Levels of Analysis Modern ApproachesPerspectives Evolutionary Psychoanalytical Biological
Levels of Analysis
Modern Approaches/Perspectives • Evolutionary • Psychoanalytical • Biological • Humanistic Approach • Cognitive • Behavioral • Cross-Cultural
Evolutionary Approach • Focus: How nature selects traits that promote the perpetuation of one’s genes. Survival. • Influenced by Charles Darwin
Psychoanalytical Approach • Focus: How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts • Early Childhood • Dreams • Sigmund Freud
Biological Approach • Focus: How the body and brain create emotion, memories, and sensory experiences. • Brain structures, blood chemistry, neural communication. • Roger Sperry, Michael Gazzaniga, Paul Broca
Cognitive Approach • Focus: How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information. • Jean Piaget, Elizabeth Loftus, Hermann Ebbinghaus
Behavioral Approach • Focus: Learning based on how a behavior is rewarded or punished. • John Watson, B. F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov
Humanistic Approach • Focus: Emphasizes that we have great freedom in directing our future, a large capacity for growth, intrinsic worth, and self-actualization. • Abraham Maslow • Carl Rogers
Social-Cultural Approach • Focus: How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures. • Albert Bandura, Phillip Zimbardo
Which Perspective? ? Dr. A is interested in studying the different attitudes about the elderly among North American and Japanese adults. Dr. A has found that the Japanese show more respect and responsibility toward elderly parents, and wishes to understand the cultural norms that contribute to these attitudes.
Which Perspective? ? Prof. B studies the attention process involved when people search for specified objects by measuring the amounts of blood flow to various portions of the brain while a participant engages in a letter detection task.
Which Perspective? ? Dr. C tries to help a client stop smoking by understanding the unconscious reasons for the client’s need to smoke. Dr. C encourages the client to talk about his childhood conflicts with his parents.
Which Perspective? ? Dr. Dre tries to help a client stop smoking by telling her to keep a careful record of the number of cigarettes smoked and the particular people or situations who are a part of her smoking behavior. She keeps these records as a way of uncovering the factors that reward her for smoking, so that she may later remove those rewards.
Which Perspective? ? Prof. E studies the factors that help or hinder students in memorizing information from textbooks. The professor systematically varies task characteristics such as textbook difficulty in an effort to understand the underlying memory processes involved in reading a textbook.
Which Perspective? ? Dr. F is working to help a seriously depressed man become a productive member of society again. She points out to her client his potential for personal growth and his obvious love for his family, and reminds him of his many successes in professional and personal activities.
Goals of Psychology
Where Do Psychologists Work? • 49% Private Practice-Therapy Setting-Clinical Psychologist • 28% Academic Setting- Research (Basic/Applied, Professor) • 13% Variety –(Social Work, Group Home Coordinator) • 6% Industrial/Organization Setting (Production Manager) • 4% Secondary Schools-(School Psychologist/Counselor)
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