Lecture 3 - Modern Psychology Perspectives

Question 1

Biological

Perspective

L3, P.1

Answer 1

• Most important as you cant undertand any psychology without a grasp of biological psychology
• Provides treatment of psychological and neurological conditions (Diagnosis)
• Emphasises the role of our biological characteristics
• Involves neuroscience (main), Physiology, Anatomy, Behaviour genetics, Evolutionary Psychology
• Integrates with other perspectives
• The model for artificical psychological processes by studying how the biological brain produces intelligence

Question 2

Cognitive

Perspective

L3, P.1

Answer 2

• Closely linked to the biological perspective, since you must understand the brains biology to undertstand its cognitive functions
• Blossomed in the 1970’s
• Emphasises what goes on inside peoples heads
• Humanism and the computer revolution were catalysts fot this perspective
• Cognitive neuroscience is the study of cognitive processes and their links to whats happening in the brain

Question 3

Psychodynamic

Perspective

L3, P.2

Answer 3

• Emphasises the role of unconscious factors in human behaviour that dynamically interact with conscious variables
• Frueds ideas were never proven but still influencial to this perspective
• Closely tied to Psychoanalysis Therapy

Question 4

Behavioural

Perspective

L3, P.2

Answer 4

• Emphasises the analysis of observable behaviour and the influence of the enviornment
• Replaced the prior strict* behaviourism of John B. Watson
• Looks at the study of learning as a changing behaviour
• Many treatments try to change peoples behaviour through beahvioural therapy and modification

*Strict - Not looking at the brain

Question 5

Sociocultural

Perspective

L3, P.3

Answer 5

• Emphasises factors that relate to other people
• studies interactions between humans and the charcateristics of human groups
• Can range from interpersonal relationships to the impact of culture all around
• Blossomed in the 80’s when the world was becomimg incresingly more globalized and there was an increased recognition and accpeptanc eof cultural diversity
• The issue of Ethnocentrism arised
• The perspective continues to grow in popularity due to global realitiesrequiring understanding of cross-cultural interactions
• Psychologists in this field looked at how cultures differed, one way they did this was comparing places of Indiviualism and collectivism

Question 6

Ethnocentrism

Sociocultural Perspective

L3, P.3

Answer 6

• Refers to viewing ones group as superior and as the standard for judging
• Caused issues in the Sociocultural Perspective especially in the beginning since the psychologists studying inside this perspective were not diverse, they were primarily white, middle-class, men studying other white, middle-class men

Question 7

Indiviualism & Collectivism

Sociocultural Perspective

L3, P.3

Answer 7

• Indiviualism referes to cultures that put emphasis on the rights and freedoms of indivuals (USA & Canada)
• Collectivism refers to cultures that put emphasis on the rights and freedoms of a collective group of individuals (Asia & Africa)
• Sociocultural perspective psychologists looked at both of these places to inform thier studies

Question 8

Positive

Perspective

L3, P.3

Answer 8

• Emphasises the study of psychological fcators that relate to human wellbeing and happiness
• Became popular in the last decade
• arose to emphasis a different goal that to just simply describe psychological processes as they are
• Martin Seligman was on of the main founders
• Gratitude Journals would fall into this perspectives category of “treatments”

Question 9

Martin Seligman

L3, P.3

Answer 9

• A founder of the postive perspective of psychology
• famous quote about the perspective was “The aim of positive psychologyis to catalyzed a change in psychology from a preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building the best qualities in life” - M.S

Question 10

Evolutionary Psychology

L3, P.4

Answer 10

• Emerged in the 90’s as a sub-field of the Biological Perspective
• Based off the idea that understanding psychological characteristics should include the consideration of the selective pressures that shaped them
• Perceptual Biases are used in research of evolutionary psychology

Question 11

Perceptual Biases

Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 11

• Used in **Evolutionary Psychology **research
• A type of cognitive bias that occurs when we subconciously form assumptions or draw conclusions based on our beliefs, expectations or emotions
• Happens since our senses are tuned to percieve the world in ways that promote our survival
• Two lines with different curves at the top are the same length but one appears longer since the curves at the top point away causing us to percieve more space than the other line were we believe we could possible get stuck in the curve