Which perspective suggests that the field should focus on

Cross-cultural psychology is a fairly new perspective that has grown significantly in the last twenty years. Psychologists and researchers in this school of thought look at human behavior across different cultures.

By looking at these differences, we can learn more about how culture influences our thinking and behavior. Evolutionary psychology focuses on the study of how the theory of evolution can explain physiological processes. The evolutionary perspective suggests that these mental processes exist because they serve an evolutionary purpose—meaning that they aid in human survival and reproduction.

In the s, a school of thought known as humanistic psychology arrived. It was greatly influenced by the work of prominent humanists such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. The humanistic perspective emphasizes the role of motivation in thought and behavior. Concepts such as self-actualization are essential. Psychologists with a humanist perspective focus on what drives humans to grow, change, and develop their personal potential.

Positive psychology which focuses on helping people live happier, healthier lives is a recent movement in psychology with roots in the humanist perspective. There are many ways to think about human thought and behavior.

The different perspectives in modern psychology give researchers and students tools to approach problems and answer questions. They also guide psychologists in finding new ways to explain and predict human behavior. This exploration and deeper understanding can even lead to the development of new treatment approaches. Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter.

Fonagy P. The effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapies: An update. World Psychiatry. Malone JC. Did John B. Watson really "found" behaviorism? Behav Anal. From the revolution to embodiment: 25 years of cognitive psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science. American Psychological Association. Biological psychology.

Lonner WJ. Half a century of cross-cultural psychology: a grateful coda. Am Psychol. Cosmides L, Tooby, J. Evolutionary psychology: a new perspective on cognition and motivation. Annu Rev Psychol. Waterman AS. The top of the pyramid is self-actualization, in which a person is believed to have reached a state of harmony and understanding. Individuals progress from lower to higher stages throughout their lives, and cannot reach higher stages without first meeting the lower needs that come before them.

Carl Rogers — is best known for his person-centered approach, in which the relationship between therapist and client is used to help the patient reach a state of realization, so that they can then help themselves. The therapist encourages the patient to express their feelings and does not suggest how the person might wish to change.

Instead, the therapist uses the skills of active listening and mirroring to help patients explore and understand their feelings for themselves.

Carl Rogers Carl Rogers was one of the early pioneers of humanistic psychology, and is best known for his person-centered approach to therapy. He believed that those raised in an environment of unconditional positive regard have the opportunity to fully actualize themselves, while those raised in an environment of conditional positive regard only feel worthy if they match conditions that have been laid down by others.

Rollo May — was the best known American existential psychologist, and differed from other humanistic psychologists by showing a sharper awareness of the tragic dimensions of human existence. May was influenced by American humanism, and emphasized the importance of human choice. Humanistic psychology is holistic in nature: it takes whole persons into account rather than their separate traits or processes. In this way, people are not reduced to one particular attribute or set of characteristics, but instead are appreciated for the complex beings that they are.

Humanistic psychology allows for a personality concept that is dynamic and fluid and accounts for much of the change a person experiences over a lifetime. It stresses the importance of free will and personal responsibility for decision-making; this view gives the conscious human being some necessary autonomy and frees them from deterministic principles.

Perhaps most importantly, the humanistic perspective emphasizes the need to strive for positive goals and explains human potential in a way that other theories cannot. However, critics have taken issue with many of the early tenets of humanism, such as its lack of empirical evidence as was the case with most early psychological approaches.

Because of the inherent subjective nature of the humanistic approach, psychologists worry that this perspective does not identify enough constant variables in order to be researched with consistency and accuracy. Psychologists also worry that such an extreme focus on the subjective experience of the individual does little to explain or appreciate the impact of external societal factors on personality development. In addition, The major tenet of humanistic personality psychology—namely, that people are innately good and intuitively seek positive goals—does not account for the presence of deviance in the world within normal, functioning personalities.

Sociocultural factors are the larger-scale forces within cultures and societies that affect the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals. These include forces such as attitudes, child-rearing practices, discrimination and prejudice, ethnic and racial identity, gender roles and norms, family and kinship structures, power dynamics, regional differences, religious beliefs and practices, rituals, and taboos.

Several subfields within psychology seek to examine these sociocultural factors that influence human mental states and behavior; among these are social psychology, cultural psychology, and cultural-historical psychology.

Cultural psychology is the study of how psychological and behavioral tendencies are rooted and embedded within culture. The main tenet of cultural psychology is that mind and culture are inseparable and mutually constitutive, meaning that people are shaped by their culture and their culture is also shaped by them. A major goal of cultural psychology is to expand the number and variation of cultures that contribute to basic psychological theories, so that these theories become more relevant to the predictions, descriptions, and explanations of all human behaviors—not just Western ones.

The evidence that social values, logical reasoning, and basic cognitive and motivational processes vary across populations has become increasingly difficult to ignore. By studying only a narrow range of culture within human populations, psychologists fail to account for a substantial amount of diversity. White American culture Populations that are Western, educated, and industrialized tend to be overrepresented in psychological research.

By studying only a narrow range of human culture, psychologists fail to account for a substantial amount of variation. Cultural psychology is often confused with cross-cultural psychology ; however, it is distinct in that cross-cultural psychologists generally use culture as a means of testing the universality of psychological processes, rather than determining how local cultural practices shape psychological processes.

Cultural-historical psychology is a psychological theory formed by Lev Vygotsky in the late s and further developed by his students and followers in Eastern Europe and worldwide.

This theory focuses on how aspects of culture, such as values, beliefs, customs, and skills, are transmitted from one generation to the next. The growth that children experience as a result of these interactions differs greatly between cultures; this variance allows children to become competent in tasks that are considered important or necessary in their particular society.

This subfield of psychology is concerned with the way such feelings, thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and goals are constructed, and how these psychological factors, in turn, influence our interactions with others. Social psychology typically explains human behavior as a result of the interaction of mental states and immediate social situations. Social psychologists, therefore, examine the factors that lead us to behave in a given way in the presence of others, as well as the conditions under which certain behaviors, actions, and feelings occur.

Thus, social psychology studies individuals in a social context and how situational variables interact to influence behavior. Essentially, people will change their behavior to align with the social situation at hand.

If we are in a new situation or are unsure how to behave, we will take our cues from other individuals. The field of social psychology studies topics at both the intrapersonal level pertaining to the individual , such as emotions and attitudes, and the interpersonal level pertaining to groups , such as aggression and attraction. The field is also concerned with common cognitive biases—such as the fundamental attribution error, the actor-observer bias, the self-serving bias, and the just-world hypothesis—that influence our behavior and our perceptions of events.

Trayvon Martin, a year-old African American youth, was shot to death at the hands of George Zimmerman, a white volunteer neighborhood watchman, in His death sparked a heated debate around the country about the effects of racism in the United States.

The discipline of social psychology began in the United States in the early 20th century. The first published study in this area was an experiment in by Norman Triplett on the phenomenon of social facilitation. During the s, Gestalt psychologists such as Kurt Lewin were instrumental in developing the field as something separate from the behavioral and psychoanalytic schools that were dominant during that time.

During World War II, social psychologists studied the concepts of persuasion and propaganda for the U. After the war, researchers became interested in a variety of social problems including gender issues, racial prejudice, cognitive dissonance, bystander intervention, aggression, and obedience to authority. During the years immediately following World War II there was frequent collaboration between psychologists and sociologists; however, the two disciplines have become increasingly specialized and isolated from each other in recent years, with sociologists focusing more on macro-level variables such as social structure.

Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. The study of personality is one of the major topics of interest in psychology.

Numerous personality theories exist and most of the major ones fall into one of four major perspectives. Each of these perspectives on personality attempts to describe different patterns in personality, including how these patterns form and how people differ on an individual level. Learn more about the four major perspectives of personality, the theorist associated with each theory, and the core ideas that are central to each perspective. The psychoanalytic perspective of personality emphasizes the importance of early childhood experiences and the unconscious mind.

This perspective on personality was created by psychiatrist Sigmund Freud who believed that things hidden in the unconscious could be revealed in a number of different ways, including through dreams, free association, and slips of the tongue.

Neo-Freudian theorists , including Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney, believed in the importance of the unconscious but disagreed with other aspects of Freud's theories. Below are the most prominent psychoanalytic perspective theorists:. The humanistic perspective of personality focuses on psychological growth, free will, and personal awareness.

It takes a more positive outlook on human nature and is centered on how each person can achieve their individual potential. The following are the most influential humanistic perspective theorists:.

The trait perspective of personality is centered on identifying, describing, and measuring the specific traits that make up human personality. By understanding these traits, researchers believe they can better comprehend the differences between individuals.

Below are the most important trait perspective theorists:. The social cognitive perspective of personality emphasizes the importance of observational learning , self-efficacy, situational influences, and cognitive processes. The main proponent of the social cognitive perspective is:. Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter.

Mcwilliams N. Guilford;