Foundations of Psychology

Foundations of Psychology

There are several schools of thought in psychology. This paper will examine in chronological order the Psychodynamic perspective, Behaviorist perspective, the Cognitive perspective, and the evolutionary perspective. It will also identify the primary biological foundation of psychology and behavior. According to (Kowalski & Westen, 2011 pp.12) "perspectives are broad ways of understanding psychological phenomena, including theoretical propositions, shared metaphors, and accepted methods of observation".

The Psychodynamic Prospective

Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis a way to approach and treat psychological disorders. Freud believed that if symptoms where not physical or had no physical basis, and where not a product of conscious thought, then they must be a product of the unconscious mind. The psychodynamic perspective relies on three key points; the first is that people's actions are connected to their minds. The second is that their thoughts, wishes, and desires are part of unconscious thought. The third is that these mental processes compete with each other. Psychodynamic psychologists collect their data by the way of observation. They use the case study method. The psychodynamic theory has been under fire because clinical studies can be interpreted several different ways. Behaviorist John B. Watson believes that the psychodynamic theory is a violation of the falsifiability criterion, which is the ability of a theory to be proven wrong as a means of advancing science (Kowalski & Westen, 2011).

The Behaviorist Perspective

The behaviorist perspective which is also known as behaviorism uses events and objects in an individual's environment to explain behavior and learning. Behaviorism uses external aspects, not internal such as the brain and its relationship for observation. One of the best known behaviorists was Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov used dogs to explain classical conditioning. Pavlov used food for the unconditioned stimulus, salivation was the unconditioned response. Pavlov would ring a bell when he gave his dogs food, by combining the bell and the food he created a conditioned response. The conditioned stimulus was the bell. So when Pavlov gave them food and rang the bell the dogs would salivate and when Pavlov just rang the bell the dogs would salivate. Experiments are the primary methods used by behavioral psychologists. The psychologists come up with a hypothesis then create an experiment to test the hypothesis. From 1920 through 1960 behaviorism was the relied upon perspective for psychology (Kowalski & Westen, 2011).

The Cognitive Perspective

When psychologists use the way an individual perceives, processes, and retrieve information this is known as the cognitive prospective. Psychologists use information processing