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Psychological
Perspectives
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There are many approaches
in modern psychology.
y
An Approach is a perspective (view), that involves certain beliefs
about human behavior.
The way they function , which aspects are worth studying.
Each perspective has its strenghs and weaknesses
They bring something different to our understanding of human
behavior.
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Psychological Perspectives
Biological (Biopsychology)
Evolutionary
Cognitive
Humanistic
Psychoanalitic
Learning
Socio-cultural
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Biological Perspective:
Is a way of looking at psychological topics by studying the
physical basis for animal and human behavior.
It involves such things as studying the immune system,
nervous system, and genetics.
This field of psychology is also known as Biopsychology.
This perspective has grown in recent years. Now we have
more tecnology to study the brain and nervous system.
Scientists use tools such as Brain Scans:
•PET (Position Emission Tomography)
•MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
MRI SCAN
•This scans help doctors observe human brains at work,
since this methods are non-invasive, researchers can do
hundreds of scans to the same person and obtain detailed
information about brain activity and structure.
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Evolutionary Perspective
Is focused on the study of how evolution explains
physiological processes. Psychologists and researchers
take the basic principles of evolution, including natural
selection, and apply them to psychological phenomena.
This perspective suggests that these mental processes exist
because they serve an evolutionary purpose – they aid in
survival and reproduction.
This approach focuses on the evolution of behavior and
mental processes.
They believe in the struggle for survival, most adaptive
organisms have a greater chance of surviving to maturity .
People who are naturally resistant to certain diseases are
more likely to transmit their genes to future generations.
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•This the one of the most popular approach in psychology today.
•The word Cognition refers to thinking or using mental
processes.
•For Cognitive Psychology the most important human ability is
that we can take information from our environment, analyze it
and come up with a solution to almost any problem.
•So we are foremost thinking creatures , able to compare the
past with the present and make judgements, we are special
because we can change our thought patterns after looking at
different problems and decide on the best approach.
•Our personalities are made up of different kinds of sentences
(thoughts) that we have inside our heads.
If we pay a lot of attention, we will notice that there are many
times during the day, when we are having a conversation with
ourselfs inside our heads.
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The Cognitive tradition has its roots in Socrates maxim
“Know Thyself”, and in his method of Introspection.
Cognitive psychologists believe that people´s behavior is
influenced by their values, their perceptions and their
choices.
They view our strategies for solving problems as mental
programs operated by our very own personal computers
the brain.
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The Humanistic Perspective
In this approach consciousness is seen as the force
that shapes human personality.
Humanistic psychology considers peoples´s personal
experiences to be the most important aspect of
psychology.
They believe that self-awareness, experience and
choice permit us to “invent ourselves”.
They view people as basically good and desiring to be
helpful to others. Humanistic psychologists help people
explore their feelings, manage their negative impulses,
and realize their potential.
They insist that inner experience is vital to the
understanding of human nature.
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