1. Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis And Psychology’s Approaches
Objective: Analyze the major approaches to psychology including behavioral, psychoanalytical, cognitive and humanistic
Textbook: Myers’ Psychology-2011 Worth Publishers

2. Things to consider…
Each of us is a complex system that is part of a larger social system
Each of us is composed of smaller systems (our nervous systems and body organs)
Smaller systems are composed of even smaller systems (cells, molecules and atoms)

3. Why do grizzly bears hibernate?
Is it because their hibernation helped their ancestors to survive and reproduce?
Because their inner physiology drives them to do so?
Because cold environments hinder food gathering during the winter?
“Everything is related to everything else”

4. Levels of Analysis
Together, different levels of analysis form a Biopsychosocial Approach: Considers the influences of biological, psychological and social-cultural factors Each level provides a valuable vantage point for looking at behavior, yet each by itself is incomplete

5. Biopsychosocial Approach
Psychological Influence:
Learned fears and other learned expectations
Emotional responses
Cognitive processing and perceptual interpretation
Biological Influence:
Natural selection of adaptive traits
Genetics predispositions responding to environment
Brain mechanisms
Hormonal influences
Behavior or mental process
Social-cultural Influence
Presence of others
Cultural, societal and family expectations
Peer and other group influences
Compelling models (such as media)

6. Psychology’s Approaches
Behavioral: How we learn observable responses
Sample Questions: How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the best way to alter our behavior (to lose weight or stop addiction)?
Cognitive: How we encode, process, store and retrieve information
Sample Questions: How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Solving problems?

7. Psychology’s Approaches
Humanistic: How we meet our needs for love and acceptance and achieve self-fulfillment
Sample Questions: How can we work toward fulfilling our potential? How can we overcome barriers to our personal growth?
Psychoanalytical (Psychodynamic): Unconscious mental forces direct our everyday behavior
Sample Questions: How can someone’s personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of sexual and aggressive drives or as the disguised effects of unfulfilled wishes and childhood traumas?

8. Example: Processing Anger
Behavioral: What social forces trigger anger or aggressive acts
Cognitive: Interpretation of a situation affects our anger and how our anger affects our thinking
Humanistic: How do angry feelings affect a person’s potential for growth and personal fulfillment
Psychoanalytical: An outburst as an outlet for unconscious hostility

9. Case Study: Andrea Yates

10. The Case of Andrea Yates
Answer the following questions to explain what you believe to be the causes of Andrea Yates’ murder of her children
How would you explain Andrea Yates’ behavior from a cognitive perspective? (private mental functioning)
How would you explain Andrea Yates’ behavior from a humanistic perspective? (needs for love and acceptance and achieve self-fulfillment)
How would you explain Andrea Yates’ behavior from a behavioral perspectives? (behaviors that were reinforced, punished etc. )
How would you explain Andrea Yates’ behavior from a psychoanalytic perspective? (past experience in her life)
Martin Seligman has effectively argued that the individualism of American society plays a critical role in its accelerating rate of depression. What important principles this case might reveal?
Presenting the familiar case of Andrea Yates will not only stimulate students’ interest but will also help you to introduce psychology’s complementary perspectives. Perhaps most importantly, it will help you demonstrate the complexity and multiple causes of behavior.
On June 20, 2001, after her husband had left for work, Andrea Yates, a Houston mother, drowned her five children in the family bathtub. She told police that she drowned the children to save them from burning in hell. A jury rejected her insanity defense, and she was sentenced to serve life at a psychiatric prison. In January 2005, a Texas Appeals Court overturned her conviction because a psychiatrist for the prosecution had falsely testified that he had consulted for a Law and Order episode. The Appeals Court stated that the false testimony may have contributed to the jury’s rejection of Yates’ insanity defense. Prosecutors declined to discuss whether Yates would be retried. Her defense attorney said that he would not seek her immediate release because she is receiving “excellent mental health care.”