THE 7 MAIN APPROACHES/PERSPECTIVES TO PSYCHOLOGY



The 7 Main Approaches/Perspectives to Psychology

*Many psychologists may believe that each perspective has valid explanations depending on the specific situation, and this point of view is called eclectic. This term refers to the claim that no one perspective has all the answers to the variety of human thought and behavior. Psychologists tend to use various perspectives in their work depending on which point of view fits best with the explanation.

Directions:

Step ONE: Read pages 8-9 in your text: Psychology’s Biggest Questions: The Nature-Nurture debate.

Step TWO: Philosophers and psychologists have long debated the relative influences of heredity and environment on behavior—the NATURE-NURTURE DEBATE. Give an example of how each of the following perspectives would explain their position in what is commonly known as the “nature-nurture controversy.” Use your book as necessary.

|Approach & Its Influential |Principle Contributors |Subject Matter |Basic Premise |

|Period | | | |

| |Carl Rogers-Person-centered therapy and unconditional |Unique aspects of|Belief that we choose most of our behaviors and |

|Humanistic |positive regard |human experience |these choices are guided by physiological, |

|(1950s-Present) |Abraham Maslow-Hierarchy of Needs and | |emotional or spiritual needs. Humans are free, |

| |Self-Actualization | |rational beings with the potential for personal |

| | | |growth, and they are fundamentally different from |

| | | |animals. |

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| |Sigmund Freud-Personality and States of Consciousness |Unconscious |Belief that the unconscious mind---a part of our |

|Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic |Carl Jung-the most important and lifelong task imposed|determinants of |mind that we do not have conscious control over or|

|(1900-Present) |upon any person is fulfillment through the process of |behavior |access to---controls much of our thought and |

| |individuation, achievement of harmony of conscious and| |action. Unconscious motives and experiences in |

| |unconscious, which makes a person one and whole | |early childhood govern personality and mental |

| |Alfred Adler-"Individual Psychology," a term which is | |disorders. |

| |sometimes misunderstood. It refers to the | | |

| |indivisibility of the personality in its psychological| | |

| |structure. | | |

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| |James Olds-the "reward" system in the brain |Physiological |An organism’s functioning can be explained in |

|Biopsychology/Neuroscience |Roger Sperry-showed that if the two hemispheres of the|bases of behavior|terms of the bodily structures and biochemical |

|(1950s-Present) |brain are separated by severing the corpus callosum |in humans and |processes that underlie behavior. How the body and|

| |(the large band of fibers that connects them), the |animals |brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory |

| |transfer of information between the hemispheres | |experiences |

| |ceases, and the coexistence in the same individual of | | |

| |two functionally different brains can be demonstrated.| | |

| |George Miller-The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus | | |

| |Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing | | |

| |Information | | |

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| |David Buss-His primary interests include the |Evolutionary |Examines human thought and behavior in terms of |

|Evolutionary/Darwinian |evolutionary psychology of human mating strategies; |bases of behavior|natural selection. Behavior patterns have evolved|

|(Also called sociobiologists) |conflict between the sexes; prestige, status, and |in humans and |to solve adaptive problems; natural selection |

|(1980s-Present) |social reputation; the emotion of jealousy; homicide; |animals. |favors behaviors that enhance reproductive |

| |anti-homicide defenses; and stalking. | |success. |

| |Charles Darwin-the Origin of Species in 1850. | | |

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| |John B. Watson-Father of Behaviorism & Baby Albert |Effects of |Explain human thought and behavior in terms of |

|Behavioral |Experiment |environment on |conditioning and look strictly at observable |

|(1913-Present) |Ivan Pavlov-Classical Conditioning with dogs and |the overt |behaviors and what reaction organisms get in |

| |salivation |behavior of human|response to specific behaviors. Belief that only |

| |B.F. Skinner-Operant Conditioning and invented the |and animals. |observable events (stimulus response |

| |Skinner Box | |relationships) can be studied scientifically. |

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| |Jean Piaget-Stage Theory of Cognitive Development |Thoughts; mental |Examine human thought and behavior in terms of how|

|Cognitive |Noam Chomsky-Theorized the critical-period for |process |we interpret, process, and remember environmental |

|(1950s-Present) |language acquisition | |events. The rules that we use to view the world |

| |Herbert Simon-one of the founding fathers of modern | |are important to understanding why we think and |

| |research in artificial intelligence | |behave the way we do. Overall, human behavior |

| |Ulric Neisser-focused on pattern recognition, visual | |cannot be fully understood without examining how |

| |search, brief information processing, and memory. | |people acquire, store, and process information. |

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| |Vygotsky-argues that a child's development cannot be |Effects of social|Looks at how our thoughts and behaviors vary from |

|Sociocultural (Social-Cultural) |understood by a study of the individual. We must also |and cultural |people living in other cultures. Emphasizes the |

|(???-Present) |examine the external social world in which that |issues on |influence culture has on the way we think and act.|

| |individual life has developed. |behavior | |

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