Eight Theoretical Perspectives

The Sociocultural perspective of psychology that focuses on the different behaviors that exist between the different cultures and how culture can affect one 's behavior. The evolutionary perspective of psychology envelops different aspects of evolutionary traits we obtain and how they affect our lives. This includes natural selection, evolution, and adaptation and seeing how they affect our mental processes. The Humanistic perspective approaches to understanding human nature and emphasizes self-actualization and free will in humans.

In terms of human behaviour, psychology provides alternative perspectives, known as approaches, which give explanation to human behaviours. What makes each approach unique is that they all have their own focal points for how to explain behaviour. For example, the biological approach looks to the evolutionary processes and gene mutations/hormone levels, whilst the cognitive approach looks at how behaviour is influenced

Cognitive psychology is a pure science based mainly on laboratory experiments and began to revolutionize psychology in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and became the dominant approach in psychology by the late 1970’s [ (McLeod, 2007) ] according to Saul McLeod. An example of the cognitive perspective would be when one learns to take blood pressure. First you must learn how to manipulate the blood pressure manometer, learn how to hear blood pressure sounds and understand the meaning of the sounds. As each time you practice these activity, you will gain more confidence and competence in performing the task. The strong point of this perspective is that it mostly uses rigorous scientific methods and the approach has had many practical applications. The weakness of this perspective is that it is to simplistic. It ignores the complexity of the human function, biological influences of the human function and it ignores the emotions, conscious experience and free will.

The social experiences of three four-year-old young children with developmental disabilities present the main focus of the paper. Due to the shift to the social model of disability, the research perspective has changed from determining pathology to discovering ways to improve people’s lives. Childhood has also been viewed differently, emphasizing children as free agents. However, children with developmental disabilities have been largely missed out both by changes. Childhood is a social construct, with children having unique perspective on their lives. (Nind, Flewitt, & Payler, 2010 )

Psychology is the scientific “study of the mind” (Gross, 2015) and behaviour, which includes the study of humans and animals. There are various approaches in modern psychology. A theoretical approach is a perspective which is someone’s view about human behaviour, there can be many different theories within an approach, however they all piece together the same assumptions. (McLeod, 2007). A theory is an attempt by theorists to try to explain behaviour. Theories are not facts but can be verified by testing. Theories can then be evaluated which I aim to achieve through this essay, where I will briefly explain the theoretical approaches in psychology and aim to focus on an analysis of each perspective which consists of the psychodynamic,

Psychology, due to its complexity can be approached in a variety of ways. To help us understand the human mind, behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches have helped us understand the alternative outlooks in the science of mind and behaviour. Both approaches can be examined by the means of theoretical assumptions and methodology.

Psychology is the scientific “study of the mind” (Gross, 2015) and behavior, which includes the study of humans and animals. There are various approaches in modern psychology. A theoretical approach is a perspective (view) about human behavior, there may be several different theories within an approach, but they all share these common assumptions and principles. (McLeod, 2007). A theory is an attempt by theorists to try to explain behavior. Theories are not facts but can be verified by testing. Theories can then be evaluated which I aim to do through this essay, where I will briefly explain the theoretical approaches in psychology and aim to focus on an analysis for each perspective which consist of the psychodynamic, humanist, cognitive and behavioral approaches where I will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each approach separately.

The four major perspectives of Psychology are: Biological, Learning, Cognitive, and Sociocultural. First, is the biological perspective which relates to bodily events that affect the behavior, feelings, and thoughts. During the biological perspective electrical impulses shoot along the nervous system and hormones flow through the blood stream alerting the internal organs to slow down or speed up. The biological perspective affects the nervous system, hormones, brain chemistry, heredity, and evolutionary influences. A child who has been exposed to abuse may also grow up to abusive which is an example of the biological perspective. Second, is the learning perspective which the environment and experience affect the behavior of humans or animals. The environment either rewards or punish that maintains or discourage behaviors. Behaviors are based on acts and events taking place within the environment. Environmental influences, observations and imitation, beliefs, and values affect the learning perspective. A violent role model can influence a child to behave aggressively is an example of the learning perspective. Third, is the cognitive perspective which is the psychological approach that emphasizes mental process in perception, memory, language, and problem solving. The cognitive perspective shows how thoughts and explanations affect their actions, feelings, and choices. The cognitive approach is one of the strongest forces in psychology. A violent person may be quick to

Psychology can be defined as the systematic study of mental processes, couple with behaviors, and experiences (Kalat, 2011). There are many ways in examining, mental processes and behaviors among people, and therefore psychologist uses different perspectives to understand how human beings, think, act, and behave. Some psychologist uses one perspective to analyze behaviors, and other uses a multidimensional approach. Carter & Seifert (2013) identified 7 major perspectives that are used to study people’s behavior, and mental processes. These perspectives are the biological, evolutionary, psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, and the sociocultural perspective.

Modern, post-modern, critical theory and symbolic-interpretive are four different perspectives that provides different ways to analyse and understand organisations, however this essay shall focus on two perspectives, namely the modern and critical theory. These two perspectives have different views on concepts that might appear similar, thus this essay shall examine the different stands they each take. Concepts that can be examined include, power, control and conflict, organisational structures, organisations culture and organisation and its environment. This essay shall closely examine how the two perspectives have different views on the subject on power, control and conflict pertaining to the different ways to analyse and

Throughout time the development of psychology has had many different theorists but I would like to explore these three particular theories.

Modern, post-modern, critical theory and symbolic-interpretive are four different perspectives that provides different ways to analyse and understand organisations, however this essay shall focus on two perspectives, namely the modern and critical theory. These two perspectives have different views on concepts that might appear similar, thus this essay shall examine the different stands they each take. Concepts that can be examined include, power, control and conflict, organisational structures, organisations culture and organisation and its environment. This essay shall closely examine how the two perspectives have different views on the subject on power, control and conflict pertaining to the different ways to analyse and

Psychology is made up of many perspectives, such as, behavioural, biological, cognitive, social, humanistic and finally, psychodynamic. This essay will focus on the behavioural perspective and the biological perspective. According to J Walker (2012) the behavioural perspective is based on behaviourism and is the study of observing behaviour when in certain contexts and events. The biological perspective however, explains behaviour by focusing on the function of the nervous system, genes and the brain.

When it comes to psychology it is described as the discipline that is “concerned with behavior and mental process” (Wade & Travris, 2017, p.3), while also how they are affected by an organism’s external and internal environment. Then there is the scientific perspective also known as the scientific psychology in, which is rather based on research and empirical evidence, in which it is “gathered by careful observation, experimentation, and measurement” (Wade & Travris, 2017, p.3). Pseudoscience, psychobabble, popular opinion, and plain old common sense all relate to psychology topics in which scientific psychology challenges them with psychology’s methods and reliance on empirical evidence. Another example of how psychology addresses topics from a scientific perspective is with critical thinking. With critical thinking, one assesses claims and makes judgments that are based on well-supported reasons and evidence instead of emotions “critical thinking is fundamental to all science, including psychological science” (Wade & Travris, 2017, p.7). Psychology is the scientific study of human feelings, behavior, and thought. There are four major perspectives in psychology and those are biological, learning perspective, cognitive, and social cultural perspective. Psychological scientists typically use these four perspectives, because they each reflect a different question about human behavior, how the mind works, and it allows them to explain why people do what they do.

Cognitive psychology began emerging in the 1950’s. As highlighted by Kraiger and Salas (1993), this was partially as a response to behaviorism. Critics noted that behaviorism failed to explain how some internal development processes impacted behavior. Cognitive psychology focuses on how individuals acquire process and in the long run store information. Currently, cognitive psychology concentrates on few key human characteristics which include: