6 Psychology Perspectives

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Psychology can be broken down into six main perspectives. These perspectives are biological, behavioral, developmental, cognitive, whole-person, and sociocultural.
The biological perspective focuses on the nervous system, the endocrine system, genetics, and physical characteristics. This perspective has very strong roots in medicine as well as biological sciences. Biological psychologists believe that behavior, personality, and abilities are caused by our biological make-up. These psychologists look at how genetics can effect behavior. There are two variations of this perspective, neuroscience and evolutionary psychology. Neuroscience tries to understand how the brain creates thoughts, feelings, motives, consciousness, memories, and other …show more content…

This perspective tries to figure out which is more important, heredity, or nature, or environment, or nurture. Developmental psychology combines biological and behavioral perspectives into one. One can observe changes in a person as they grow, and you can tell that ones mind is growing as well. Proof of the mind growing as well is the acquisition of language, logical thinking, and assuming different roles at different times in …show more content…

It includes the psychodynamic view, the humanistic view, and the trait and temperament view. The psychodynamic view emphasizes unconscious motivation and mental disorder. Freud believes that "the mind, especially the unconscious mind, is a reservoir of energy for the personality" (Zimbardo, et al). One of the most known approaches under the psychodynamic view, is psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysts today are physicians with a specialty in psychiatry. The humanistic view emphasizes human ability, growth, potential, and free will. In this perspective, self-actualization, self-concept, and self-esteem have huge influences over development of ones potential. The trait and temperament view emphasizes personality characteristics and individual differences. There are five main personality traits that one can have. These traits are openness to experiences (also known as inquiring intellect, curiosity, or independence), conscientiousness (also known as dependability, perseverance, superego strength, prudence, or constraint), extraversion (also known as social adaptability, assertiveness, sociability, boldness, or self-confidence), agreeableness (also known as warmth or like-ability), and neuroticism (also known as anxiety or