6 Perspectives

Biological

• emphasizes the influence of Biology on our behavior and mental processes

• looks at the nervous system (especially the brain)

• hormones, genes (heredity)

Cognitive

• Emphasize role played by thoughts in determining behavior

• Investigate the way people perceive information and make mental images of the world

• Socrates – know thyself• Piaget – a child’s mental

picture of the world grows more sophisticated over time

Humanistic

• Stresses the human capacity for self fulfillment

• Self awareness and capacity for choices

• Through self awareness, experience and choices we invent ourselves

• Opposite of Behaviorists• People are basically good

Maslow’s Hierarchy

Psychoanalytic

• Stresses influence of unconscious forces on human behavior

• Dominated 1940’s-50’s thought

• Sigmund Freud• Defense mechanisms• Humans are basically

evil

Learning• Emphasizes effects of experience on behavior

• Behaviorists – people do things because of their learning histories, not conscious choice– Learning happens through

repetition and reinforcement• Social Learning Theory –

people learn by observing others

Sociocultural

• Addresses ethnicity, gender, culture, socioeconomic status

• These factors influence behavior and mental processes