On This Page:ToggleBehaviorist PerspectivePsychodynamic PerspectiveHumanistic PerspectiveCognitive PerspectiveBiological Perspective In PsychologyEvolutionary PsychologyPerspectives Conclusion
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There may be several theories within an approach, but they all share these assumptions.
The five major psychological perspectives are biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and humanistic, and provide different lenses through which phenomena are explained and analyzed.
You may wonder why there are so many different psychological approaches and whether one approach is correct and another wrong.
Most psychologists would agree that no one approach is correct, although in the past, in the early days of psychology, the behaviorist would have said their perspective was the only trulyscientificone.
Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses, and brings something different to our understanding of human behavior. For this reason, it is important that psychology does have different perspectives on the understanding and study of human and animal behavior.
Below is a summary of the six main psychological approaches (sometimes called perspectives) in psychology.
Behaviorist Perspective
If your layperson’s idea of psychology has always been about people in laboratories wearing white coats and watching hapless rats try to negotiate mazes in order to get to their dinner, then you are probably thinking aboutbehavioral psychology.
The behaviorist perspective is concerned with how environmental factors (called stimuli) affect observable behavior (called the response).
Behaviorism also believes inscientific methodology(e.g., controlled experiments), and that only observable behavior should be studied because this can be objectively measured. Behaviorism rejects the idea that people have free will, and believes that the environment determines all behavior.
Behaviorism is the scientific study of observable behavior working on the basis that behavior can be reduced to learned S-R (Stimulus-Response) units.
Behaviorism has been criticized in the way it under-estimates the complexity of human behavior. Many studies used animals which are hard to generalize to humans, and it cannot explain, for example, the speed in which we pick up language. There must be biological factors involved.
Psychodynamic Perspective
Who hasn’t heard ofSigmund Freud? So many expressions of our daily life come from Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis – subconscious, denial, repression, and anal personality, to name only a few.
Freud’s psychoanalysis is both a theory and therapy. It is the originalpsychodynamic theoryand inspired psychologists such asJungandEriksonto develop their own psychodynamic theories. Freud’s work is vast, and he has contributed greatly to psychology as a discipline.
Freud, the founder ofpsychoanalysis, explained the human mind as like an iceberg, with only a small amount of it being visible, that is our observable behavior, but it is the unconscious, submerged mind that has the most, underlying influence on our behavior.
Freud used three main methods of accessing theunconscious mind: free association, dream analysis andslips of the tongue.
The “id” and the “superego” are constantly in conflict with each other, and the “ego” tries to resolve the discord. If this conflict is not resolved, we tend to usedefense mechanismsto reduce our anxiety. Psychoanalysis attempts to help patients resolve their inner conflicts.
An aspect of psychoanalysis is Freud’s theory ofpsychosexual development. It shows how early experiences affect adult personality. Stimulation of different areas of the body is important as the child progresses through the important developmental stages. Too much or too little can have bad consequences later.
The most important stage is the phallic stage where the focus of the libido is on the genitals. During this stage little boys experience the “Oedipus complex“, and little girls experience the “Electra complex.” These complexes result in children identifying with their same-sex parent, which enables them to learn sex-appropriate behavior and a moral code of conduct.
However, it has been criticized in the way that it over emphasizes the importance of sexuality and under emphasized the role of social relationships. The theory is not scientific, and can’t be proved as it is circular.
Nevertheless, psychoanalysis has been greatly contributory to psychology in that it has encouraged many modern theorists to modify it for the better, using its basic principles, but eliminating its major flaws.
Humanistic Perspective
Humanistic psychologyis a psychological perspective that emphasizes the study of the whole person (know as holism). Humanistic psychologists look at human behavior, not only through the eyes of the observer, but through the eyes of the person doing the behaving.
Humanistic psychologists believe that an individual’s behavior is connected to his inner feelings andself-image. The humanistic perspective centers on the view that each person is unique and individual, and has the free will to change at any time in his or her life.
The humanistic perspective suggests that we are each responsible for our own happiness and well-being as humans. We have the innate (i.e., inborn) capacity for self-actualization, which is our unique desire to achieve our highest potential as people.
Because of this focus on the person and his or her personal experiences and subjective perception of the world the humanists regarded scientific methods as inappropriate for studying behavior.
Two of the most influential and enduring theories in humanistic psychology that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s are those ofCarl RogersandAbraham Maslow.
Cognitive Perspective
The whole movement had evolved from the early philosophers, such as Aristotle and Plato. Today this approach is known ascognitive psychology.
The cognitive perspective is concerned with “mental” functions such asmemory,perception,attention, etc. It views people as being similar to computers in the way we process information (e.g., input-process-output). For example, both human brains and computers process information, store data and have input an output procedure.
This had led cognitive psychologists to explain that memory comprises of three stages: encoding (where information is received and attended to), storage (where the information is retained) and retrieval (where the information is recalled).
It is an extremelyscientific approachand typically uses lab experiments to study human behavior. The cognitive approach has many applications includingcognitive therapyandeyewitness testimony.
Biological Perspective In Psychology
The biological perspective states that all thoughts, feeling & behavior ultimately have a biological cause. It is one of the major perspectives in psychology and involves such things as studying the brain, genetics, hormones, and the immune and nervous systems.
Biological factors such as chromosomes, hormones and the brain all have a significant influence on human behavior, for example,gender.
Biological psychologists explain behaviors in neurological terms, i.e., the physiology and structure of the brain and how this influences behavior.
These findings have helped psychiatry take off and help relieve the symptoms ofmental illnessthrough drugs. However, Freud and other disciplines would argue that this just treats the symptoms and not the cause.
This is where health psychologists take the finding that biological psychologists produce and look at the environmental factors that are involved to get a better picture.
Evolutionary Psychology
The Evolutionary approach explains behavior in terms of the selective pressures that shape behavior. Most behaviors that we see/display are believed to have developed during our EEA (environment of evolutionary adaptation) to help us survive.
Observed behavior is likely to have developed because it is adaptive. It has been naturally selected, i.e., individuals who are best adapted to survive and reproduce. behaviors may even be sexually selected, i.e., individuals who are most successful in gaining access to mates leave behind more offspring.
The mind is therefore equipped with ‘instincts’ that enabled our ancestors to survive and reproduce.
A strength of this approach is that it can explain behaviors that appear dysfunctional, such as anorexia, or behaviors that make little sense in a modern context, such as our biologicalstress responsewhen finding out we are overdrawn at the bank.
Perspectives Conclusion
Therefore, in conclusion, there are so many different perspectives in psychology to explain the different types of behavior and give different angles. No one perspective has explanatory powers over the rest.
Only with all the different types of psychology, which sometimes contradict one another (nature-nurture debate), overlap with each other (e.g. psychoanalysis and child psychology) or build upon one another (biological and health psychologist) can we understand and create effective solutions when problems arise, so we have a healthy body and a healthy mind.
The fact that there are different perspectives represents the complexity and richness of human (and animal) behavior. A scientific approach, such as Behaviorism or cognitive psychology, tends to ignore the subjective (i.e., personal) experiences that people have.
The humanistic perspective does recognize human experience, but largely at the expense of being non-scientific in its methods and ability to provide evidence. The psychodynamic perspective concentrates too much on the unconscious mind and childhood. As such, it tends to lose sight of the role of socialization (which is different in each country) and the possibility of free will.
The biological perspective reduces humans to a set of mechanisms and physical structures that are clearly essential and important (e.g., genes). However, it fails to account for consciousness and the influence of the environment on behavior.
What is the difference between a psychological perspective and a field in psychology?Psychology approaches refer to theoretical perspectives or frameworks used to understand, explain, and predict human behavior, such as behaviorism, cognitive, or psychoanalytic approaches.Branches of psychologyare specialized fields or areas of study within psychology, like clinical psychology, developmental psychology, or school psychology.
What is the difference between a psychological perspective and a field in psychology?
Psychology approaches refer to theoretical perspectives or frameworks used to understand, explain, and predict human behavior, such as behaviorism, cognitive, or psychoanalytic approaches.Branches of psychologyare specialized fields or areas of study within psychology, like clinical psychology, developmental psychology, or school psychology.
Psychology approaches refer to theoretical perspectives or frameworks used to understand, explain, and predict human behavior, such as behaviorism, cognitive, or psychoanalytic approaches.
Branches of psychologyare specialized fields or areas of study within psychology, like clinical psychology, developmental psychology, or school psychology.
Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education
Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.
Saul McLeod, PhD
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester
Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
