The psychodynamic approach emerged around the 1890's through Freud's collection of theories forming its basis. Freud emphasized on the importance of childhood, the unconscious mind and free association (Brain, 2008). The psychodynamic states that personality can be divided into three facets namely Id, ego and super ego and that it is shaped as the sex drive & life instinct(eros). It also believes that the aggressive drive & death instinct (thanatos) drives are changed in childhood at diverse times and struggles (Cardwell, et al., 2004). It has the assumption that childhood experiences contribute towards behaviour and emotions that are powerfully affected by unconscious motives. It is criticized of being unscientific and too general at a large scale as its case study is based on studying one individual (Brain, 2008). Freud's work put more value in individuals especially children and that the experiences they have in childhood shaped the people they become as adults in society (Cullis, et al., 2002). Mental health practitioners have incorporated elements of Freudian thought and technique into their approaches to helping patients as part of cultural background and experience of nearly every client (Cardwell, et al., 2004). Although the approach has limited impact in the Eastern cultures, it has a huge influence in the Western culture. This approach uses case studies as a research method.
The behaviorist approach began around the turn of the 20th century with Ivan Pavlov's classical conditioning, which involved learning by association, and B.F Skinner's operant conditioning, which involved learning from the consequences of behaviour (Cullis, et al., 2002). This approach observes external behaviour, which can be scientifically measured than the internal activities of the brain to understand human behaviour ignoring mediation processes (Cardwell, et al., 2004). It focuses on how environmental factors (stimuli) affect observable behaviour (response).