Biological Perspective........................................................................................1 Evolutionary Perspective...................................................................................2 Cognitive Perspective.........................................................................................3 Humanistic Perspective.....................................................................................4 Psychoanalytic Perspective.............................................................................5 Learning Perspective..........................................................................................6 Sociocultural Perspective.................................................................................

Biological Perspective

Perhaps one of the most discussed and involved perspective of psychology is the Biological Perspective which emphasizes the influence of biology on human behavior. These psychologists believe that the nervous system and the brain is the primary factor behind our mental processes such as dreams, thoughts, and our wildest fantasies. Thus, they focus on the brain and the connection between activities in the brain and our behavior by using tests such as CAT scans. Through research, they have analyzed that certain parts of the brain are highly active when we listen to music, solve math problems, and even as you are reading this very page. They believe that this is possible due to chemicals in our brain correlating with memories such as hormones and genes. These hormones and genes play an important role on our personality and growth as individuals.

Evolutionary Perspective

This particular aspect of contemporary perspectives revolves around the evolution of behavior and mental processes. A famous scientist, Charles Darwin, theory of "survival of the fittest" is the basis of the evolutionary perspective. Psychologists that follow this theory believe that the most-adaptive and the least disease-prone will be the ones that survive and pass on their genes to the future generation Thus, they believe certain behaviors such as aggressiveness can be traced back to a hereditary factor. In other words, inherited tendencies influence people to act in a certain manner.

Cognitive Perspective

Cognitive following psychologists study "thoughts" and the effect they have on behavior and mental processes to ultimately understand human nature. One aspect they focus on is the mind which can be described as how we perceive information, daydream, solve problems, etc. which can be traced back to the days of the famous philosopher, Socrates, and his maxim "Know Thyself". Another aspect involves information processing; many believe humans are like computers in this criteria. Just like how computers are fed information, process the information, and how they store the information on a hard drive or memory storage as a file, humans function similarly. However, in order for humans to open up that 'file' from long-term memory, they need certain cues to trigger that recollection. Ultimately, these psychologists also believe that our behavior is a result of our values, perception, and choices. One person may respond to a casual remark with kindness while another with aggression.

Humanistic Perspective

The driving force behind the humanistic perspective is consciousness and how it is viewed as the factor that shapes personality. These psychologists believe that people's personal experiences are the most important aspect of psychology. Thus, the concepts of self-awareness, experiences, and choices define us and help is relate to the world as we grow. They strongly believe in the good of people and the potential each being has of doing good. However, this is almost completely different from every other perspective because critics argue that humanistic doesn't involve any scientific observations or reasoning. Behaviorists even argue that stimuli is the actual reason behind this perspective and not consciousness.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

Unlike the humanistic approach towards consciousness, this field focuses primarily on the influence of "unconscious forces" on human behavior. Although less common now, this aspect dominated the 1940's and 1950's in psychotherapy and even influenced the art world at the time. Psychologists that follow in the footsteps of Sigmund Freud's approach focus less on sexual and aggressive impulses on the mind, and more on the conscious choice and self-direction of each person. Freud's theory said that aggression was capable of being bottled up in everyone due to fear of rejection, but this only leads to future explosions of aggression; very unhealthy for the mind. However, psychoanalytic psychologists believe that are options or vents to release this aggression before an explosion through activities such as sports.

Learning Perspective

The learning perspective emphasizes the effects of experience on behavior. Psychologists strongly believe learning is the basis of observing, describing, explaining, predicting, and controlling behaviors. However, what does "learning" actually mean? Well, it holds different meanings to different psychologists which is the reason why this is quite possibly the broadest aspect of the seven. Well one man, John B. Watson, found no role for consciousness, instead believed in experiences as the reason to why people act and react, not because of conscious choice. In contrast, the social-learning theory suggests that people have control over their surrounding environments. These psychologists believe conscious observational learning provides people with a memory of responses to various situations that occur throughout life. Ultimately, this broad aspect can be defined by saying that personal experiences and reinforcement guide our growth.

Sociocultural Perspective

This is completely different from any other perspective thus far. Sociocultural perspective focuses on ethnicity, gender, culture, and economic status as factors of behavior and mental processes. They are interested in ethnic groups because they are connected through cultural heritage, race, language, and common history which psychologists believe have a connection to certain issues such as inclusion of various minorities in research studies, bilingualism, intelligence, health risk (heart, blood, cancer, etc), and prejudice. These psychologists also believe gender plays an important role when it comes to cultural expectations of the male and female and the social roles one has to "act". Although in the past, male behavior represented the norm in education and jobs, females now have caught up; Two-thirds of doctoral degrees are now awarded to women. However, some other aspects still lack. Only 6-7% in African Americans and 5% of Hispanic make up the doctoral departments in psychology which is a lot less than their representation in society.