Seven Major Approaches in Psychology
The seven different approaches to psychology have helped humanity out greatly in the solving of our everyday problems that we face. These seven different approaches tackle psychology in all different types of areas and view points in an attempt to make sense of ourselves and how the world we live in affects us. Psychologists have dedicated their whole lives to understanding these two things in a number of different ways, which is why they have broken up into subcategories into this wonderful subject. Psychology truly is a wonderful subject because it is able to be applied to many different aspects of human life weather it is on the nurture or nature side of the argument. These view points are not perfect and definitely seem one sided at times but that does not disregard these theories as invalid. These opinions have bettered the lives of many people world wide by providing insight, perspectives, and a deeper look into our individual realities. These are summaries of each of these approaches and there main idea on it’s attempt to understand reality. Sense the 1960’s these approaches have really been the landmarks and structure behind what we know today as psychology and will continue to be for a long time. The following are the 7 approaches to psychology.
1. The Psycho dynamic Approach
The psycho dynamic approach got it’s start from the work of Sigmund Freud. This is the view of psychology and human behavior that emphasizes the role of the unconscious mind, different life experiences when young and old and relationships to explain the way humans behave. This approach was also used to treat people will mental illnesses by trying to better understand how that particular individual views the world and what may have altered their way of thinking. Freud’s Work allowed him to put the mind into three different categories that are used to deal with different things, they are the id, Ego, and superego. These allowed psychoanalysis to become a very popular way to go about psychology , he began to publish his material in the late 1800’s.
2. The Behavioral Approach
Behavioral psychology the perspective that focuses on the learning process and learning behavior. This Behaviorism is thought of in a way as to where humans or animals are controlled by the environment around them. This is the approach of how Environmental effects called stimuli are particularly affect behavior. The approach is very concerned with the way we learned things and especially how we retain that information. This information allows us to apply it to a number of different things most notably mental health with things like treatments and therapy.
3. The Cognitive Approach
During the 1960s, a new perspective known as cognitive psychology began to take hold. This area of psychology focuses on mental processes such as memory, thinking, problem-solving, language and decision-making. Influenced by psychologists such as Jean Piaget and Albert Bandura, this perspective has grown tremendously in recent decades.
Cognitive psychologists often utilize an information-processing model, comparing the human mind to a computer, to conceptualize how information is acquired, processed, stored, and utilized.
4. The Biological Approach
This study of psychology focuses on genetics and how we are a product of our genes and nothing else. This approach looks at psychology through biological lenses as it examines our thoughts,behaviors, and behavior. this approach has been backed by science and has a lot of evidence to support it claims which makes it a strong point of view for psychology. This approach talks about the importance of inheritance and how things such as the brain, nervous system and immune system are things that can be affected in a negative way which can affect your behavior. As technology has expanded it has allowed us a deeper look into our anatomy which has only further backed this approach with more strong evidence which has been very influential in the psychological field of study.
5. The Cross-Cultural Approach
Cross – cultural approach examines different cultures that people live in and look at how these environments can influence individuals behavior and decision making. This approach is new and has not ben around as long as the other 6 approaches to psychology but it still plays a huge role in better understanding human behavior and is very important.
There has been many examples of cultural differences in psychology and how they influence behavior, you also have cultures inside of other cultures. For example American culture exists but because we are a melting pot we have smaller cultures among different types of people within American culture and it does play a big role in our behavior and everyday decision making.
Main points/Key proponents/Impacts on Society
6. The Evolutionary Approach
Evolutionary psychology is focused on the study of how evolution explains physiological processes. Psychologists and researchers take the basic principles of evolution, including natural selection, and apply them to psychological phenomena. This perspective suggests that these mental processes exist because they serve an evolutionary purpose – they aid in survival and reproduction.
7. The Humanistic Approach
This approach is the perspective of psychology that looks at a individual as a whole person. It started to emerge in contrast to the Behavioral and psychoanalysis parts of psychology. This approach emerged during the 1950’s and decided to look at the individuals behavior through observation and also with how that certain person views life. This approach expanded a lot of different areas inside the psychology world and gave a lot of new insights to psychologists on how to treat and deal with patients.