The Major Psychological Perspectives

Major Perspectives

A. There are five leading approaches to studying and explaining mental processes and behavior. Each has its own questions, assumptions, and emphases.

Biological Perspective

This approach emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with actions, feelings, and thoughts.

a) Biological psychologists are interested in areas such as hormones, the nervous system, and the relative effects of nature and nurture on the development of abilities and personality

b) Evolutionary psychology is a popular new specialty where the evolutionary past of a species’ may help to explain behaviors.

Biological Perspective

c) Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of the effects of psychological processes on the functioning of the immune system.

Learning Perspective

2. A psychological approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a person’s or an animal’s actions. It includes:

a) Behaviorism - an approach to psychology that emphasizes the study of objectively observable behavior and the role of environment as a determinant of behavior.

Learning Perspective

b) Social-cognitive learning theory - the theory that behavior is learned and maintained through observation and imitation of others, positive consequences, and cognitive processes such as plans and perceptions.

Cognitive perspective

3. A psychological approach that emphasizes mental processes n perception, memory, language, problem solving, and other areas of behavior.

Sociocultural Perspective

4. A psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural influences on behavior.a) Social psychologists study social rules and

roles, the influences of groups, why people obey authorities, and how a person is affected by others around him or her.

b) Cultural psychologists study the cultural rules and values that affect human development, behaviors, and feelings.

Psychodynamic

5. A psychological approach that emphasizes unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or the movement of instinctual energy.

Influential Movements

A. Throughout the history of Psychology, movements and intellectual trends have emerged which do not fit neatly into the perspectives already described. Two are:

1. Humanistic psychology

2. Feminist psychology

About the Book

A. The five perspectives represent qualitatively different approaches to the study of psychology.

B. No single perspective operates in isolation from the others.

C. In order to understand the complexity of behavior, we must look at it from many angles, explore its strengths and weaknesses, and understand its social and political implications.

About the Book

D. Reductionism is the process of reducing a phenomenon to a single type of explanation or to a limited set of elements of a particular type (for example, biological or cognitive). The dangers of reductionism are demonstrated throughout the book.