Contemporary Physiological Perspectives

Contemporary Psychological Perspectives

Biological Perspective

The biological perspective is a way of looking at psychological issues by studying the physical basis for animal and human behavior. It is one of the major perspectives in psychology and involves such things as studying the brain, immune system, nervous system, and genetics. The biological perspective seeks to explain mental processes and behavior by focusing on the function of the nervous system at the cellular and structural level. For example, Adolescence can be defined from a purely biological perspective as the period when there is a rapid increase in growth (known as the growth spurt) and the redistribution of muscle tissue and body fat. 

Cognitive Perspective

The cognitive perspective is concerned with understanding mental processes such as memory, perception, thinking, and problem solving, and how they may be related to behavior. A cognitive personality theory may explain individual differences in behavior with respect to differences in the way people think and process information. Imagine that a college student makes little effort to achieve good grades in college courses. One possible cognitive explanation for this low achievement motivation is that the person has low self-efficacy.  The person may believe that he or she does not have the ability to achieve good grades, and thus the person makes little effort.

Behavioral Perspective

Behaviorism is the theoretical perspective in which learning and behavior are described and explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships. Classical conditioning is a technique frequently used in behavioral training in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a naturally occurring stimulus. Eventually, the neutral stimulus comes to evoke the same response as the naturally occurring stimulus, even without the naturally occurring stimulus presenting itself. The associated stimulus is then known as the conditioned stimulus and the learned behavior is known as the conditioned response. For example, an automatic response that associates two stimuli to anticipate an event. If you ring a bell before the food is presented, the dog will eventually salivate whenever the bell is rung because they will begin to associate the bell with food. Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through reinforcements and punishments. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. This is when a voluntary response or behavior is reinforced with positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and/or punishment. In an experiment in class with our classmate Dominic, we changed his behavior through a positive reinforcement by clapping and punishment by hissing, causing him to do what we wanted without actually telling him.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

The psychoanalytic perspective focuses on the importance of the unconscious mind. In other words, psychoanalytic perspective dictates that behavior is determined by your past experiences that are left in the Unconscious Mind. It is concerned with the belief, fear, superstation. Say for example, Sylvia was planning her wedding, but her mother wanted to override every decision Sylvia made.

Subjectivist Perspective

Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience", instead of shared or communal, and that there is no external or objective truth. This perspective concerned with the social norms, culture, tradition, family, learning. The success of this position is historically attributed to Descartes and his methodic doubt. For example, ethical subjectivism holds that individual conscience is the only appropriate standard for moral judgment.