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.
Sierra's College Blog 
You largely have a good understanding of the theories Sierra, but there are a couple places I want to point out some improvements. In the cognitive explanation, it sounds more biological when you link his issues to lack of sleep. What might be some non-biological explanations for why he is having trouble focusing? Perhaps he is distracted by self-deprecating thoughts like “I’m a loser if I don’t get an A on this paper.” Maybe his unreasonably high standards make him see himself as a failure. For the humanistic perspective, I think I know what you mean but be careful about highlighting learned behaviors as the explanation, since that is a behavioral model. I think you were describing a condition of worth being put on Miguel if he didn’t achieve perfection (i.e., behave a certain way). In the behavioral explanation, be thinking about what might be rewarding his current behavior and keeping it going. What is he getting out of acting this way? Maybe he feels better after venting his emotions through fighting or he gets attention he craves by acting angry. You have the basic ideas down, so now just work on polishing up the details.
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