Download Psychological Perspectives covered by the course Learning

Psychological Perspectives covered by the course Learning,
Biological, & Cognitive.
Briefly describe and compare each of three Psychological Perspectives
covered by the course (Learning, Biological, & Cognitive). What are
their basic assumptions about the nature of behavior? How are they
similar? How do they differ?
Behaviorists use the study of learning, to predict and control behavior, this is
one of the three main perspective psychology is viewed in; the learning
perspective. It was developed mainly in the US, by Watson, Skinner and Pavlov,
who all believed that experience is what formed the knowledge of behavior.
Watson believed that behavior consists of association between the stimulus and
how humans react and respond to it.
Pavlov, who worked with classical conditioning, studied this with a dog and
training him to salivate when hearing a specific tone. Skinner’s assumption was
that behavior is determined by the “reward or reinforcement” (Eysenck 23).
Watson thought that behavior is determined by the environmental factors
rather than the inheritance. The learning perspective differs from the cognitive
because it bases its assumptions purely on the observable behavior. However
they are similar because both perspectives regard the concept of stimuli and
response as part of their assumptions about behavior, even though behaviorist
reduce it to just this concept.
In contrast to the learning perspective which focused on observable behavior,
the cognitive perspective looks into the internal processes, understanding how
humans process and treat information. Cognitive perspective developed in the
1950’s because of the discontent with the behaviorist perspective, during the
“computer revolution” where psychologists tried to understand more about our
brain by comparing it to a computer.
Psychologists researched the systems with which humans handle information;
attention, perception, and short-term memory. The main assumption in this
perspective is that human cognition relies on these processing systems. There
are different types of processes; the bottom-up processing is the reality of what
is happening, the stimuli, and the top-down processing is shaped by your
knowledge and expectations. Humans respond to the stimuli, respond to it,
manipulate it, and store it in our short-term memory. In comparison to the
learning perspective, this perspective looks into behavior through the internal
processes rather than what can be observed from the outside.
The biological perspective views behavior on the grounds that everything
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psychological is first physiological and to understand behavior we need to
investigate the internal processes in the brain, endocrine system, genes, nervous
system, neurochemistry and hormones. This perspective bases its research on
animals and the experimental method to find out about behavior. The main
assumptions are that humans share a substantial amount of characteristics with
animals and that behavior always has a cause. It is believed that human
behavior is largely dependant on genetics. Changes in our behavior can be linked
with the interaction between environmental factors and our
genetic
disposition. It is proven, with the advanced brain scanning technologies that the
physiology does affect behavior in certain ways, and using drugs and
psychological therapy, we can help patients with psychological illnesses. This
perspective is similar to the cognitive perspective because it investigates the
internal processes, even though it goes to a much deeper level, looking into
many more aspects of the human body and how they affect our behavior. The
learning perspective has almost nothing in common with this perspective,
because it bases its assumption purely on the observably behavior and the
association between stimuli and response. Biopsychology is a more advanced
and more researched approach to behavior and focuses on physiology much
more than the other two approaches.
Works Cited:
 Eysenck, Michael W. “Psychology”. New York: Psychology Press Ltd.,
2001.
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