PSYCHOLOGY PERSEPECTIVES

Socio-Cultural Perspective

How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures

Humanistic Perspective

Stresses the human capacity for self-fulfillment and the importance of consciousness, self-awareness, and the capacity to make choices

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Perspective

Study of the link between unconsious conflicts and behavior.

Behavioral Perspective

The way we behave and learn being explained through our interactions with the environment

Evolutionary Perspective

The study of the roots of behavior and mental processes using the principles of natural selection

Biological Perspective

Concerned with the links between biology and behavior.

Cognitive Perspective

How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information

Socio-Cultural Perspective Example

Dr. Kelso notices that cases of anorexia nervosa are limited almost completely to North American and European countries; other parts of the world rarely see this psychological disorder.

Humanistic Perspective Example

Dr. Venkman is writing a book on people in US History who he believes were "self-actualized." He believes people are most happy when they follow their dreams.

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Perspective Example

Dr. Delgado believes that her anxious client has buried a painful childhood memory in his unconscious mind and needs to access that memory in order to heal.

Behavioral Perspective Example

Dr. Reid believes children learn aggressive behavior by watching others carry out aggressive acts.

Evolutionary Perspective Example

Dr. Patel believes that a healthy fear of dangerous animals helped early humans survive, and that is why many modern humans fear snakes and spiders

Biological Perspective example

Dr. Dorian has discovered the gene that is responsible for a particular type of Alzheimer's disease.

Cognitive Perspective Example

Dr. Riviera is conducting an experiment in which subjects are presented with lists of random words. He is trying to determine if some words are easier to remember than others