1.02: Theories and Approaches

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Today the field of psychology includes five major perspectives. Each of these board perspectives emphasizes different aspects of behavior and mental process, and each takes our understanding behavior in a somewhat different direction. Let's look at each.

Neuroscience - explores how the human brain and physiology shape and control our behavior

Behavioral - attributes the cause of behavior to a person's environment and experiences and so focuses on observable behavior that can be measure objectively, that than on internal causes of behavior

Cognitive - focuses on how people think, comprehend, and know the world, and on how our ways of thinking about the world influence our behavior

Humanistic - suggests that all individuals naturally strive to grow and develop, and to control their lives and behavior

Psychodynamic - considers behavior to be motivated by forces and conflicts about which we have little awareness and over which we have little control