Let us understand what is Psychological approach?
This approach is a unique way of criticizing because it draws on psychological ideas in its interpretation of the text. Linking the psychological and literary worlds brings a kind of scientific aspect to written criticism.
5 Perspectives of Psychological Approach
Now let us discuss the key perspectives in psychological:
The five major perspectives in psychology are:
1. Biological
The biological theory states that all thoughts, feelings and behavior ultimately have a biological cause. It is one of the most important psychological goals and involves such things as the study of the brain, genes, hormones, and immune and nervous systems. Biological factors such as chromosomes, hormones, and the brain all have a profound effect on human behavior, for example, sex. Descriptive psychologists describe behavior in terms of the senses, i.e., physiology and brain structure and how this influences behavior.
2. Psychodynamic
Psychodynamic has many expressions in our daily lives that come from Freud’s ideas of psychoanalysis – ignorance, denial, oppression and the personality of the buttocks to name just a few.
3. Behavioral
Behaviors are different in many ways because they view humans and animals as being controlled by their environment and in particular that we are the result of what we have learned in our environment. The behavior of a behaviorist is about how environmental factors affect physical behavior.
4. Cognitive
Cognitive Psychology focuses on the idea that if we want to know what makes people nervous then the way to do it is to find out what processes are actually happening in their minds. In other words, psychologists from this perspective are researching the action of the ‘mind’ process or the process by which information is acquired. Cognitive perception is about “mental” functions such as memory, perception, attention etc. It views people as computers in the way we use data (e.g., Input-process-output). For example, both the human brain and computers process data, store data, and process and install.
5. Humanistic
Humanistic is a psychological concept that emphasizes the study of the whole (known as holism). Human psychologists look at human behavior, not just with the eyes of the beholder, but with the eyes of the human being.
Psychologists believe that a person’s character is linked to his inner feelings and self-esteem. The human view suggests that each of us is responsible for our own happiness and well-being as human beings.
Examples of Psychological Criticism:
1. The author herself had experienced the traumatic on her early childhood when she lost her mother in an accident. This traumatic experience would influence on her writing and one can interpret in her poems with this in mind. (Trauma does not stand so much on it’s own as it is linked to psychoanalysis. The unconscious desires, perhaps influenced by trauma, of an author are the true meanings underlying all of their work.)
2. At times poem suggests that the narrator simply cannot forget his childhood experience of listening to his mother play the piano because it is an unforgettable and touching experience for the narrator. Psychological criticism allows for a careful analysis of literary texts through the use of concepts in psychology.
3. The Lion King example, when Simba loses his father he shows classic signs of depression and loneliness with fear in his mind.