Six Perspectives In Psychology

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.

The humanistic perspective of psychology is a field that studies the human as a whole person

Behaviorism is defined as,” a school of psychology that takes the objective evidence of behavior (as measured responses to stimuli) as the only concern of its research and the only basis of its theory without reference to

According to (Pastorino, E. & Doyle-Portillo, 2012), psychology is defined as “the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.” (pg. 3). Scientific study is done by using the scientific method. The Scientific method is defined as “a systematic process used by psychologists for testing hypotheses about behavior.” Behavior is the way a person responses to an experience. This can be a physical or an emotional response. The mental processes of people are studied by psychologists to try and understand the mental reasoning behind the behavior of a person does after an experience.

Psychology has six main perspectives dealing with human behavior. The first perspective, biological perspective, presumes that biological factors, such as genes, hormones, and the nervous system, all affect human behavior and their mental process. The evolutionary perspective emphasizes how behavior and mental phenomena are a result of evolution through natural selection and adaptations of organisms in order to survive in their environment. The psychodynamic perspective focuses on unconscious conflicts within a person as the main determinant of behavior and mental life. The behavior perspective focuses on observing behaviors and how they are learned. The cognitive perspective describes how people process, think, and store information. The humanistic

The psychodynamic approach founded by Sigmund Freud was a lot of our behavior, is determined by unconscious thoughts, memories. Freud developed the first complete theory of mind and is the founder of a series of techniques called psychoanalysis. This aims to explore the unconscious mind by using techniques, such as free association, dream interpretation etc. and then and be used treat abnormal behavior. Psychodynamic psychology ignores the aspects of science and instead focuses on trying to get inside the head of individuals to make logic of their relationships, experiences and how they see the world. (McLeod, 2007). Freud’s theories

Behaviorism is a theory that is driven off conditioning or repetition of something. The behaviorism theory might be a good theory for the younger grades because they are still trainable per se. Even though this theory might be great for children in the younger grades that react well to color charts and behavior chart it might have the opposite effect on children that have disorders or mental disabilities as these children do not react well to with just repetition and conditioning. In reading the article “My way or the Highway: Beyond Behaviorism” I found some very eye opening things that show how applying this theory alone is unsuccessful, but when applied with other theories it can be beneficial. Let us take a closer look.

According to McLeod (2017), behaviourism is an approach in psychology that focuses on scientific testing and investigating how environmental interactions cause all human behaviour to be learnt. Behaviourists do not focus on covert behaviour, such as feelings or thoughts, as they cannot be scientifically

It emphasizes on observable behaviors rather than on unconscious inner states. Behaviorist believe that human behaviors are molded by experience and that we are the result of what we have learned from our environment. The behaviorist approach gives two ways as to how people learn from their environment: classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is when two stimuli (environmental factors) are linked together to produce a new learned response. Operant conditioning is learning from the consequences of behavior. A lot of the studies in behaviorism consist of controlled experiments as it is believed that behavior can be reduced to learned stimulus-response units. Behaviorism assumes that humans are born with a blank slate and are therefore born equal. They believe that it is environmental factors that make us different as opposed to biological factors. Behaviorist believe that cognitions, emotions, and moods are too subjective and that only observable behaviors should be studied. They believe that any person could be trained to perform any task with the right

The first perspective that is to be discussed is the biological model, which looks at psychology in regards to biological factors, such as how the brain works and changes, what factors do genetics play in one’s life, and anything else that relates to physical aspects of the human body. It also questions the mental state of a person by looking at the brain and other physical processes. The origin of abnormal behavior for this model is genetics and issues with neurotransmitters. This model views assessment by doing lab work or by looking at an MRI and views medication as a way of treatment.

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

This perspective assumes that we all thrive for personality growth, through mental processes and behaviors.. This perspective is different in its methodology compare to the biological approach, and the psychodynamic approach. Both these perspectives assume that human beings are controlled by internal or external forces. There are deterministic in nature. The humanistic perspective, promotes free will, and people can be, whatever, they envision themselves. This perspective was influence by humanists such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, who emphasizes on the importance of individual potentials.

The behaviourist perspective is a scientific approach within psychology which claims that we are blank slates at birth and all human behaviour is learnt.Behaviourism was developed by John Watson in America in the early 1900s, (Cullis, T1999). Behaviourists focus on external conditions, learning and experience

What humanistic perspective does is allow people to make a destiny for themselves; we latch on to free will. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers are the two founders of humanistic, which is still being put to use for self-understanding and self-improvement.

* Behaviorism: The school of psychology that views observable, measureable behavior and emphasizes the key role of the environment as a determinant of a behavior.