Current Perspectives in Psychology

1
Current Perspectives in Psychology

• Unit 1
• Lesson 2

2
Objectives

• Evaluate major concepts and contributors of the
  six major current perspectives in psychology.

3
Warm Up What is Psychology?

• Scientific study of behavior mental processes
• Scientific?
• Behavior?
• Mental Process?

• Goals
• To DESCRIBE behavior
• To EXPLAIN causes of behavior
• To PREDICT future behaviors
• To CONTROL behavior

4
Review

• How did ancients explain abnormal behaviors?
• When did we begin to understand the body?
• Name two pseudoscientific ways to understand
  behavior.
• Who is the father of psych? Why?

5
Review

• Evolution of Psych
• Philosophy
• Physiology
• Psychology
• Place your comic in appropriate column!

6
Modern Perspectives in Psychology

• School- Shared theory research method
• Psychoanalytic
• Behaviorism
• Cognitive
• Humanistic
• Sociocultural
• (Neuro)Biological
• Evolutionary

7
Activity Directions

• Count off by 6
• You will be given 20 minutes to read more about
  each school of thought. Use the provided
  worksheet, wikipedia, or psychology.about.com to
  help you out.
• Identify major psychologists, how they define
  behavior personality, and how they explain
  abnormal behavior. Illustrate on poster.

8
Evolutionary Psychology

• Originates with Charles Darwin
• Behaviors traits are result of natural
  selection those that aid us in survival are
  passed down to the next generation
• Abnormal behaviors may be protective in nature,
  side effects of genes w/other benefits

9
Psychoanalytic Psychology

• Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler
• Behavior personality is product of unconscious
  sexual aggressive forces
• Abnormal behaviors are result of unresolved,
  repressed conflicts from early childhood.

10
Behavioral Psychology

• BF Skinner, JB Watson, Ivan Pavlov, Albert
  Bandura
• Behavior is product of learning associations,
  reinforcements, punishments, observations
• Abnormal behaviors are result of reinforcement or
  modeling

11
Cognitive Psychology

• Jean Piaget, Noam Chomsky
• Behavior is consequence of internal mental
  processes to solve problems or develop
  personality traits.
• Abnormal behaviors are result of faulty
  irrational ways of thinking.

12
Humanistic Psychology

• Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers
• Behavior is reflection of internal personal
  growth, self-esteem, and free will. Desire to
  fulfill series of needs.
• Abnormal behaviors are result of being out of
  touch with ones feelings, discrepancy between
  real ideal self.

13
Neurobiological Psychology

• Roger Sperry, Michael Gazzaniga
• Behavior is result of functions of nervous
  system, endocrine system genes.
• Abnormal behaviors are result of organic
  (structural) issues, biochemical imbalances, or
  genetic predispositions.

14
Sociocultural Psychology

• Lev Vygotsky
• Behavior is influenced by rules expectations of
  social groups cultures.
• Abnormal behaviors are result of dysfunctional
  society, environmental stressors.

15
Getting a Handle on the Schools
16
Which Perspective?

• I study the relationship between people and
  work, and more specifically, how to increase
  productivity. I believe that by changing
  environmental factors, increasing the use of
  rewards and praise for correct behavior, and
  providing correct feedback, workers overt
  behavior can be changed.
• I study how people of all ages learn, and I
  develop instructional methods and materials to
  help the learning process. In particular, I
  stress the roles played by thinking,
  problem-solving, memory and mental imagery
• I work mostly with people who suffer from mental
  disorders, and I believe that the main causes of
  mental illness are either genetic or due to some
  malfunction in the central nervous system or
  endocrine system.
• Credit - Amy Koch Raleigh Charter High School,
  NC

17
Which Perspective?

• I often travel to different countries to
  research peoples attitudes and group relations.
  My research tends to show that many behavioral
  patterns for instance, the amount of personal
  space people require to feel comfortable, vary
  from one country to another.
• I believe that unconscious conflicts, early
  childhood experiences, and repressed sexual and
  aggressive feelings make us who we are, and I use
  this point of view in my work on individual
  differences and in trying to determine which
  characteristics make each of us unique.
• I focus on how people strive to overcome
  obstacles that disrupt their normal growth
  potential and impair their self-esteem. I
  believe strongly in free will and choice in human
  behavior.
• Credit - Amy Koch Raleigh Charter High School,
  NC

18
Which Perspective?

• My research keeps me in the lab most of the
  time, and I focus on the principles and
  conditions of learning and motivation. Recently,
  I have been investigating how quickly rats learn
  the layout of a maze as a function of either
  large or small amounts of reinforcement.
• Psychological processes that have helped
  individuals adapt to their environment have also
  helped them to survive, reproduce, and pass those
  abilities to their offspring. I adopt this point
  of view in my investigations of interpersonal
  attractions, prejudice, and aggression.
• Credit - Amy Koch Raleigh Charter High School,
  NC

19
Schools Activities

• Mixed Up Schools of Psych
• A Case Study

20
Closure

• Which school do you find most interesting? Least
  interesting? Why?