Current Perspectives in Psychology

Although they do not exist as separate schools in modern psychology, the early schools of psychology have left an important mark on modern psychology. Together, they defined psychology’s boundaries and frontiers endowing us with a broadly defined and unexplored agenda for research, theory building, and speculation. Vestiges of the early schools can be found in the five major perspectives present in modern psychology. In fact, two of these current perspectives—the behavioral and the psychodynamic perspectives—trace their beginnings directly to the corresponding early schools.

                These five contemporary perspectives are summarized in Table below.

                The Behavioral Perspective

The environment acts in an inconspicuous way: it does not push or pull, it selects. . . . It is now clear that we must take into account what the environment does to an organism not only before but after it responds. Behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences.

B. F. Skinner, 1971

Beyond Freedom and Dignity

                Psychologists working from the behavioral perspective are primarily interested in studying how different aspects of the environment affect behavior, either alone or in conjunction with biological variables. Behavioral psychologists may study the relation between behavior and the environment in the laboratory or in applied settings such as schools, homes, and businesses. They are particularly interested in the relation between behavior and its consequences. Some behavior might lead to pleasant outcomes. For example, studying hard can lead to good grades, which can lead to acceptance into medical school. Other behavior might lead to less desirable outcomes. Ignoring studies and skipping class leads to poor grades. This link between behavior and its consequences is at the core of behavior analysis, the branch of modern psychology that endorses the principles of behaviorism.

                The Biological Perspective

                        Understanding the brain’s relation to basic issues of human nature raises                         some deep questions about knowledge of structure and function of that                           particular piece of biological tissue.

Michael S. Gazzaniga, 1985

The Social Brain

                Psychologists working from the biological perspective study how genetic, physiological, and other biological processes influence behavior. They are interested in problems such as genetic influences on learning, brain structure and function, and how drugs and other chemicals affect our behavior, our thoughts, and our emotions. Biopsychologists search for the biological bases of behavior and cognition. Three interrelated versions of the biological perspective are explored in this text: the evolutionary basis of behavior is the study of how heredity and genetics affect behavior; neuroscience involves the study of the brain and nervous system and their concerted influence on behavior; and ethology is the study of behavior as it occurs in the natural world, particularly among nonhuman species.

                The biological basis of psychology has been part of psychological theory and research from the beginning. Indeed, both Wundt and Freud began their careers as physiologists before establishing their respective schools of psychology, and Watson’s doctoral thesis focused on physical structure of the brains of young rats (Francher, 1979). Within the last few decades, however, psychology and related sciences have placed a new emphasis on biology, creating what some refer to as a “biological revolution.” Advances in technology have provided psychologists and other scientists with new tools for investigating the biological underpinnings of behavior and cognition. As we’ll see, deft use of these tools has led to many significant discoveries ranging from better understanding the genetics of inheritance to better understanding the chemical structure of the brain and nervous system.

                The Cognitive Perspective

Cognition is the activity of knowing: the acquisition, organization, and use of knowledge. It is something that organisms do and in particular something that people do. For this reason the study of cognition is a part of psychology, and theories of cognition are psychological theories.

Ulric Neisser, 1976

Cognition and Reality

                Psychologists who are primarily interested in studying how people sense, perceive, think, remember, solve complex problems, use language, and in general, process information about their environments, generally work from the cognitive perspective. Although a distant cousin of this perspective is Wundt’s structuralism, the cognitive perspective did not become a powerful force in psychology until the 1960s. By the 1970s, the “cognitive revolution” in psychology was well under way.

                Cognitive psychologists assume that the brain forms, stores, retrieves, and modifies images and other internal representations of the external world. These representations, which are inferred to exist on the basis of an individual’s observable behavior, result from a blend of one’s life experiences. Moreover, these representations are constantly undergoing change as new experiences modify them.

                Cognitive psychologists explain mental processes on the basis of these representations. Using computer programs as an analogy, these psychologists usually focus on studying the “software” of the mind rather than its underlying “hardware.” In fact, many cognitive psychologists, such as Herbert Simon (who was awarded a Nobel prize in 1978 for his research on human cognition), develop computer models of human cognition.

                The Psychodynamic Perspective

The unconscious is the true psychical reality; in its innermost nature it is as much unknown to us as the reality of the external world.

Sigmund Freud, 1900

The Interpretation of Dreams

                Sigmund Freud founded the early psychological school of psychoanalysis that emphasized the unconscious determinants of behavioral processes in human life, an emphasis that continues to be central to the work of many contemporary psychoanalysts. Unconscious motivations, fears, and desires continue to be essential to some theories of personality and in some types of therapy. Enough has changed from Freud’s early work, however, that the intellectual descendants of Freud work from what is now called the psychodynamic perspective.

                Freud had, for example, originally constructed an elaborate theory of the development of personality that was strongly based on unconscious sexual motivation. Without discounting all of this early work, most modem psychologists reject many of the details of this theory, The emphasis on sexual motivation continues to be important other elements of modern psychodynamic perspective also incorporates other elements of modern psychology such as the insights gleaned from the study of conscious cognitive processes (Horowitz, 1988).

                The Social Perspective

One cannot describe or deduce the facts of competition and cooperation, of leadership and submission if one does not observe them; language and law cannot be studied in a “generalized, human, normal, adult” mind purified of social experience . . . . It follows that a general psychology, to be adequate, must extend the observation of psychological processes to social conditions.

Solomon Asch, 1952

Social Psychology

                Some psychologists are primarily interested in the role of the social environment in influencing and changing our lives. We live our lives around other people, and we derive large measures of satisfaction, and sometimes frustration, from these people. We influence and are influenced by other people to a profound degree. Our families, our teachers, our friends, and our enemies have strong influences on our lives, and in turn, we also influence them. Consider for a moment, how your parents have influenced your thinking and behavior. Imagine, too, how different their lives would be had you not been born.

                According to the social perspective, other people in our social environment shape an individual’s behavior, attitudes, and thinking. An entire subfield of psychology, social psychology, is dedicated to this study, though other psychologists also use the social perspective. For example, psychologists interested in how children develop and mature might study a young child as he or she interacts with others.

                Comparing The Perspectives

                As you might expect, each of these different perspectives provides a unique framework from which to understand behavior and cognition, and from which to use psychology to help solve some of the problems that people face in their day-to-day lives. To illustrate how these five perspectives guide the understanding and interpretation of psychology, suppose that five psychologists—a neuroscientist, a behavioral psychologist, a cognitive psychologist, a psychodynamic psychologist, and a social psychologist – have been hired as consultants by a research firm to study cigarette smoking. Their task is to study the smoking behavior of several individuals to determine the factors that influence smoking.

                Each psychologist would probably describe the patterns in the same general fashion, carefully documenting such information as the kind of cigarette each person smokes, how many cigarettes each person smokes a day, and the time of day each cigarette is smoked. However, merely describing behavior is not the same as explaining it. Explanation requires that the factors controlling the behavior be identified and manipulated. Description is only the first step in a scientific analysis. Thus, each psychologist’s interpretation will be colored by his or her theoretical orientation; that is, the perspective that he or she has adopted.

                Examples of these analyses of smoking follow. This is a hypothetical example that we use to clarify some of the distinctions between the different perspectives. However, in real life these distinctions may not always be as clear-cut as they are presented here.

• §  The neuroscientist would likely focus on the physiological effects of smoking, including the chemical influences of nicotine on the brain and nervous system. For example, some or all of the smokers may be addicted to the nicotine contained in cigarette smoke.
• §  The behavioral psychologist would focus on the environmental conditions under which smoking occurs. For example, is the frequency of cigarette smoking higher during periods of stress than at other times? Do these people smoke more cigarettes than usual when they drink alcoholic beverages?
• §  The cognitive psychologist would probably be interested in the individual’s perception of himself or herself as a smoker and the thoughts and perceptions that precede and accompany smoking.
• §  The psychodynamic psychologist might focus on the early childhood and social experiences of each person. Do these people smoke because they have an unconscious desire for oral stimulation?

• §  The social psychologist might seek to understand smoking from the individual’s interaction with other individuals. How do peers influence a person’s decision whether or not to start smoking? Do these people smoke more or less when in the presence of others? Do they smoke more or less in the presence of particular kinds of people?

Keep in mind that these five different types of explanations complement one another in our understanding of behavior. For the still emerging science of psychology, arriving at a truly complete understanding of human behavior requires an integration of all five perspectives. We are biological organisms who think and behave within a social environment. This theme provides the backdrop for exploring and explaining issues in contemporary psychology.

        A complete theoretical integration of these perspective is not yet possible at this stage in the history of psychology. However, throughout this text, we have attempted to explain psychology in terms of these biological, cognitive, behavioral, psychodynamic, and social factors that influence our thought and actions.

(Source: Buskist W., Gerbing D. W. Psychology: Boundaries and Frontiers. United States of America: HarperCollinsPublishers. 1990. Page 6-11)

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