Which of the following are the major perspectives of psychology as discussed in Chapter 1?
Learning Objectives
Show Introduction to Contemporary PsychologyContemporary psychology is a diverse field that is influenced by all of the historical perspectives described in the previous section of reading. Reflective of the discipline’s diversity is the diversity seen within the American Psychological Association (APA). The APA is a professional organization representing psychologists in the United States. The APA is the largest organization of psychologists in the world, and its mission is to advance and disseminate psychological knowledge for the betterment of people. There are 56 divisions within the APA, representing a wide variety of specialties that range from Societies for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality to Exercise and Sport Psychology to Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology. Reflecting the diversity of the field of psychology itself, members, affiliate members, and associate members span the spectrum from students to doctoral-level psychologists, and come from a variety of places including educational settings, criminal justice, hospitals, the armed forces, and industry (American Psychological Association, 2014). Psychologists agree that there is no one right way to study the way people think or behave. There are, however, various schools of thought that evolved throughout the development of psychology that continue to shape the way we investigate human behavior. For example, some psychologists might attribute a certain behavior to biological factors such as genetics while another psychologist might consider early childhood experiences to be a more likely explanation for the behavior. Many expert psychologists focus their entire careers on just one facet of psychology, such as developmental psychology or cognitive psychology, or even more specifically, newborn intelligence or language processing. While the field of study is large and vast, this text aims to introduce you to the main topics with psychology. You’ll get exposure to the various branches and sub-fields within the discipline and come to understand how they are all interconnected and essential in understanding behavior and mental processes. The five main psychological pillars, or domains, as we will refer to them, are:
Figure 1. The five pillars, or domains, of psychology. Image adapted from Gurung, R. A., Hackathorn, J., Enns, C., Frantz, S., Cacioppo, J. T., Loop, T., & Freeman, J. E. (2016) article “Strengthening introductory psychology: A new model for teaching the introductory course” from American Psychologist. These five domains cover the main viewpoints, or perspectives, of psychology. These perspectives emphasize certain assumptions about behavior and provide a framework for psychologists in conducting research and analyzing behavior. They include some you have already read about, including Freud’s psychodynamic perspective, behaviorism, humanism, and the cognitive approach. Other perspectives include the biological perspective, evolutionary, and socio-cultural perspectives. Helpful HintsA neat way to remember the major perspectives in psychology is to think about your hand and associate each finger with a prominent psychological approach:
Try ItGlossaryAmerican Psychological Association: professional organization representing psychologists in the United States Contribute!Did you have an idea for improving this content? We’d love your input. Improve this pageLearn More What are the 4 major perspectives of psychology?Psychoanalytic Perspective.. Humanistic Perspective.. Trait Perspective.. Social Cognitive Perspective.. What are the 3 perspectives of psychology?Perspectives in Psychology. The Biological Perspective. The biological perspective is also known as biopsychology or physiological psychology. ... . The Cognitive Perspective. ... . The Behavioral Perspective. ... . The Humanistic Perspective. ... . The Psychodynamic Perspective.. What are the 5 major perspectives?Eventually, the studies began to look at the same human behaviors from various angles including biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and humanistic perspectives. These became known as the “five major perspectives” in psychology.
What are the 7 major perspectives in psychology?Here are seven of the major perspectives in modern psychology.. The Psychodynamic Perspective. ... . The Behavioral Perspective. ... . The Cognitive Perspective. ... . The Biological Perspective. ... . The Cross-Cultural Perspective. ... . The Evolutionary Perspective. ... . The Humanistic Perspective.. |