since Miguel is not doing things perfectly, he gets so stressed out that he looses his ability to function as a proper student.

--Original published at Kate's College 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.”

Psychodynamic: In psychodynamics, Miguel’s issues would be look at the reasons for his behavior and emotions and how they could be related to an earlier experience he had in his life. They would explore his childhood and look at his conscious and unconscious thoughts. He could be having negative reactions to his environment and life in general due to his early life experiences.

Behavioral: In a behavioral psychologist viewpoint, they would focus on Miguel’s observable behavior patterns. They would try changing Miguel’s environment or daily routines to avoid his wrongful behaviors like picking fights with his roommates and him being irritable during the day.

Humanistic: In a humanistic psychological viewpoint, Miguel has high potential to be successful in life but he his holding himself back from achieving his goals. Him doubting his ability to do anything right is is preventing him to reach his self fulfillment. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Miguel needs to find his strengths and reassess himself focusing on his basic needs (like hunger and thirst) so he can reach his goals and self actualization.

Cognitive: In a cognitive psychologists perspective,  Miguel’s thought processes are hindering him in his outward behavior. He is overwhelming himself thinking he cannot do anything right, stressing himself out, and challenging his brain. As a result, he started responding with negative reactions to himself and to others.

Neuroscience: In a psychobiological perspective, Miguel could be responding to his environment due to his genetic makeup. He could be behaving in the way he is because of his biological and genetic components. He could also be responding with evolutionary psychology, which would create adaptive behaviors according to certain environments that Miguel is put in.

Cultural: In cultural psychology, Miguel’s customs would be taken into account. The way the brain processes is different in different cultures. Miguel’s actions and behaviors may be a result of how he was raised culturally and geographically where he was raised.