Biopsychology – physical basis of psychological phenomena (motivation, emotion, stress)

Cross-cultural psychology – distinguish universal psychological processes from those that are specific
to particular cultures.

Structuralism – basic elements of consciousness through introspection

Functionalism – explain psychological processes in terms of role, or function they serve.

Pg 3 Perspectives in psychology

Psychodynamic perspective – mental events occur outside conscious awareness.

Uses case studies

 Psychoanalytic theory, feelings & behaviours or situations that guide our behaviour are
expresses unconsciously.

Cons – lack of scientific background, causes falsifiability criterion, have unreliable measures and
approaches

Humanistic perspective – ppl are motivated to become self-actualised (reach their full potential)

Unstructured interviews, observation, open-ended questionnaires

 The need for individuals to realise their true potential – to self-actualise.

 Person-centred and relies on the therapist showing empathy

Behaviourist perspective – behaviour can be controlled by environmental consequences that either

increase (reinforce) or decrease (punish) their likelihood of occurring.

Uses experimental method

 Focuses on the way objects or events in the environment (stimuli) come to control
behaviour through learning. Thus, the behaviourist perspective focuses on the relationship
between external (environmental) events and observable behaviours.

Cognitive perspective – the way ppl perceives, process and retrieve information.

Experimental research methods, case study, controlled experiments

 From this perspective, thinking is information processing:

the environment provides inputs, which are transformed, stored and retrieved using various
mental ‘programs’, leading to specific response outputs
 Eg. Memory & Decision making

Evolutionary perspective – behavioural tendencies in humans evolved as they helped our ancestors
survive.

 Supports theory of natural selection

 The evolutionary perspective argues that many behavioural tendencies in humans, from the
need to eat to concern for our children, evolved because they helped our ancestors survive
and rear healthy children. Why, for example, are young children so upset by separation from
their parents? From an evolutionary perspective, a deep emotional bond between parents
 and children stops them straying too far from each other while children are immature and
vulnerable. Breaking this bond leads to tremendous distress.
 Evolution selects organisms that maximise their reproductive success, defined as the
capacity to survive and reproduce as well as to maximise the reproductive success of
genetically related individuals