The 7 Psychological Approaches (Perspectives)

Why do we do that?

Depends on who you ask

Neuroscience/Biological

Ideas set forth by Roger Sperry & Michael Gazzaniga (split brains)

behavior is governed by physiological responses (changes in brain chemistry, brain structure, nervous system, hormones etc)

Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic

Ideas set forth by Sigmund Freud

Focuses on the ideas that:Your early childhood plays the biggest role in shaping your personalityThese childhood experiences have been repressed into your unconscious mind

Evolutionary

Believe that people change or continue behavior in order to improve their chance to survive and therefore reproduce

Based on Charles Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest (natural selection)

Humanistic

Ideas set forth by Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow (hierarchy of needs)

Focuses on an individual’s free will and reaching one’s fullest potential

Believes that behavior is determined by a person’s capacity to choose how to act (impacted by one’s self esteem)

BehavioralOur behavior is based on what we have LEARNED!

The importance of the external environment in shaping behavior

• Albert Bandura (Social Learning Theory; learning by observing others and modeling)

• Ivan Pavlov (Classical conditioning; learned responses by association)

• B.F. Skinner (Operant conditioning; learned responses by rewards & punishments)

Socio-CulturalIdeas set forth by Stanley Milgram (Obedience) & Soloman Asch (conformity)

Explains behavior based on your society, socio-economic status, religion, community

CognitiveIdeas set forth by Jean Piaget (child development)

Focuses on mental processes; how we encode, process (interpret), store, retrieve information & problem solve

Believe that behavior is partially governed by the ways we think and assess the world

ReviewBiological

(Neuroscience)

Behavior can be understood by describing underlying biochemical and neurological causes

Brain, neurochemicals,

genes

BehavioralInterested in directly observable behaviors that are the result of external stimuli

Reinforcement or punishment

CognitiveCognitive psychologists study thoughts and processes (language, thought, and memory)

Our thoughts

HumanisticViews behavior as a product of free will and opposed the determinism of behaviorism and psychoanalysis

I choose

Psychodynamic

(Psychoanalytic)

Human behavior is primarily determined by unconscious processes. Stresses the importance of early experiences in determining later behavior problems

Events from distant past; unconscious

Social-CulturalHuman behavior is largely the result of our social environments.

Environment

EvolutionaryBelief that our thoughts and behaviors are the result of evolutionary selection pressures

Natural selection