The 7 Psychological Perspectives

Biological Perspective

• Emphasizes physiological mechanisms influencing mind & behavior
• Nervous system, genes & hormones
• Typical research questions: How changes in neural activity are associated with psychological processes

Evolutionary Perspective

• Emphasizes the ways in which psychological mechanisms might have evolved to help solve adaptive problems faced by human ancestors
• Typical research questions: Can psychological processes be predicted based on functional analyses

Cognitive Perspective

• Emphasizes the ways the mind processes information
• Typical research questions: how people store and retrieve memories, or learn associations between concepts

Social Perspective

• Emphasizes the ways in which psychological processes are influenced by interactions with other people
• Typical research questions: how we think about other people, or how their presence changes our own behavior

Developmental Perspective

• Emphasizes the ways that mind and behavior change throughout the lifespan, from the first days of life through old age
• Typical research questions: when in childhood certain cognitive abilities typically emerge

Clinical Perspective

• Emphasizes implications for well-being when normal psychological processes break down
• Typical research questions: Can symptoms be explained in terms of abnormal biology or cognition, and how those symptoms can be treated

Personality Perspective

• Individual Differences
• Emphasizes how psychological processes differ from person to person
• Typical questions ask whether variability in personality traits can predict behavioral and life outcomes

Integration