01/10/14 7 Perspectives of Psychology

1. Biological- the interaction between anatomy (brain & nervous system) and behavior
• how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences.
• what parts of the brain are involved in certain behaviors.
• Main Idea: What affects your body affects your behavior. Ex: Staying up texting all night causes exhaustion.
2. Behavioral- argue psychology is the study of observable behavior. 
• behavior is determined by your environment and experience is not genetics.
• the mind and mental events are not important because they cannot be observed.
• Main Idea: Everything is trained and learned, nothing is born. Ex: You are afraid of spiders. 
3. Cognitive- in order to understand someone's behavior, we must understand how they think. 
• Ex: trying to change your friend's mind about abusive boyfriends.
• Key Person: Jean Piaget
4. Evolutionary- Behavior can best be explained in terms of how adaptive that behavior is to our survival.
• Natural selection- we have evolved into our present stats over long periods of time. 
• Key Person: Charles Darwin
5. Humanistic- argues that humans have unique qualities of behavior different from other animals.
• view human nature as positive.
• Free will and potential for personal growth. 
• Guide behaviors and mental processes.
• Emphasize the importance of feelings, love, and acceptance.
• Key People: Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
6. Sociocultural- much of how your behavioral and your feelings are dedicated by the culture you live in. 
• Must be taken into account when trying to understand, predict, or control behavior.
• Ex: some cultures kiss each other when greeting, some bow.  
7. Psychoanalytical/ Psychodynamic- the interaction between the conscious and unconscious (mental processes that we do not normally have access to but are influenced by) shape behavior.
• Stresses the importance of childhood experiences to the development of personality.
• Focus is to resolve the unconscious conflicts through uncovering information that has been repressed. (buried in unconscious)
• Ex: Man cannot form relationships with others because he was beaten as a child, causing a fear of getting close to others.