2. Approaches in Psychology (29-30, Dennis Coon; 12-16, Atkinson & Hilgard; 46-55, Michaeal Passer; 14-
17, Ciccarelli )
The Biological Perspective/biopsychological perspective
The biological perspective examines how brain processes and other bodily functions regulate behavior.
In the biopsychological perspective, human and animal behavior is seen as a direct result of events in the
body. Hormones, heredity, brain chemicals, tumors, and diseases are some of the biological causes of
behavior and mental events.
Some of the topics researched by biopsychologists include sleep, emotions, aggression, sexual behavior,
and learning and memory—as well as disorders. While disorders may have multiple causes (family
issues, stress, or trauma, for example), research in biopsychology points clearly to biological factors as
one of those causes.
For example, evidence continues to mount for a genetic cause for schizophrenia, a mental disorder
involving delusions (false beliefs), hallucinations (false sensory impressions), and extremely distorted
thinking.
Other research suggests that human sexual orientation may be related to the developing baby’s exposure
in the womb to testosterone, especially in females.
The biological perspective has also assisted in the study of memory. It emphasizes the importance of
certain brain structures, including the hippocampus, which is involved in consolidating memories.
Childhood amnesia may be partly due to an immature hippocampus, a structure that is not fully
developed until a year or two after birth.
Biological psychology has always been a prominent part of the field, but its influence has increased
dramatically over recent decades.
3. Evolutionary Perspective
The evolutionary perspective focuses on the biological bases for universal mental characteristics that
all humans share. It seeks to explain general mental strategies and traits, such as why we lie, how
attractiveness influences mate selection, why fear of snakes is so common, or why people universally
like music and dancing. This approach may also overlap with biopsychology and the sociocultural
perspective.
Evolutionary psychology seeks to explain how evolution shaped modern human behavior.
Evolutionary psychologists stress that human mental abilities and behavioral tendencies evolved
along with a changing body.
According to one theory, as our humanlike ancestors developed new physical abilities (such as the
ability to walk upright, thus freeing the use of the arms and hands), they began to use tools and
weapons and live in social groups. Certain psychological abilities—thought, language, the capacity to
learn and solve problems—became more important to survival as our ancestors had to adapt to new
ways of living.
In this perspective, the mind is seen as a set of information-processing machines, designed by the
same process of natural selection that Darwin first theorized, allowing human beings to solve the
problems faced in the early days of human evolution— the problems of the early hunters and
gatherers.
Evolutionary psychologists also attempt to explain human social behavior. Recall that Ray and Kira
are contemplating marriage. Why is it that across the world, on average, men desire a younger mate
and women tend to seek an older mate?
4. Cognitive Perspective
The cognitive perspective examines the nature of the mind and how mental processes influence
behavior. In this view, humans are information processors whose actions are governed by thought.
With its focus on memory, intelligence, perception, thought processes, problem solving, language,
and learning has become a major force in psychology.
Cognitive psychology, which focuses on how people think, remember, store, and use information,
became a major force in the field in the 1960s.
Cognitive perspective is concerned with mental processes such as perceiving, remembering,
reasoning, deciding, and problem solving.
Unlike the nineteenth-century version, however, the contemporary cognitive approach is not based on
introspection. Instead, it assumes that (1) only by studying mental processes can we fully understand
what organisms do, and (2) we can study mental processes in an objective fashion by focusing on
specific behaviors (just as behaviorists do) but interpreting them in terms of underlying mental
processes.
In making these interpretations, cognitive psychologists have often relied on an analogy between the
mind and a computer. Incoming information is processed in various ways: It is selected, compared,
and combined with other information already in memory, transformed, rearranged, and so on.
Consider the phenomenon of childhood amnesia. Perhaps we cannot remember events from the first
few years of life because of a major developmental change in the way we organize our experience in
memory. Such changes may be particularly pronounced at about age 3, when our language abilities
increase immensely, and language offers us a new way of organizing our memories.
5. Psychodynamic Perspective
The psychodynamic perspective searches for the causes of behavior within the inner workings of our
personality (our unique pattern of traits, emotions, and motives) , emphasizing the role of unconscious
processes.
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) developed the first and most influential psychodynamic theory. Freud’s
theory is still used by many professionals in therapy situations. It is far less common today than it was
a few decades ago, however, and even those who use his techniques modify them for contemporary
use.
In the more modern psychodynamic perspective, the focus may still include the unconscious mind
and its influence over conscious behavior and on early childhood experiences, but with less of an
emphasis on sex and sexual motivations and more emphasis on the development of a sense of self,
social and interpersonal relationships, and the discovery of other motivations behind a person’s
behavior.
Modern psychodynamic theories continue to explore how unconscious and conscious aspects of
personality influence behavior. However, they downplay the role of hidden sexual and aggressive
motives and focus more on how early relationships with family members and other caregivers shape
the views that people form of themselves and others.
The psychodynamic perspective dominated thinking about personality, mental disorders, and
psychotherapy for the first half of the 20th century, and it continues to influence psychology and the
practice of psychotherapy.
Although most contemporary psychological scientists reject Freud’s particular version of the
unconscious mind, modern psychological research has identified brain mechanisms that produce
unconscious emotional reactions and has shown that many aspects of information processing occur
outside of awareness.
6. The Psychodynamic Perspective
Advocates of the psychodynamic perspective believe that much of behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories,
and conflicts of which a person has little awareness or control. The inner forces, which may stem from one's
childhood, continually influence behavior throughout the life span.
Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory
• The psychodynamic perspective is most closely associated with a single person and theory: Sigmund Freud
and his psychoanalytic theory. Freud, who lived from 1856 to 1939, was a Viennese physician whose
revolutionary ideas ultimately had a profound effect not only on the fields of psychology and psychiatry, but on
Western thought in general (Masling & Bornstein, 1996).
• Freud's psychoanalytic theory suggests that unconscious forces act to determine personality and behavior. To
Freud, the unconscious is a part of the personality about which a person is unaware. It contains infantile
wishes, desires, demands, and needs that are hidden, because of their disturbing nature, from conscious
awareness. Freud suggested that the unconscious is responsible for a good part of our everyday behavior.
7. • According to Freud, everyone's personality has three aspects: id, ego, and superego.
• The id is the raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality that is present at birth. It represents
primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational impulses. The id operates according
to the pleasure principle, in which the goal is to maximize satisfaction and reduce tension.
• The ego is the part of personality that is rational and reasonable. The ego acts as a buffer be-tween
the real world outside of us and the primitive id. The ego operates on the reality principle, in which
instinctual energy is restrained in order to maintain the safety of the individual and help integrate the
person into society.
• Finally, Freud proposed that the superego represents a person's conscience, incorporating
distinctions between right and wrong. It begins to develop around age 5 or 6 and is learned from an
individual's parents, teachers, and other significant figures.
• In addition to providing an account of the various parts of the personality, Freud also suggested the
ways in which personality developed during childhood. He argued that psychosexual development
occurs as children pass through a series of stages in which pleasure, or gratification, is focused on a
particular biological function and body part.
8. Freud’s level of mind
• Sigmund Freud believed that behavior and personality were derived from the constant and unique interaction of
conflicting psychological forces that operate at three different levels of awareness: the preconscious, conscious,
and unconscious.
• He believed that each of these parts of the mind plays an important role in influencing behavior.
• In order to understand Freud's theory, it is essential to first understand what he believed each part of personality
did, how it operated, and how these three elements interact to contribute to the human experience. Each level of
awareness has a role to play in shaping human behavior and thought.
• Freud delineated the mind in the distinct levels, each with their own roles and functions.
• The preconscious mind consists of anything that could potentially be brought into the conscious mind.
• The conscious mind contains all of the thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of which we are aware at any
given moment. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. This also
includes our memory, which is not always part of consciousness but can be retrieved easily and brought into
awareness.
• The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious
awareness. The unconscious contains contents that are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain,
anxiety, or conflict.
9.
10. Defense Mechanism
Defense mechanisms are psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a person
from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings. According to Freudian theory, defense
mechanisms involve a distortion of reality in some way so that we are better able to cope with a situation.
11.
12. Humanistic Perspective
The humanistic perspective (humanism) emphasized free will, personal growth, and the attempt to
find meaning in one’s existence.
Humanists rejected psychodynamic concepts of humans as being controlled by unconscious forces
and rejected behaviorism’s view of humans Humanism’s focus on self-actualization and growth is
seen in today’s growing positive psychology movement, which emphasizes the study of human
strengths, fulfillment, and optimal living.
Rather than focusing on “what’s wrong with our world” (e.g., mental disorders, conflict, prejudice),
positive psychology examines how we can nurture what is best within ourselves and society to create
a happy and fulfilling life.
Humanists held the view that people have free will, the freedom to choose their own destiny, and
strive for self-actualization, the achievement of one’s full potential. Two of the earliest and most
famous founders of this view were Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) and Carl Rogers (1902–1987).
Today, humanism exists as a form of psychotherapy aimed at self-understanding and self-
improvement.
Behavioral Perspective
The behavioral perspective focuses on observable stimuli and responses and regards nearly all
behavior as a result of conditioning and reinforcement.
Behaviorism, a school of thought that emphasizes environmental control of behavior through learning,
began to emerge in 1913.
13. John B. Watson argued that the proper subject matter of psychology was observable behavior, not
unobservable inner consciousness. Humans, he said, are products of their learning experiences, and
he issued the following challenge:
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and
my own specialized world to bring them up in and
I’ll guarantee you to take any one of them at random
and train him to become any type of specialist
I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchantchief
and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless
of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities,
vocations, and race of his ancestors.”
Behaviorists sought to discover laws that govern learning, and they believed that the same basic
principles of learning applied to all organisms.
Behaviorism’s insistence that psychology should focus only on observable stimuli and responses
resonated with many who wanted psychology to model itself on the natural sciences.
14. Sociocultural/Cross-cultural Perspective
Another modern perspective in psychology is the sociocultural perspective, which actually combines
two areas of study: social psychology, which is the study of groups, social roles, and rules of social
actions and relationships; and cultural psychology, which is the study of cultural norms,* values, and
expectations.
The sociocultural perspective examines how the social environment and cultural learning influence
our behavior, thoughts, and feelings.
Emphasizes that behavior is related to the social and cultural environment within which a person is
born, grows up, and lives from day to day; neutral, interactionist view of human nature.
The sociocultural perspective is important because it reminds people that the way they and others
behave (or even think) is influenced not only by whether they are alone, with friends, in a crowd, or
part of a group but also by the social norms, fads, class differences, and ethnic identity concerns of
the particular culture in which they live.
Crosscultural research also fits within this perspective. In cross-cultural research, the contrasts and
comparisons of a behavior or issue are studied in at least two or more cultures. This type of research
can help illustrate the different influences of environment (culture and training) when compared to the
influence of heredity (genetics, or the influence of genes on behavior).
Cross-cultural psychology explores how culture is transmitted to its members and examines
psychological similarities and differences among people from diverse cultures.
