PERSPECTIVES ON BEHAVIOR AND MENTAL PROCESSES

Whether psychologists emphasize internal or external influences depends on their theoretical perspective. Each perspective influences the questions psychologists ask, the kinds of information they consider important, and sometimes the method of study utilized. Consider five such perspectives in their historical order.

The biological perspective help us understand how the body and brain work to create emotions, memories, and sensory experiences. Biologically oriented psychologists may study evolutionary and hereditary influences on behavior, how messages are transmitted within the body, or how blood chemistry is linked with moods and motives.

The psychoanalytic perspective assumes that behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts. Building on the ideas of Sigmund Freud, it analyzes psychological traits and disorder in terms of sexual and aggressive drives or as the disguised effects of unfulfilled wishes and childhood traumas.

The behavioral perspective studies the mechanisms by which observable responses are acquired and modified in particular environments. A behavioral psychologist might study how we learn to fear particular objects or situations, how external rewards shape our actions, or how we can most effectively alter our behavior, say to lose weight or stop smoking.

The humanistic perspective arose as a reaction against the psychoanalytic view, which sees people as driven by unconscious internal forces, and the behavioristic view, which sees people as shaped by the external environment. Humanistic psychologists emphasize our capacities to choose our life patterns and to grow to greater maturity and fulfillment. They also seek to understand behavior more subjectively, in terms of its meaning to the individual.

The cognitive perspective has regained the prominence it enjoyed in psychology's early history. (Cognition refers to our remembering, thinking, and knowing). Hundreds of researchers are exploring how we process, store, and retrieve information, and how we use information to reason and solve problems.

Consider how from each perspective we might view an emotion such as anger. Someone working from a biological perspective might study the brain circuits that trigger the physical state of being "red in the face" and "hot under the collar". Someone working from a psychoanalytic perspective might view an angry outbrust as an outlet for unconscious hostily. Someone working from a behavior perspective might study the facial expressions and body gestures that accompany anger, or attempt to determine which external stimuli result in angry responses or agressive acts. Someone working from humanistic perspective might want to understand what it means to experience and express anger from the individual's own point of view. Someone working from a cognitive perspective might study how the different ways we perceive a frustrating situation affect the intensity of our anger, and how an angry mood affect our thinking.

The biological, psychoanalytic, behavioral, humanistic and cognitive perspective describe and explain anger very differently. This doesn't necessarily mean that they contradict one another. Rather, they are five useful ways of looking at the same psychological state. By using all five, we gain a richer, fuller understanding of anger than that provided by any single perspective.
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