7 Major Psychological Perspectives:

Psychodynamic Perspective:

• Founder: Sigmund Freud
• Focus: Unconscious mind, childhood experiences, and interpersonal relationships shape personality and behavior.
• Key Concepts: Id (instincts), Ego (reality-based mediator), Superego (moral conscience).

Behavioral Perspective:

• Founders: Edward Thorndike, John B. Watson
• Focus: Learned behaviors acquired through environmental reinforcement and punishment.
• Key Concept: Observable behaviors, measured and quantified, not internal thoughts or emotions.

Cognitive Perspective:

• Emergence: 1960s
• Focus: Mental processes, including memory, attention, perception, problem-solving, and decision-making.
• Approach: Information-processing models to explain cognitive functions.

Biological Perspective:

• Focus: Biological foundations of behavior, genetics, brain, nervous system, and immune system.
• Examines: Role of neurotransmitters, hormones, and brain circuits in behavior.

Cross-Cultural Perspective:

• Focus: Examines human behavior within cultural contexts.
• Investigates: How cultural norms, values, and beliefs shape thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Evolutionary Perspective:

• Focus: Application of evolutionary principles to psychological phenomena.
• Assumption: Psychological processes serve adaptive purposes, evolving through natural selection.

Humanistic Perspective:

• Focus: Inherent potential, growth, and self-actualization of individuals.
• Roots: Positive psychology, phenomenology, and existentialism.