1. Current Views on Behavior & Thinking
Modern Perspectives
Current Views on Behavior & Thinking

2. Biological Perspective
Emphasizes biological processes and heredity as the key to understanding behavior.
Study the structures of the brain & central nervous system, functioning of the neurons, hormones, & genes.
Neuroscience
How are messages transmitted within the body? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives? To what extent are traits such as intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, and depression attributable to our genes? To our environment?
Someone working from a biological perspective might study brain circuits that cause us to be “hot under the collar,” or how heredity and experience influence our individual differences in temperament.

3. Neuroscience
Combines psychologists, biologists, biochemists, medical researchers, & more.
A part of the biological perspective.
Physiological psychologists, psychobiologists, or neuropsychologists.

4. Psychoanalytic Perspective
Derived from Freud’s theories.
Modified considerably by “neo-Freudians”.
Emphasizes unconscious motivation & early childhood experience.
Or Psychodynamic. 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?
Might view an outburst as an outlet for unconscious hostility.

5. Behavioral Perspective
Emphasizes learning & the role of environment.
How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the best way to alter our behavior, say, to lose weight or stop smoking?
Might attempt to determine which external stimuli trigger angry responses or aggressive acts.

6. Cognitive Perspective
Mental processes
People consciously perceive, remember, think, organize, analyze, decide, & then respond.
Perception, thinking, memory, language, & more
How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Solving problems?
Might study how our interpretation of a situation affects our anger and how our anger affects our thinking.

7. Humanistic Perspective
Humans can make rational, conscious choices.
Importance of people’s own subjective experience as key to understanding behavior.
Reject psychoanalytic & behaviorist views.
How can we work toward fulfilling our potential? How can we overcome barriers to our personal growth?
Might have studied how a person’s feelings of anger impact their potential for growth & personal fulfillment.

8. Evolutionary Perspective
How humans have evolved & adapted behaviors.
Inherited tendencies & dispositions influence a wide range of behaviors.
How we select mates, level of intelligence, & why we help other people.
But realize genes alone do not control destiny.
Inherited tendencies are NOT set in concrete.
How does evolution influence behavior tendencies?
Might analyze how anger facilitated the survival of our ancestors’ genes.

9. Sociocultural Perspective
Emphasize social & cultural influences.
Important to understand those influences when interpreting the behavior of others.
How are we humans alike as members of one human family? As products of different environmental contexts, how do we differ?
Might explore how expressions of anger vary across cultural contexts.