Psychology: we have many definitions of the psychology some are given below:

 The scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior
in a given context or the mental characteristic or attitude of a person or group.
 Psychology is the study of behavior and the mind. There are different types of psychology,
such as cognitive, forensic, social, and developmental psychology. A person with a condition
that affects their mental health may benefit from assessment and treatment with
a psychologist.
 Scientific study of the behavior and mental process.
Behavior:
 It is thinking and perception.
 Behavior can also be defined by our action.
 the way in which an animal or person behaves in response to a situation or stimulus.
 the way in which a machine or natural phenomenon works or functions.
Mental process: Mental process or mental function are terms often used interchangeably for
all the things that individuals can do with their minds. These include perception, memory,
thinking (such as ideation, imagination, belief, reasoning, etc.), volition, and emotion. Sometimes
the term cognitive function is used instead. It is our thinking and perception
Perception: Can be defined as our recognition and interpretation of sensory information.
Perception also includes how we respond to the information. We can think of perception
as a process where we take in sensory information from our environment and use that
information in order to interact with our environment. Perception allows us to take the
sensory information in and make it into something meaningful.
Thinking: The mind is the idea while thinking processes of the brain involved in processing
information such as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving, to reason and
make decisions.
School of thoughts: A school is a collection of people who put their ideas under the same
umbrella. These people have same ideas, mythologies and aim and they may be from different
religion, and region, specific perspective on the study of behavior is called school of thoughts.
When psychology was first established as a science separate from biology and philosophy, the
debate over how to describe and explain the human mind and behavior began. The first school
of thought, structuralism, was advocated by the founder of the first psychology lab, Wilhelm
Wundt. Almost immediately, other theories began to emerge and vie for dominance in
psychology. The following are some of the major schools of thought that have influenced our
knowledge and understanding of psychology:
We have many different schools of thoughts some of which are given below:

 Structuralism
 Functionalism
 Gestalt school of psychology
 Behaviorism
 Psychoanalysis
 Humanistic school of psychology

Structuralism: Major structuralist thinkers include Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener. He
defined psychology as the study of consciousness, according to him if consciousness exists then
it must have a structure. Structuralism was the first school of psychology and focused on breaking
down mental processes into the most basic components. We cannot study the stimulus as it, but
we need to study the smaller element who work for mind. Consciousness consist of three things,
it has feelings, ideas and emotions. The feeling has three type pleasant/ unpleasant, relaxed /
tense, calm/excited. Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener, they say that we can study the
behavior of the human being by breaking it into steps not by overall. Wundt wanted to study the
structure of the human mind (using introspection). Wundt believed in reductionism. That is, he
believed consciousness could be broken down (or reduced) to its basic elements without
sacrificing any of the properties of the whole.

Introspection: it is the test of personality. In the introspection we have given an object

and acquire our response to that object. If you have ideas, then it became an image on your mind
and if you have no idea then you will have no image on your mind. Wilhelm says that we can
study the behavior of a person by the introspection, but Edward says that every person cannot
make the perception and we cannot study the behavior of a person by introspection. However,
today psychologists (e.g. Skinner) argue that introspection was not really scientific even if the
methods used to introspect were. Skinner claims the results of introspection are subjective and
cannot be verified because only observable behavior can be objectively measured. The Edward
said that the introspection is a special method, and everyone could not introspect. He also says
that there is a closed relationship b/w idea’s and images. Ideas were always accompanied by
images.

Functionalism: Functionalism formed as a reaction to the theories of the structuralist school of

thought and was heavily influenced by the work of William James. Major functionalist thinkers
included John Dewey and Harvey Carr. It was emerged as the reaction to structuralism. It focus
on the functionality of human adapt/ adjust our self with the environment. Environment plays
an important role in the build-up of the behavior. they say the stimulus response is not automatic ,
by it we can determine the behavior .
Consciousness: the thing which is under control is called consciousness. It has limited
memory. By this we also mean awareness about something in our surrounding or refers to your
individual awareness of your unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations, and environment.
Your conscious experiences are constantly shifting and changing. American psychologist William
James compared consciousness to a stream; unbroken and continuous despite constant shifts
and changes. While the focus of much of the research in psychology shifted to purely observable
behaviors during the first half of the twentieth century, research on human consciousness has
grown tremendously since the 1950s . For example, in one moment you may be focused on
reading this article. Your consciousness may then shift to the memory of a conversation you had
earlier with a co-worker. Next, you might notice how uncomfortable your chair is, or maybe you
are mentally planning dinner. Try to adjust yourself with your environment and this will minimize
your problems.
Unconsciousness: In Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the unconscious mind is a
reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of our conscious awareness.
Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain,
anxiety, or conflict. According to Freud, the unconscious continues to influence our behavior and
experience even though we are unaware of these underlying influences
How Is Unconscious Information Brought into Awareness?

There are a few different ways that information from the unconscious might be brought into
conscious awareness, according to Freud.

Free Association: Freud also believed that he could bring these unconscious feelings into
awareness using a technique called free association. He asked patients to relax and say whatever
came to mind without any consideration of how trivial, irrelevant, or embarrassing it might be.
By tracing these streams of thought, Freud believed he could uncover the contents of the
unconscious mind where repressed desires and painful childhood memories existed.

Dream Interpretation: Freud also suggested that dreams were another route to the unconscious.
While information from the unconscious mind may sometimes appear in dreams, he believed
that it was often in a disguised form. Dream interpretation often involves examining the literal
content of a dream (known as the manifest content) to try to uncover the hidden, unconscious
meaning of the dream (the latent content). Freud also believed that dreams were a form of wish
fulfillment. Because these unconscious urges could not be expressed in waking life, he believed
they find expression in dreams.

Criticisms

The very idea of the existence of the unconscious has not been without controversy. A number
of researchers have criticized the notion and dispute that there is actually an unconscious mind
at all.

More recently in the field of cognitive psychology, researchers have focused on automatic and
implicit functions to describe things that were previously attributed to the unconscious.
According to this approach, there are many cognitive functions that take place outside of our
conscious awareness. This research may not support Freud's conceptualization of the
unconscious mind, yet it does offer evidence that things that we are not aware of consciously
may still have an influence on our behaviors.

Unlike early psychoanalytic approaches to the unconscious, research within the field of cognitive
psychology is driven by scientific investigations and empirical data supporting the existence of
these automatic cognitive processes.

Gestalt psychology: Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that looks at the human mind and
behavior as a whole. When trying to make sense of the world around us, Gestalt psychology
suggests that we do not simply focus on every small component.

Instead, our minds tend to perceive objects as part of a greater whole and as elements of more
complex systems. This school of psychology played a major role in the modern development of
the study of human sensation and perception.

While Wundt was interested in breaking down psychological matters into their smallest possible
part, the Gestalt psychologists were instead interested in looking at the totality of the mind and
behavior. The guiding principle behind the Gestalt movement was that the whole was greater
than the sum of its parts.

The development of this area of psychology was influenced by a number of thinkers, including
Immanuel Kant, Ernst Mach, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Major Gestalt Psychologists

There were several thinkers who had an influence on Gestalt psychology. Some of the best-known Gestalt
psychologists included:

Max Wertheimer: Regarded as one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, Wertheimer is also
known for his concept of the phi phenomenon. The phi phenomenon involves perceiving a series of still
images in rapid succession in order to create the illusion of movement.

Kurt Kafka: Know as one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, Kurt Kafka had diverse interests and
studied many topics in psychology including learning, perception, and hearing impairments. He says that
how we perceive our environment is become our behavior. If we want to study the mind of some ne then
we will study his behavior and along with this, we will study the environment. he also says that we can
feel something that we didn’t have seen. For example, a child can feel his mother still he didn’t see her.
He also say that our decision making power depend on our past history and it make our personality and
the personality also depend on the past history.

Wolfgang Kohler: Also, a key founding figure in the history of the Gestalt movement, Kohler also famously
summarized Gestalt theory by saying, "The whole is different than the sum of its parts." He was also known
for his research on problem-solving, his criticisms of the introspection used by the structuralists to study
the human mind, and his opposition to behaviorism.
Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization

Have you ever noticed how a series of flashing lights often appears to be moving, such as neon signs or
strands of Christmas lights? According to Gestalt psychology, this apparent movement happens because
our minds fill in missing information. This belief that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual
parts led to the discovery of several different phenomena that occur during perception. Illustration by
Emily Roberts, Very well

In order to better understand how human perception works, Gestalt psychologists proposed a number
of laws of perceptual organization, including the laws of similarity, Pregnant, proximity, continuity, and
closure.

Law of similarity: The law of similarity suggests that similar items tend to be grouped together. If several
objects in a scene are similar to one another, you will naturally group them together and perceive them
as a whole. For example, a series of circles or squares stacked together will be viewed as a series of
columns rather than just individual shapes.

Law of proximity: The law of proximity suggests that objects near each other tend to be viewed as a group.
If you see several people standing close together, for example, you might immediately assume that they
are all part of the same social group.

At a restaurant, for example, the host or hostess might assume that people seated next to each other in
the waiting area are together and ask if they are ready to be seated. In reality, they may only be sitting
near each other because there is little room in the waiting area or because those were the only open seats.

Gestalt psychology also helped introduce the idea that human perception is not just about seeing what is
present in the world around us. Much of what we perceive is heavily influenced by our motivations and
expectations. Gestalt psychology did face criticism, particularly in that many of its central concepts can be
difficult to define and examine experimentally. While this approach may have lost its identity as an
independent school of thought in psychology, its central ideas have had a major influence on the field of
psychology.

Gestalt psychology has largely been subsumed by other fields of psychology, but it had an enormous
influence. Other researchers who were influenced by the principles of Gestalt psychology including Kurt
Lewin and Kurt Goldstein went on to make important contributions to psychology. The idea that the whole
is different than its parts has played a role in other areas including our understanding of the brain and
social behavior.

Behaviorism: Behaviorism became the dominant school of thought during the 1950s. Based upon
the work of thinkers such as John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner, behaviorism holds
that all behavior can be explained by environmental causes, rather than by internal forces.
Behaviorism is focused on observable behavior. Theories of learning including classical
conditioning and operant conditioning were the focus of a great deal of research.
Behaviorism, also known as behavioral psychology, is a theory of learning based on the
idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Conditioning occurs through
interaction with the environment. Behaviorists believe that our responses to environmental
stimuli shape our actions.
 According to this school of thought, behavior can be studied in a systematic and
observable manner regardless of internal mental states. Basically, only observable behavior
should be considered—cognitions, emotions, and moods are far too subjective.
Strict behaviorists believed that any person can potentially be trained to perform any task,
regardless of genetic background, personality traits, and internal thoughts (within the limits of
their physical capabilities). It only requires the right conditioning.

Here is the following quote from Watson, who is often considered the "father" of
behaviorism:

"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in
and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I
might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief,
regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors."

Learning: Psychologists often define learning as a relatively permanent change in behavior as a

result of experience. The psychology of learning focuses on a range of topics related to how
people learn and interact with their environments.

One of the first thinkers to study how learning influences behavior was the
psychologist John B. Watson who suggested that all behaviors are a result of the learning process.
The school of thought that emerged from Watson's work was known as behaviorism. The
behavioral school of thought proposed studying internal thoughts, memories, and other mental
processes was too subjective. Psychology, the behaviorists believed, should be the scientific
study of observable behavior. Behaviorism thrived during the first half of the twentieth-century
and contributed a great deal to our understanding of some important learning processes.

Top Things to Know About Behavioral Psychology

 Learning can occur through associations. The classical conditioning process works by
developing an association between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring
stimulus. In physiologist Ivan Pavlov's classic experiments, dogs associated the
presentation of food (something that naturally and automatically triggers a salivation
response) with the sound of a bell, at first, and then the sight of a lab assistant's white
coat. Eventually, the lab coat alone elicited a salivation response from the dogs.
 Different factors can influence the classical conditioning process. During the first part of
the classical conditioning process, known as acquisition, a response is established and
strengthened. Factors such as the prominence of the stimuli and the timing of
presentation can play an important role in how quickly an association is formed.
When an association disappears, this is known as extinction, causing the behavior to
weaken gradually or vanish. Factors such as the strength of the original response can play
a role in how quickly extinction occurs. The longer a response has been conditioned, for
example, the longer it may take for it to become extinct.
 Learning can also occur through rewards and punishments. Behaviorist B.F. Skinner
described operant conditioning as the process in which learning can occur through
reinforcement and punishment. More specifically, by forming an association between a
certain behavior and the consequences of that behavior, you learn. For example, if a
parent rewards their child with praise every time they pick up their toys, the desired
behavior is consistent reinforced. As a result, the child will become more likely to clean
up messes.
 Reinforcement schedules are important in operant conditioning. This process seems
straight forward—simply observe a behavior and then offer a reward or punishment.
However, Skinner discovered that the timing of these rewards and punishments has an
important influence on how quickly a new behavior is acquired and the strength of the
corresponding response.
Continuous reinforcement involves rewarding every single instance of a behavior. It is
often utilized at the beginning of the operant conditioning process. But as the behavior is
learned, the schedule might switch to one of partial reinforcement. This involves offering
a reward after several responses or after a period of time has elapsed. Sometimes, partial
reinforcement occurs on a consistent or fixed schedule. In other instances, a variable and
unpredictable number of responses or time must occur before the reinforcement is
delivered.

 Several thinkers influenced behavioral psychology. In addition to those already

mentioned, there are several prominent theorists and psychologists who left an indelible
mark on behavioral psychology. Among these are Edward Thorndike, a pioneering
psychologist who described the law of effect, and Clark Hull, who proposed the drive
theory of learning.
 There are several therapeutic techniques rooted in behavioral psychology. Though
behavioral psychology assumed more of a background position after 1950, its principles
remain important. Even today, behavior analysis is often used as a therapeutic technique
to help children with autism and developmental delays acquire new skills. It frequently
involves processes such as shaping (rewarding closer approximations to the desired
behavior) and chaining (breaking a task down into smaller parts and then teaching and
chaining the subsequent steps together). Other behavioral therapy techniques include
aversion therapy, systematic desensitization, token economies, modeling, and
contingency management.

 Behavioral psychology has some strengths. Behaviorism is based on observable

behaviors, so it is sometimes easier to quantify and collect data when conducting research.
Effective therapeutic techniques such as intensive behavioral intervention, behavior
analysis, token economies, and discrete trial training are all rooted in behaviorism. These
approaches are often very useful in changing maladaptive or harmful behaviors in both
children and adults.
 It also has some weaknesses. Many critics argue that behaviorism is a one-dimensional
approach to understanding human behavior. They suggest that behavioral theories do
not account for free will and internal influences such as moods, thoughts, and feelings.
 Also, it does not account for other types of learning that occur without the use of
reinforcement and punishment. Moreover, people and animals can adapt their behavior
when new information is introduced even if that behavior was established through
reinforcement.
 Behavioral psychology differs from other perspectives. One of the major benefits of
behaviorism is that it allowed researchers to investigate observable behavior in a
scientific and systematic manner. However, many thinkers believed it fell short by
neglecting some important influences on behavior. Freud, for example, felt that
behaviorism failed by not accounting for the unconscious mind's thoughts, feelings, and
desires that influence people's actions. Other thinkers, such as Carl Rogers and the
other humanistic psychologists, believed that behaviorism was too rigid and limited,
failing to take into consideration personal agency.
More recently, biological psychology has emphasized the power the brain and genetics
play in determining and influencing human actions. The cognitive approach to
psychology focuses on mental processes such as thinking, decision-making, language, and
problem-solving. In both cases, behaviorism neglects these processes and influences in
favor of studying just observable behaviors.

Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud was the found of psychodynamic approach. This school of
thought emphasizes the influence of the unconscious mind on behavior. Freud believed that the
human mind was composed of three elements: the id, the ego, and the superego. Other major
psychodynamic thinkers include Anna Freud, Carl Jung, and Erik Erikson.
Psychoanalysis, method of treating mental disorders, shaped by psychoanalytic theory,
which emphasizes unconscious mental processes and is sometimes described as “depth
psychology.” The psychoanalytic movement originated in the clinical observations and
formulations of Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, who coined the term psychoanalysis.
During the 1890s, Freud worked with Austrian physician and physiologist Josef Breuer in studies
of neurotic patients under hypnosis. Freud and Breuer observed that, when the sources of
patients’ ideas and impulses were brought into consciousness during the hypnotic state, the
patients showed improvement.
Observing that most patients talked freely without being under hypnosis, Freud evolved
the technique of free association of ideas. The patient was encouraged to say anything that came
to mind, without regard to its assumed relevancy or propriety. Noting that patients sometimes
had difficulty in making free associations, Freud concluded that certain painful experiences were
repressed, or held back from conscious awareness. Freud noted that in most of the patients seen
during his early practice, the events most frequently repressed were concerned with disturbing
sexual experiences. Thus he hypothesized that anxiety was a consequence of the repressed
energy (libido) attached to sexuality; the repressed energy found expression in various symptoms
that served as psychological defense mechanisms. Freud and his followers later extended the
concept of anxiety to include feelings of fear, guilt, and shame consequent to fantasies of
aggression and hostility and to fear of loneliness caused by separation from a person on whom
the sufferer is dependent.
Freud’s free-association technique provided him with a tool for studying the meanings of dreams,
slips of the tongue, forgetfulness, and other mistakes and errors in everyday life. From these
investigations he was led to a new conception of the structure of personality: the id, ego,
and superego. The id is the unconscious reservoir of drives and impulses derived from the genetic
background and concerned with the preservation and propagation of life. The ego, according to
Freud, operates in conscious and preconscious levels of awareness. It is the portion of the
personality concerned with the tasks of reality: perception, cognition, and executive actions. In
the superego lie the individual’s environmentally derived ideals and values and the mores of his
family and society; the superego serves as a censor on the ego functions.
In the Freudian fra
me work, conflicts among the three structures of the personality are repressed and lead to the
arousal of anxiety. The person is protected from experiencing anxiety directly by the
development of defense mechanisms, which are learned through family and cultural influences.
These mechanisms become pathological when they inhibit pursuit of the satisfactions of living in
a society. The existence of these patterns of adaptation or mechanisms of defense are
quantitatively but not qualitatively different in the psychotic and neurotic states.
Freud held that the patient’s emotional attachment to the analyst represented a transference of
the patient’s relationship to parents or important parental figures. Freud held that those strong
feelings, unconsciously projected to the analyst, influenced the patient’s capacity to make free
associations. By objectively treating these responses and the resistances they evoked and by
bringing the patient to analyze the origin of those feelings, Freud concluded that the analysis of
the transference and the patient’s resistance to its analysis were the keystones of
psychoanalytic therapy.
Early schisms over such issues as the basic role that Freud ascribed to biological instinctual
processes caused onetime associates Carl Jung, Otto Rank, and Alfred Adler to establish their
own psychological theories. Most later controversies, however, were over details of Freudian
theory or technique and did not lead to a complete departure from the parent system. Other
influential theorists have included Erik Erikson, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Harry Stack
Sullivan. At one time psychiatrists held a monopoly on psychoanalytic practice, but soon
nonmedical therapists also were admitted.

Humanistic Psychology: Humanistic psychology developed as a response to psychoanalysis and

behaviorism. Humanistic psychology instead focused on individual free will, personal growth, and
self-actualization. Major humanist thinkers included Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.

Humanistic psychology is a perspective that emphasizes looking at the whole individual and
stresses concepts such as free will, self-efficacy, and self-actualization. Rather than
concentrating on dysfunction, humanistic psychology strives to help people fulfill their potential
and maximize their well-being.
Humanistic psychology, also often referred to as humanism, emerged during the 1950s as a
reaction to the psychoanalysis and behaviorism that dominated psychology at the
time. Psychoanalysis was focused on understanding the unconscious motivations that drive
behavior while behaviorism studied the conditioning processes that produce behavior.

Humanist thinkers felt that both psychoanalysis and behaviorism were too pessimistic, either
focusing on the most tragic of emotions or failing to take into account the role of personal choice.

However, it is not necessary to think of these three schools of thought as competing elements.
Each branch of psychology has contributed to our understanding of the human mind and
behavior. Humanistic psychology added yet another dimension that takes a more holistic view of
the individual.

Key Focus

As it developed, humanistic psychology focused on each individual's potential and stressed the
importance of growth and self-actualization. The fundamental belief of humanistic psychology is
that people are innately good and that mental and social problems result from deviations from
this natural tendency.

Humanism also suggests that people possess personal agency and that they are motivated to use
this free will to pursue things that will help them achieve their full potential as human beings.
This need for fulfillment and personal growth is a key motivator of all behavior. People are
continually looking for new ways to grow, to become better, to learn new things, and to
experience psychological growth and self-actualization.

Brief History

The early development of humanistic psychology was heavily influenced by the works of a few
key theorists, especially Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Other prominent humanist thinkers
included Rollo May and Erich Fromm.

In 1943, Maslow described his hierarchy of needs in "A Theory of Human Motivation" published
in Psychological Review. Later during the late 1950s, Abraham Maslow, and other psychologists
held meetings to discuss developing a professional organization devoted to a more humanist
approach to psychology. They agreed that topics such as self-actualization, creativity,
individuality, and related topics were the central themes of this new approach.

In 1951, Carl Rogers published Client-Centered Therapy, which described his humanistic, client-
directed approach to therapy. In 1961, Journal of Humanistic Psychology was established.

It was in 1962 that the American Association for Humanistic Psychology was formed and by 1971,
humanistic psychology become an APA division.
In 1962, Maslow published Toward a Psychology of Being, in which he described humanistic
psychology as the "third force" in psychology. The first and second forces were behaviorism and
psychoanalysis respectively.

Impact

The humanist movement had an enormous influence on the course of psychology and
contributed new ways of thinking about mental health. It offered a new approach to
understanding human behaviors and motivations and led to developing new techniques and
approaches to psychotherapy.

Some of the major ideas and concepts that emerged as a result of the humanist movement
include an emphasis on things such as:

 Self-concept
 Hierarchy of needs
 Unconditional positive regard
 Free will
 Client-centered therapy
 Self-actualization
 Fully-functioning person
 Peak experiences

Strengths and Criticisms

One of the major strengths of humanistic psychology is that it emphasizes the role of the
individual. This school of psychology gives people more credit in controlling and determining their
state of mental health.

It also takes environmental influences into account. Rather than focusing solely on our internal
thoughts and desires, humanistic psychology also credits the environment's influence on our
experiences.

Humanistic psychology helped remove some of the stigma attached to therapy and made it more
acceptable for normal, healthy individuals to explore their abilities and potential through therapy.

While humanistic psychology continues to influence therapy, education, healthcare, and other
areas, it has not been without some criticism.

Humanistic psychology is often seen as too subjective; the importance of individual experience
makes it difficult to objectively study and measure humanistic phenomena. How can we
objectively tell if someone is self-actualized? The answer, of course, is that we cannot. We can
only rely upon the individual's own assessment of their experience.
Another major criticism is that observations are unverifiable; there is no accurate way to measure
or quantify these qualities.

Today, the concepts central to humanistic psychology can be seen in many disciplines including
other branches of psychology, education, therapy, political movements, and other areas. For
example, transpersonal psychology and positive psychology both draw heavily on humanist
influences.

The goals of humanistic psychology remain as relevant today as they were in the 1940s and 1950s.
Humanistic psychology strives to empower individuals, enhance well-being, push people toward
fulfilling their potential and improve communities all over the world.

Biological perspective: There are many ways of thinking about topics in psychology. The
biological perspective is a way of looking at psychological issues by studying the physical basis for
animal and human behavior. It is one of the major perspectives in psychology and involves such
things as studying the brain, immune system, nervous system, and genetics.

One of the major debates in psychology has long centered over the relative contributions
of nature versus nurture. Those who take up the nurture side of the debate suggest that it is the
environment that plays the greatest role in shaping behavior. The biological perspective tends to
stress the importance of nature.

The Biological Perspective in Psychology

This field of psychology is often referred to as biopsychology or physiological psychology.

This branch of psychology has grown tremendously in recent years and is linked to other areas of
science including biology, neurology, and genetics.

The study of physiology and biological processes has played a significant role in psychology since
its earliest beginnings. It was Charles Darwin who first introduced the idea that evolution and
genetics play a role in human behavior. Natural selection influences whether certain behavior
patterns are passed down to future generations. Behaviors that aid in survival are more likely to
be passed down while those that prove dangerous are less likely to be inherited.

The biological perspective is essentially a way of looking at human problems and actions.
Consider an issue like aggression, for example. Someone using the psychoanalytic perspective
might view aggression as the result of childhood experiences and unconscious urges. Another
person might take a behavioral perspective and consider how the behavior was shaped by
association, reinforcement, and punishment. A psychologist with a social perspective might look
at the group dynamics and pressures that contribute to such behavior.
The biological viewpoint, on the other hand, would involve looking at the biological roots that lie
behind aggressive behaviors. Someone who takes the biological perspective might consider how
certain types of brain injury might lead to aggressive actions. Or they might consider genetic
factors that can contribute to such displays of behavior.

What Sort of Things Are Biological Psychologists Interested in?

Bio-psychologists study many of the same things that other psychologists do, but they are
interested in looking at how biological forces shape human behaviors. Some topics that a
psychologist might explore using this perspective include:

 Analyzing how trauma to the brain influences behaviors

 Investigating how degenerative brain diseases impact how people act
 Exploring how genetic factors influence such things as aggression
 Studying how genetics and brain damage are linked to mental disorders
 Assessing the differences and similarities in twins to determine which characteristics are
tied to genetics and which are linked to environmental influences

This perspective has grown considerably in recent years as the technology used to study the brain
and nervous system has grown increasingly advanced.

Today, scientists use tools such as PET and MRI scans to look at how brain development, drugs,
disease, and brain damage impact behavior and cognitive functioning.
Reasons to Take a Biological Perspective

One of the strengths of using the biological perspective to analyze psychological problems is that
the approach is usually very scientific. Researchers utilize rigorous empirical methods, and their
results are often reliable and practical. Biological research has helped yield useful treatments for
a variety of psychological disorders.

The weakness of this approach is that it often fails to account for other influences on behavior.
Things such as emotions, social pressures, environmental factors, childhood experiences, and
cultural variables can also play a role in the formation of psychological problems.

For that reason, it is important to remember that the biological approach is just one of the many
different perspectives in psychology. By utilizing a variety of ways of looking a problem,
researchers can come up with different solutions that can have helpful real-world applications.

A Word From Verywell

There are many different perspectives from which to view the human mind and behavior and the
biological perspective represents just one of these approaches.
By looking at the biological bases of human behavior, psychologists are better able to understand
how the brain and physiological processes might influence the way people think, act, and feel.
This perspective also allows researchers to come up with new treatments that target the
biological influences on psychological well-being.

Cognitive Psychology: Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental
processes including how people think, perceive, remember, and learn. As part of the larger field
of cognitive science, this branch of psychology is related to other disciplines including
neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics. One of the most influential theories from this school
of thought was the stages of cognitive development theory proposed by Jean Piaget.

Have you ever wondered why you remember certain details without even trying, yet other
important information slips your mind so quickly? This is just one example of the type of
questions that someone working in the field of cognitive psychology might try to answer.

What Is Cognitive Psychology, and What Does It Reveal?

Cognitive psychology involves the study of internal mental processes—all of the things that go
on inside your brain, including perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, problem-
solving, and learning. While it is a relatively young branch of psychology, it has quickly grown to
become one of the most popular subfields.

There are numerous practical applications for this cognitive research, such as providing help
coping with memory disorders, increasing decision-making accuracy, finding ways to help people
recover from brain injury, treating learning disorders, and structuring educational curricula to
enhance learning.

Learning more about how people think and process information not only helps researchers gain
a deeper understanding of how the human brain works, but it allows psychologists to develop
new ways of helping people deal with psychological difficulties. For example, by recognizing
that attention is both a selective and limited resource, psychologists are able come up with
solutions that make it easier for people with attentional difficulties to improve their focus and
concentration.

Findings from cognitive psychology have also improved our understanding of how people form,
store, and recall memories. By knowing more about how these processes work, psychologists can
develop new ways of helping people improve their memories and combat potential memory
problems.

For example, psychologists have found that while your short-term memoryis quite short and
limited (lasting just 20 to 30 seconds and capable of holding between five and nine items),
rehearsal strategies can improve the chances that information will be transferred to long-term
memory, which is much more stable and durable.

When You Might Need to See a Cognitive Psychologist

While many cognitive psychologists specialize in research and are employed by universities or
government agencies, others take a clinical focus and work directly with individuals who are
experiencing challenges related to different mental processes. They may work in hospitals,
mental health clinics, or private practices.

Psychologists who work in this area often focus on a particular area of interest such as memory,
while others might instead choose to work directly on specific health concerns related to
cognition, such as degenerative brain disorders or brain injuries.

Some of the reasons why you might consult with a cognitive psychologist:

 To treat a psychological illness with cognitive therapy methods

 To explore treatment options for brain trauma
 If you are experiencing perceptual or sensory issues
 As part of therapy for a speech or language disorder
 If you are experiencing Alzheimer's disease, dementia, or memory loss
 To explore different interventions for learning disabilities

The work of cognitive psychologists is essential for helping people who have experienced issues
with mental processes. While we tend to take abilities such as attention and problem solving for
granted, perhaps because they are so woven into the fabric of our everyday existence, cognitive
disruptions can create havoc in multiple areas of an individual's life. Attention problems can make
it difficult to focus at work or at school. Even relatively minor memory problems can make it a
struggle to handle the demands of everyday life.

Consider, for example, how negative thinking can interfere with your health and happiness. We
all experience these negative thoughts from time to time, but some people may find themselves
overwhelmed with pessimistic thinking patterns that make it difficult to function in daily life.
These ruminations can lead to increased stress levels, pessimism, and self-sabotaging, and can
even contribute to feelings of learned helplessness.

With the help of cognitive psychologists, people are often able to find ways to cope and even
overcome such difficulties. Therapy treatments rooted in cognitive research focus on helping
people change these negative thinking patterns and replace such thoughts with more positive
and realistic ones.

Impact of Cognitive Psychology on Approaches Mental Health

In addition to adding to our understanding of how the human mind works, the field of cognitive
psychology has also had an impact on approaches to mental health. Before the 1970s, many
mental health approaches were focused more on psychoanalytic, behavioral,
and humanistic approaches.

The so-called "cognitive revolution" that took place during this period put a greater emphasis on
understanding the way people process information and how thinking patterns might contribute
to psychological distress. Thanks to research in this area by cognitive psychologists, new
approaches to treatment were developed to help treat depression, anxiety, phobias, and
other psychological disorders.

Cognitive behavior therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy are two methods in which
clients and therapists focus on the underlying cognitions that contribute to psychological distress.
Using these methods, therapists can help clients identify irrational beliefs and other cognitive
distortions that are in conflict with reality and then aid them in replacing such thoughts with
more realistic, healthy beliefs.

If you are experiencing symptoms of a psychological disorder that would benefit from the use of
cognitive approaches, you might see a psychologist who has specific training in these cognitive
treatment methods. These professionals frequently go by titles other than cognitive
psychologists, such as psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, or counseling psychologist, but many of
the strategies they utilize are rooted in the cognitive tradition. If you're unsure of a practitioner's
discipline or approach, just ask him or her.

What to Do If You Have Been Recently Diagnosed With a Cognitive Issue

Being diagnosed with a brain or cognitive health problem can be frightening and sometimes
confusing, but it is important to remember that you are not alone.

By working with your doctor, you can come up with an effective treatment plan to help address
brain health and cognitive problems. Your treatment may involve consulting with a cognitive
psychologist who has a background in the specific area of concern that you are facing, or you may
be referred to another mental health professional that has training and experience with your
particular illness.

You may find it helpful to learn as much as you can about your initial diagnosis and to consider
putting together a list of questions you have before your next visit with your physician, cognitive
psychologist, or mental health professional. This can help you feel better prepared and ready to
tackle the next steps in your treatment.

A Word From Verywell

As you can see, the field of cognitive psychology is both broad and diverse, yet it touches on so
many aspects of daily life.
Research on cognitive psychology may at times seem academic and far-removed from the
problems you face in everyday life, yet the findings from such scientific investigations play a role
in how professionals approach the treatment of mental illness, traumatic brain injury, and
degenerative brain diseases. Thanks to the work of cognitive psychologists, we can better
pinpoint ways to measure human intellectual abilities, develop new strategies to combat
memory problems, and decode the workings of the human brain—all of which ultimately has a
powerful impact on how we treat cognitive disorders.

The field of cognitive psychology is a rapidly growing area that continues to add to our
understanding of the many influences that mental processes have on our health and daily lives.
From understanding how cognitive processes change over the course of child development to
looking at how the brain transforms sensory inputs into perceptions, cognitive psychology has
helped us gain a deeper and richer understanding of the many mental events that contribute to
our daily existence and overall well-being.
 Psychoanalysis: it means Unconscious. One of the first research to develop A theory about
emotional disturbance was Sigmund Freud grew up during a difficult time in the history of
central Europe; he became a dark. brooding, complex, yet charchari figure. Freud was a physician
who was interested in helping people overcome anxiety; he worked in Vienna. Austria, focusing
on the causes and treatment of emotional disturbances Working from the
premise that unconscious mental processes direct daily behavior, he developed technique to
explore those unconscious processes; these techniques include free association and dream
interpretation. He emphasized that childhood experiences influence future adult behaviors and
that sexual energy fuels day-to-day behavior.
Freud created the psychoanalytic approach— the school of psychological thoughts
that psychological maladjustment is a consequence of anxiety
resulting from unresolved conflict's and forces of which a person may be unaware
Its therapeutic technique that psychoanalysis, the psychoanalytic perspective has under
gone many changes since Freud devised it. At times, in fact, n seems only loosely con
nested to Freud's basic ideas. When this approach was introduced in the United
Stales, most psychologists ignored it. But by the 1920s, when the United States was
growing intellectually and fully emerging from the repressed Victorian era the
influence of the psychoanalytic approach spread rapidly. Soon it was so influential
and widely studied that it threatened to eclipse research-based laboratory psychology.