Learning and Cognitive Perspectives in Psychology

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Many historians wondered great questions that would today be called psychological. Many wondered how a person processes information through their senses and transform this information to solve problems, and become motivated to act in significant ways. They wondered about the nature and whether or not it controls us or is it something we control ourselves. Like today’s psychologist historians wanted to describe, predict, understand, and modify behavior to increase the human knowledge and happiness. Unlike Psychologist today, scholars did not rely deeply on empirical evidence. They often used observations based on anecdotes or descriptions of similar cases.
Early approaches of psychology eventually evolved into the five major theoretical perspectives: the biological, learning, cognitive, sociocultural, and psychodynamic perspectives, which now dominate the field. These approaches reflect different questions psychologist may have about human behavior and how the human mind works. It can also describe different ways of explaining why people act, behave, and do what they do.
Two of the most known perspectives in psychology are the learning and the cognitive perspectives. The learning perspective is a psychological approach that reflects how the environment and how experience affects a person’s or animal’s actions. It emphasizes the importance of a unique experience in families, schools, and communities. Within this perspective, psychologist keeps their attention mainly on the environmental rewards and punishers that maintain or discourage certain behaviors. Behaviorists do not generally order the mind to explain behavior. They often prefer to continue with things they can observe and measure directly such as acts and events taking p...

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...rison of these two different viewpoints and illustrates how these differences might be translated into practical applications in instructional situations.

Works Cited

Cherry, K. (n.d.). Major perspectives in social psychology. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/f/socpersp.htm
The learning perspective. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.internationalcounselor.org/Psych/learning_perspective.htm
Learning the developmental stages of your child. (2007, June 26). Retrieved from http://www.lifescript.com/soul/self/growth/piagets_theory_for_parents.aspx?gclid=CPmYjZCH_rkCFVNo7AodyDwA2g&trans=1&du=1&ef_id=Uk8ohwAAAfgVDyBy:20131004204958:s
McLeod, S. (n.d.). Cognitive perspective. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive.html
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2012). Invitation to psychology (Fifth ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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