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
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Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., & Wegner, D. M. (2010). Psychology. (2nd ed., p. 600). New York: Worth Pub.
Psychology comprises of two words originally used by the ‘Greeks’, ‘psyche’, defining the mind, soul or spirit and lastly ‘logos’ being study. Both words define together the ‘study of the mind’. Psychology perspectives evaluate the normal and abnormal behaviour and how persons’ deal with different concepts of issues and problems. Psychology theories’ are based on ‘common sense’, but its scientific structure, everything needs to be evaluated and tested, therefore, promoting different psychological theories’.
Rationalism and empiricism were two philosophical schools in the 17th and 18th centuries, that were expressing opposite views on some subjects, including knowledge. While the debate between the rationalist and empiricist schools did not have any relationship to the study of psychology at the time, it has contributed greatly to facilitating the possibility of establishing the discipline of Psychology. This essay will describe the empiricist and rationalist debate, and will relate this debate to the history of psychology.
There are also seven psychological perspectives, they are thought to conduce to abnormal behavior. First is sociocultural, the problems reflect the values and beliefs of the culture. Second is behavioral, there is faulty conditioning or modeling. Evolutionary is the third, this is an exaggerated form of an adaptive reaction. Fourth is humanistic, where the personal growth is blocked. Fifth is psychoanalytic and/or psychodynamic, the unresolved or unconscious conflict. Cognitive is sixth, this is faulty thinking. Seventh is biological, this is problems with the brain, genetics, and biochemistry.
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
Davis, S. F., & Palladino, J. J. (2003). Psychology. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
As doctoral students begin the process of becoming psychologists, many questions are posited to them during the first months of their academic studies; one of which is what theoretical orientation are you most drawn to? The question is simple, but only on the surface; the underlying complexity of the theories behind the orientations must be well understood. Therefore, the student must make the effort to research the history, the application, and the science behind each of the major orientations used within psychology, in order to determine which orientation is most inline with their preference and beliefs involving different treatments for psychological issues. The three main theoretical orientations include, the psychodynamic
Gall, S. B., Beins, B., & Feldman, A. (2001). The gale encyclopedia of psychology. (2nd ed., pp. 271-273). Detroit, MI: Gale Group.
The term psychology has many meanings to different people, even to those who work within the psychological field. The word psychology derives from two Greek roots; 'psyche' refers to 'soul' or 'mind' and logo refers to 'the study of'. A more update definition of the word psychology can be found from Atkinson, et al (1991) “The scientific study of behaviours and mental processes.” However on Google Definitions the definition of psychology is “the mental characteristics and attitudes of a person” [accessed 16 September 2011], which gives somewhat of a contradiction. In this assignment I will be outlining and evaluating four key psychological perspectives. The psychological perspectives I have chosen are the behavioural approach, biological approach, cognitive approach and the psychodynamic approach.
The cognitive revolution in psychology was a period during the 1950’s and 1960’s which involved radical changes to two major concepts in psychology, consciousness and causality. It was also a period that saw the abolishment of traditional science values of dichotomy and the worship of atomisation in science, replacing reductive micro deterministic views of personhood with holistic top-down view (Overskeid, 2008). The aim of this essay is to give an account of what constitutes the cognitive revolution, and also assess the contributions that the cognitive revolution has made to the scientific study of psychology. The cognitive revolution represents a diametric turn around in the century’s old treatment of mind and consciousness in science, such as the contents of conscious experience, whose subjective qualities were being discarded as mere causal epiphenomena (Sperry 1993). This paradigm shift brought with it alternative beliefs about the ultimate nature of things, thereby bringing forth new answers to some of humanity's deepest questions.
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior. In psychology, and all of the other sciences, relying on opinions is abandoned in order to find out which explanations best fit the evidence or data given. Science continually forces us to question our findings and conclusions. Over time, psychology has advanced greatly and a main reason for such progressiveness is because of the change in the research model used.
Hewstone, M. Fincham, F. and Foster, J (2005). Psychology. Oxford: The British Psychological Society, and Blackwell Publishing. P3-23.
The five major theoretical perspectives in psychology are biological, learning, cognitive, psychodynamic, and sociocultural perspectives. Each one of these perspectives searches for answers about behavior through different techniques and through looking for answers to different kinds of questions. Due to the different approaches, each perspective form their own assumptions and explanations. Some perspectives are widely accepted while others struggle for acceptance.
The study of history enables a society to understand the present better, prevent one from thinking the past is always better, and aids in the understanding of human nature. Psychology is an ever changing and evolutionary field. Recent years have presented numerous changes and increasing interest by many individuals, which have been inspired to help enhance the growth of modern psychology (Woodworth, 1918, p. 1). The use of the certain tools that have been deemed to be reliable in the fields of biology and physical sciences have been implemented in modern psychology to aid in the fields' growth to take on an identity of its own (Schultz & Schultz, 2004, p. 2). This paper will discuss the personalistic and naturalistic theory and how the two fields relate to zeitgeist.
Behaviorism is the point of view where learning and behavior are described and explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships. Behaviorists agree that an individual’s behaviors is a result of their interaction with the environment. Feedback, praise and rewards are all ways people can respond to becoming conditioned. The focus is on observable events instead of events that happen in one’s head. The belief that learning has not happened unless there is an observable change in behavior. “The earliest and most Ardent of behaviourists was Watson (1931; Medcof and Roth, 1991; Hill 1997). His fundamental conclusion from many experimental observations of animal and childhood learning was that stimulus-response (S-R) connections are more likely to be established the more frequently or recently an S-R bond occurs. A child solving a number problem might have to make many unsuccessful trials before arriving at the correct solution” (Childs, 2004).