...Environmental Psychology The study of psychology is complex, unique, diverse, and ever-changing. Psychology is defined as “the scientific investigation of mental processes and behavior” (Kowalski & Weston, 2009, p. 4). One of the many disciplines in the dynamic field of psychology is environmental psychology. As with all disciplines of psychology, environmental psychology has a variety of theoretical perspectives. Two such perspectives are evolutionary and behavioral. The following is an introduction to environmental psychology, a description of evolutionary and behavioral perspectives and their application in environmental psychology, as well as an examination of the importance of research in environmental psychology. Environmental psychology is a psychological discipline that examines the relationship between human behavior and the environment. Historically, environmental psychology developed into a discipline in the 1960s, with intent to understand the impact of physical environment on human behavior (Environmental Psychology, 2004). Alfred Adler was one of many theorists who had an elemental role in the developing discipline. Adler observed that an individual’s interpretation of the interaction of organismic and environmental variables significantly affected the personality (Stewart, 2007). His observations had an influential role in the emergence of environmental psychology. Present-day environmental psychology has expanded beyond personality development. Modern environmental...
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...that philosophy, biology, and physiology had on the beginnings of psychology as a science. Compare the two early scientific approaches in psychology: structuralism and functionalism. Describe the focus of each of the six contemporary approaches to psychology. Describe the positive psychology movement, and discuss why this movement recently emerged in psychology. Discuss career opportunities in psychology. Profile the main areas of specialization in psychology. Say how studying habits may be optimized. Understand how to be a critical thinker. CHAPTER 1: OUTLINE Psychology is a science dedicated to the study of behavior and mental processes. In this chapter you are introduced to the history of this science, a variety of contemporary perspectives in psychology, the positive psychology movement, and an overview of psychology-related careers. At the end of the chapter, the reader learns about the most effective methods of studying and learning. There are three concepts important to the definition of psychology: science, behavior, and mental processes. Psychologists use scientific methods to observe, describe, predict, and explain behaviors and mental processes. Behaviors are actions that can be directly observed, while mental processes are experiences that cannot be observed directly, such as thoughts and feelings. The history of psychology is rooted in philosophy, biology, and physiology. Rene Descartes and Charles Darwin...
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...philosophy, biology, and physiology had on the beginnings of psychology as a science. Compare the two early scientific approaches in psychology: structuralism and functionalism. Describe the focus of each of the six contemporary approaches to psychology. Describe the positive psychology movement, and discuss why this movement recently emerged in psychology. Discuss career opportunities in psychology. Profile the main areas of specialization in psychology. Say how studying habits may be optimized. Understand how to be a critical thinker. CHAPTER 1: OUTLINE Psychology is a science dedicated to the study of behavior and mental processes. In this chapter you are introduced to the history of this science, a variety of contemporary perspectives in psychology, the positive psychology movement, and an overview of psychology-related careers. At the end of the chapter, the reader learns about the most effective methods of studying and learning. There are three concepts important to the definition of psychology: science, behavior, and mental processes. Psychologists use scientific methods to observe, describe, predict, and explain behaviors and mental processes. Behaviors are actions that can be directly observed, while mental processes are experiences that cannot be observed directly, such as thoughts and feelings. The history of psychology is rooted in philosophy, biology, and physiology. Rene...
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...Mental processes include how a person thinks, feels, remembers as well as a person’s behavior. When a doctor needs to understand a person they need to know the person’s biology, psychological experience, and cultural context. People’s experiences during their life from birth to adulthood are what shape how they feel and think. Early psychologists established several approaches and schools of thoughts of psychology. These schools of thought are known as the psychodynamic, behaviorist, cognitive and evolutionary perspectives. They came up with these by research and study which will be discussed throughout this paper. In many respects, these perceptions have progressed independently, and at the center of each are singularities the others tend to ignore (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Despite their differences, each school of thought sought evolution for psychology as well as advancement of human understanding while remaining focused on the unique characteristics of contemporary psychology. Psychodynamic Perspective. The psychodynamic perspective belief is that most of the mental processes and emotions happen at the unconscious or subconscious levels, meaning below conscious awareness. Sigmund Freud was one of the most influential thinkers in the early twentieth century whose work in the psychodynamic perspective influenced many in the early stages of the science of psychology. The main notion of Freud’s theory was that the human mind consisted of three basic components: the id, the...
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...Psychological Perspective Paper Introduction Psychology is the study of human and animal behavior. There are various perspectives within psychology and the upcoming paragraphs deal with 6 psychological perspectives: Behavioral, Cognitive, Biological, Developmental, Psychodynamic, Sociocultural and Evolutionary. Psychological Perspectives All six perspectives seek to explore and examine human behavior and makes use of varying techniques in order to do so. Each perspective tries to search for answers to different questions, which exist about behavior. Each of these perspectives is different hence they have there own reasoning and explanation. Among the perspectives of psychology, many have been accepted some whereas others have had difficulty in being accepted. Behavioral Behavioral Psychology is a branch is psychology that claims that all behavior is learned through conditioning. The field is also known as behaviorism. The idea behind it is that all people acquire their behavior by interacting with their environment through classical condition or operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is the involuntary, or automatic, response to a stimulus (i.e. fight or flight response) where as Operant conditioning is that of a learned behavior through positive/negative reinforcement (consequences) or positive/negative punishment. (What Is Behavioral Psychology, 2011) Cognitive Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how...
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...major schools of thought in psychology and examine their major assumptions. The two beginning schools of thought were structuralism and functionalism. The major schools of thought in psychology are the psychodynamic, behaviorist, cognitive, and evolutionary perspective. This paper will also identify the primary biological foundation of psychology linked to behavior. These primary biological foundations are the central nervous system and the behavioral genetics. Psychodynamic Perspective The Psychodynamic perspective is a school of thought that was initially developed by Sigmund Freud. This perspective focuses on three main points. The first point is that an individual’s actions are determined by the way thoughts and emotions are connected in the individuals mind. The second point is that most of the mental events happen outside of conscious awareness. The third point is that the mental events that happen tend to conflict with each other. Many psychologists disagree with this theory because there is nothing that relates scientifically. The psychologists that agree with this theory are working on incorporating the concepts into scientific psychology (Kowalski & Weston, 2011). Behaviorist Perspective The behaviorist perspective focuses on what is common between the environmental events and the actual observable behaviors. “According to behaviorist, scientific knowledge comes from using experimental methods to study the relationship between environmental events and behavior...
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...stabilities and activities. Through knowledgeable psychology was established from a powerful history of human beings that endeavored to acquire practical insight into one’s consciousness or demeanor. This type of study teaches what influences the behavior and mindset of men. Psychology has obtained roots in philosophy. There are numerous major schools of thought along with fundamental theories and assumptions which will be examined within this paper. Behavioral neuroscience or behavioral psychology involves evolution, heredity, adaptation, and ability to learn. The first psychology research laboratory ever launched was by Wilhelm Wundt that led to acknowledgement of psychology as a science in 1879(Peterson, &Nelson, 2011). In the early 1900’s it was thought that an individual’s environment affected learned reactions and behaviors. Maslow believed that people acquire and improve responses from incentives in their surroundings (Maslow, 1982). The Four Main Psychological Perspectives Are: The Psychodynamic Perspective This method was formed by a man named Sigmund Freud who thought ones actions dictated their mental thoughts or they were connected in some way (Robin Kowalski, 2011). Also he believed our mental events took place through our subconscious state. This being said our mental capacity processes may contradict another in recalling certain conscious happenings; when triggered by intentions, actions, or memories (Bradley & Westen, 2011). Freud when originating...
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...environment. These perspectives were founded in early years, but they did not end there (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, p. 10). Currently, there are four major schools of thought that guide psychological thinking. The following paper analyzes their underlying assumptions along with how the primary biological foundations of psychology are linked to an individual’s behavior. The first perspective is called the psychodynamic perspective. Psychodynamic Perspective The psychodynamic perspective proposes that people’s actions reflect the way thoughts, feelings, and wishes are associated in their minds; that many of these processes are unconscious; and that mental processes can conflict with one another, leading to compromises among competing motives (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, p. 14). This perspective focuses on the role of the unconscious mind. People have conscious desires and reasons for acting the way they do; however, there are unconscious motives that underlie their conscious intentions (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, p. 13). The next perspective is the behaviorist perspective. Behaviorist Perspective The behaviorist perspective focuses on the way objects or events in the environment come to control behavior (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, p. 16). For instance, the experience of a negative event versus a positive event, will determine an individual’s future behavior. Behaviorists view people as being controlled by the environment around them. The cognitive perspective focuses on the...
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...which organisms adjust to their environment. Example: smiling, crying, running, hitting, talking, and touching. • Behavioral data (p.5): Are reports of observations about the behavior of organisms and the conditions under which the behavior occurs. • Behavioral neuroscience (p.14): Neuroscience is the study of brain function; behavioral neuroscience attempts to understand the brain process underlying behaviors such as sensation, learning, and emotion. • Behaviorism (p.13): Has yielded a critical practical legacy. Its emphasis on the need for rigorous experimentation and carefully defined variables has influenced most areas of psychology. The principles of behaviorism have been widely applied to human problems. • Behaviorist perspective (p.12): Seek to understand how particular environmental stimuli control particular kinds of behavior. First, they analyze the antecedent environmental conditions; then they look at the behavioral response, which is the main subject; finally, they examine the observable consequences that follow from the response. The behaviorist perspective was pioneered by John Watson, who argued that psychological research should seek the laws that govern observable behavior across species; and B.F. Skinner extended the influence of behaviorism by expanding its analyses to the consequences of behaviors. • Biological perspective (p.13): Guides psychologists who search for the causes of behavior in the functioning of genes, the brain, the nervous...
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...this it is my hope for readers to have a better understanding of these points. There are four schools of thought or perspectives that I am going to discuss. These are the psychodynamic perspective, behaviorist perspective, the cognitive perspective, and the evolutionary perspective. According to the text book Psychology, Sixth Edition, perspectives are broad ways of understanding psychological phenomena, including theoretical propositions, shared metaphors and accepted methods of observation. The first perspective or school of thought I am going to discuss is the psychodynamic perspective. According to the book the psychodynamic perspective rests on three key premises, the first being that people’s actions are determined by the way thoughts, wishes, and feelings are connected in their minds. Next, many of our mental events occur outside of conscious awareness. Third, our mental processes may conflict with one another, causing people to compromise among competing motives. This means that people most likely do not precisely know the chain of psychological events that leads to their conscious thoughts, intentions, feelings, or behaviors. In the text book psychodynamics is defined as a view, analogous to dynamics among physical forces such as wishes, fears, and intentions have a direction and intensity. One of the assumptions of the psychodynamic perspective is the importance of the unconscious mind and motivation. Sigmund Freud believed that what determines our behavior...
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...that people suffering from severe head trauma were affected by memory and language difficulty. This showed there is a connection between one’s brain and his or her behavior. According to Kowalski and Westen (2009), William Wundt, often described as the "father of psychology" opened the first psychological laboratory in 1879, in Leipzig, Germany (Chapter 1). One of Wundt’s most common methods was introspection. Introspection is “the method in which trained subjects verbally reported everything that went through their minds when presented with a stimulus or task” (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, Chapter 1). Edward Titchener, a student of Wundt, began the first school of thought known as structuralism. Structuralism “attempted to use introspection as a method for uncovering the basic elements of consciousness and the way they combine with each other into ideas” (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, Chapter 1). Ticthener had a very scientific outlook toward psychology. He believed that the only way to understand psychology was through experimentation. The second early school of thought was known as functionalism. According to Kowalski and Westen (2009), functionalism emphasized the role or function of psychological processes in...
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...to their specialty area and perspective. Every topic in psychology can be looked at in a number of different ways. For example, let’s consider the subject of aggression. Someone who emphasizes a biological perspective would look at the how the brain and nervous system impact aggressive behavior. A professional who stresses a behavioral perspective would look at how environmental variables reinforce aggressive actions. Another psychologist who utilizes a cross-cultural approach might consider how cultural and social influences contribute to aggressive or violent behaviors. The following are just a few of the major perspectives in modern psychology. The Biological Perspective The study of physiology played a major role in the development of psychology as a separate science. Today, this perspective is known as biological psychology. Sometimes referred to as biopsychology or physiological psychology, this perspective emphasizes the physical and biological bases of behavior. This perspective has grown significantly over the last few decades, especially with advances in our ability to explore and understand the human brain and nervous system. Tools such as MRI scans and PET scans allow researchers to look at the brain under a variety of conditions. Scientists can now look at the effects of brain damage, drugs, and disease in ways that were simply not possible in the past. The Behavioral Perspective Behavioral psychology is a perspective that focuses on...
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...Evolutionary cognitive neuroscience Evolutionary Psychology – ISSN 1474-7049 – Volume 5(1). 2007. -233- Keywords: evolutionary cognitive neuroscience, modularity, evolved cognitive adaptations ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Introduction Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience (ECN) integrates comparative neuroscience, archeology, physical anthropology, paleoneurology, cognitive primatology, evolutionary psychology, and cognitive, social and affective neuroscience in an effort to identify and describe the neural mechanisms that have been forged by selection pressures during human evolutionary history that define the human mind, as well as identify comparative neural mechanisms for cognition. In its simplest form, evolutionary cognitive neuroscience is the merging of the fields of evolutionary psychology and cognitive neuroscience using methodology from both disciplines and guidance from evolutionary meta-theory. In this coalescence, the identification of neural substrates of psychological adaptations is paramount. A recent volume (Platek, Keenan, and Shackelford, 2007) presents the first comprehensive overview of this emerging discipline, which is briefly reviewed here (see also Platek and Shackelford, under contract). This article consists of three major sections: 1) historical antecedents to and current state of evolutionary cognitive neuroscience, 2) a brief introduction to methods available to the evolutionary...
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...sexual behavior, concentration, aggressiveness, and how one reacts to stress (Morris & Maisto, 2005). The hormones estrogen and androgen cause acne flare-ups when they are out of balance. The endocrine glands are the main glands that regulate our hormones. Endocrine glands are pituitary gland, gonads, thyroid gland, and the pineal gland (Morris & Maisto, 2005). Heredity is when genes and personal traits are passed down from parent to child. The genes and heredity that is passed down form one generation to the next has a great impact on the way people behave. Heredity does not always immediately take place sometimes expression of a trait can be delayed. Behavior genetics was thought to be environmental until the 1960’s. Behavioral disorders show a greater genetic influence then most other common...
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...sychology is the study of human and animal behavior. There are various perspectives within psychology and the upcoming paragraphs deal with 6 psychological perspectives: Behavioral, Cognitive, Biological, Developmental, Psychodynamic, Sociocultural and Evolutionary. Psychological Perspectives All six perspectives seek to explore and examine human behavior and makes use of varying techniques in order to do so. Each perspective tries to search for answers to different questions, which exist about behavior. Each of these perspectives is different hence they have there own reasoning and explanation. Among the perspectives of psychology, many have been accepted some whereas others have had difficulty in being accepted. Behavioral Behavioral Psychology is a branch is psychology that claims that all behavior is learned through conditioning. The field is also known as behaviorism. The idea behind it is that all people acquire their behavior by interacting with their environment through classical condition or operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is the involuntary, or automatic, response to a stimulus (i.e. fight or flight response) where as Operant conditioning is that of a learned behavior through positive/negative reinforcement (consequences) or positive/negative punishment. (What Is Behavioral Psychology, 2011) Cognitive Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn. This branch...
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