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