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Modern Perspectives

Current Views on Behavior & Thinking

+Biological Perspective

Emphasizes biological processes and heredity as the key to understanding behavior.

Study the structures of the brain & central nervous system, functioning of the neurons, hormones, & genes.

Neuroscience

+Neuroscience

Combines psychologists, biologists, biochemists, medical researchers, & more.

A part of the biological perspective.

Physiological psychologists, psychobiologists, or neuropsychologists.

+Psychoanalytic Perspective

Derived from Freud’s theories.

Modified considerably by “neo-Freudians”.

Emphasizes unconscious motivation & early childhood experience.

+Behavioral Perspective

Emphasizes learning & the role of environment.

+Cognitive Perspective

Mental processes

People consciously perceive, remember, think, organize, analyze, decide, & then respond.

Perception, thinking, memory, language, & more

+Humanistic Perspective

Humans can make rational, conscious choices.

Importance of people’s own subjective experience as key to understanding behavior.

Reject psychoanalytic & behaviorist views.

+Evolutionary Perspective

How humans have evolved & adapted behaviors.

Inherited tendencies & dispositions influence a wide range of behaviors.

How we select mates, level of intelligence, & why we help other people.

But realize genes alone do not control destiny.

Inherited tendencies are NOT set in concrete.

+Sociocultural Perspective

Emphasize social & cultural influences.

Important to understand those influences when interpreting the behavior of others.