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Psychology 101 terms
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Key perspectives of psychology
The term psychology has many meanings to different people, even to those who work within the psychological field. The word psychology derives from two Greek roots; 'psyche' refers to 'soul' or 'mind' and logo refers to 'the study of'. A more update definition of the word psychology can be found from Atkinson, et al (1991) “The scientific study of behaviours and mental processes.” However on Google Definitions the definition of psychology is “the mental characteristics and attitudes of a person” [accessed 16 September 2011], which gives somewhat of a contradiction. In this assignment I will be outlining and evaluating four key psychological perspectives. The psychological perspectives I have chosen are the behavioural approach, biological approach, cognitive approach and the psychodynamic approach.
The biological approach to psychology makes the assumption that all behaviours are associated with changes in the brain function and that psychopathology will be caused by a disorder within the brain, neuroanatomy. Many biological psychologists tend to assume that most behaviours, normal and disordered, involve an inherited component from the biological parents. In theory this suggests that all behaviours can be related to changes in brain activity.
The biological approach looks at the relationship between behaviours and the body's physiological systems, especially the nervous system. Biological psychologists also believe that the chemical processes within the brain have an influence on behaviour. The treatments for the biological approach to psychology include, as previously said drug ...
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... pre-existing knowledge that when an individual recognise specific situations they use their own views, beliefs, understanding and stereotypes to form a full view or understanding.
Whilst evaluating the cognitive approach to psychology there are many strengths such as that the cognitive approach takes an understanding of the influence from mental processes on one’s behaviour, focusing on an individual’s thinking patterns and their perception. This approach also relates to many known functions and operations that the human body performs such as memory and problem solving.
The behavioural perspective to psychology’s assumptions are that all behaviours are learnt from the environment. The environment is made up of many aspects such as housing, local amenities, financial stability and education, these factors that influence are known as environmental determinism.
Behaviourist perspective is a study promotes experimental measures within understanding of observational behaviour. The understanding to observational behaviour corresponds to a response with the environment being...
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
Biological focuses on the body and brain being the dominant influences of behavior and thinking.
The psychoanalytic perspective grew out of subsequent psychoanalytic theories (1901, 1924, and 1940) following decades of interactions with clients with the use of an innovative procedure developed by Sigmund Freud that required lengthy verbal interactions with patients during which Freud probed deep into their lives. In a nutshell, the psychoanalytic perspective looked to explain personality, motivation, and psychological disorders by focussing on the influence of early childhood experiences, on unconscious motives and conflicts, and on the methods people use to cope with their sexual and aggressive urges. The Biological perspective on the other hand looks at the physiological bases of behaviour in humans and animals. It proposes that an organism’s functioning can be described in terms of the bodily structures and biochemical processes that cause behaviour. This paper attempts to examine the similarities and differences between the psychoanalytic perspective and the biological perspective with the key focus on the core assumptions and features of these perspectives as well as their individual strengths and weaknesses.
In psychology, the biological perspective looks at the roots of mental illnesses and disorders within the brain. It focuses on chemical imbalances with neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and acetylcholine. If you look at Robin Williams’ mental illnesses from the biological perspective, you
Some perspectives assume that in our behaviour exists genetic basis that we inherit and they are the result of our conduct and actions. On the other hand, the nurture believes that the behaviour is learnt by experiences and are divided between social and physical influences. According to Psychodynamic perspective believes in nature and nurture by the fact that psychodynamic believes that our behaviour is in the brain structure and hormones but at the same time is related to past experiences. for example, a child diagnosed aggressive within school, his mother replies that the child 's father had the same aggressive behaviour and troubles with the police however, the child never met his father therefore, the child inherited his father 's behaviour. Behaviourist perspective argues that everything comes from experiences and rewards. for example, a mother who is teaching his daughter to be tidy through her behaviour and reward his daughter depends on her
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior. In psychology, and all of the other sciences, relying on opinions is abandoned in order to find out which explanations best fit the evidence or data given. Science continually forces us to question our findings and conclusions. Over time, psychology has advanced greatly and a main reason for such progressiveness is because of the change in the research model used.
Several acheivements occurred in the development of cognitive psychology. The study of neuroscience brings us to what we know about cognition today. Cognitive psychology came from the criticisms and flaws of behaviorism. The focus of behaviorism is on observable behaviors, although cognitive psychology became a means to studying mental processes. Cognitive psychology can answer the questions behaviorism could not provide. Behavioral observations are key factors in cognitive psychology, and help with interpreting mental processes and behaviors. Through studying mental processes cognitive psychologists’ expanded psychology through and beyond observations. Behavioral observations helps researchers test cognitive theories. Behaviorists study observable behavior and cognitive psychologists study the mental processes. When studying these processes, researchers attempt to explain how unobservable processes interact with the observable behaviors and helping cognitive psychologists test their theories in
Bio-Psychologists study the principles of biology as it relates to the comprehension of psychology in the field neuroscience that underlies ones emotions, ideology, and actions (Brittanica). Based upon the conduction of research, the relationship between the brain and ones behavior extends to the physiological process in one’s intellect. Scientists are cognizant that neurotransmitters function as a significant role in mood regulation and other aspects of psychological problems including depression and anxiety. A biological perspective are relevant to psychology in three techniques including: the comparative method, physiology, and the investigation of inheritance (Saul Mc. Leod).
What are the core assumptions and key features of the biological and psychoanalytic perspectives in psychology? In what ways are they similar and how do they differ? The biological perspective within psychology aims to explain behaviours using scientific reason, as oppose to formulating unsubstantiated beliefs. Biological psychology may be seen as a point of view in which the reasons behind how we think, and act are attributed to physiological mechanisms such as brain functioning (Kalat, 2016, pg. 5). Early psychological views had a dualist outlook, including those of Rene Descartes who strongly believed that the body and soul are separate, holding the notion that it was through the pineal gland that the soul affected the body (Hunt, 1993,
Unlike other psychology fields, biological psychology usually deal with biological functions of human brain. It tends to study how different areas of brain influence human behavior and how neurons associate with one-another. Social and cognitive psychologists mainly study the human behavior through social or interpersonal aspects, which the research methods in these fields usually correlate with observation and analysis, such as experimental research and survey research. However, the research methods in biological psychology are tend to be more scientific with numerous laboratory examinations than other psychology fields. Due to one of the central purposes of biological psychology is to understand human behavior in biological perspectives,
Psychology is the investigation of the mind and how it processes and directs our thoughts, actions and conceptions. However, in 1879 Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Nevertheless, the origins of psychology go all the way back thousands of years starting with the early Greeks. This foundation is closely connected to biology and philosophy; and especially the subfields of physiology which is the study of the roles of living things and epistemology, which is the study of comprehension and how we understand what we have learned. The connection to physiology and epistemology is often viewed as psychology, which is the hybrid offspring of those two fields of investigation.
Psychology can be defined as the systematic study of mental processes, couple with behaviors, and experiences (Kalat, 2011). There are many ways in examining, mental processes and behaviors among people, and therefore psychologist uses different perspectives to understand how human beings, think, act, and behave. Some psychologist uses one perspective to analyze behaviors, and other uses a multidimensional approach. Carter & Seifert (2013) identified 7 major perspectives that are used to study people’s behavior, and mental processes. These perspectives are the biological, evolutionary, psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, and the sociocultural perspective.
"The premise behind the biological perspective in psychology is that all actions, feelings, and thoughts are associated with bodily events." Biological psychologists examine how all of the electrical impulses, hormones, and chemicals flowing through the body can effect behavior and how changes to these bodily functions can change behavior. They are concerned with how the aspects of biology effect peoples' emotions, learning abilities, and their perception of events.
The key issues and controversies in psychology are Free Will vs Determinism, Free Will is the idea that behaviour is primarily caused by choices that are made by an individual and Determinism is the idea that people’s behaviour are produced primarily by factors outside their control. Nature vs Nurture, Nature is about people’s behaviour due to their genetically determined nature and how much is due to nurture, the influence and social environment a child is raised. A third questions addressed from a psychologist is Conscious vs Unconscious Cause of Behaviour, it is about how much of our behaviour is produced by forces of which we are aware of and how much is due to unconscious activity such as mental processes that are not accessible to the conscious awareness. An additional key issues is Observable Behaviour vs Internal Mental Processes, Where do psychologists focus solely on behaviour that can be outside observes or on unseen thinking processes. Some of