Theoretical Perspectives of Psychology

Different schools of thought assessing human nature and behavioral patterns have given rise to different theoretical perspectives of psychology. Each of the perspectives tries to analyze the very complex human mind in different ways. It employs different methods of analysis of the human mind and brain to reveal interesting facts about the variety in human personalities.

Theoretical Perspectives of Psychology
Psychology is divided into three broad categories namely, the cognitive, the conative and the affective. Theoretically, affect indicates an instinctive reaction that is given to a stimulus. An affect is manifested before the cognitive processes required to form an emotion take place. Some theorists believe an affect to be a result of a prior cognitive processing of information. They consider likes and dislikes, pleasures and displeasures as being based on a cognitive thought process. A cognitive theory describes behavior in terms of the flow of information. Cognitive science is being used to analyze how the brain processes information. Trying to understand the surroundings and making sense of it, is cognition. The word 'conation' is related to motivation. Each individual has his/her own way of processing the information. Different things motivate different people. There is nothing right or wrong in that, it is just that each person has his/her own conative style.

One of the theoretical perspectives of psychology is cognitive. The other important perspective is biological. The biological perspective deals with analyzing the relationship between physiology and psychology. With the progress in the research on the nervous system, science has been able to analyze the functioning of the brain under various conditions and map its working in relation to human psychology. The behavioral patterns have changed with the evolution of human brain. The intricacies of the nervous system in vertebrates reveal the close association between the brain development and psychology. Similarly, the evolutionary perspective of psychology focuses on the relation between evolution and psychology. According to this theoretical perspective, mental processes exist because they enable evolution and help the survival.

Psychodynamics is another important theoretical perspective of psychology. Sigmund Freud proposed the concept of psychodynamics. He suggested that psychological processes are actually the flows of psychological energy in the brain. This perspective deals with the study of the interrelationship between the mind and the personality. It focuses on the conscious and the unconscious parts of the human mind. The mental forces could be the emotional forces or those from the interaction between the emotional and motivational forces acting at the subconscious level. According to Freud, ego lies at the core of all the psychological processes and that the human behavior mirrors the emotional processes active in a person’s mind.

The 'learning perspective' of psychology is also known as behaviorism. It proposes that all the things which organisms do are their behaviors. According to this perspective, thinking and feeling are behaviors. B.F. Skinner, a theorist in behaviorism is best known for his radical behaviorism. The theory of radical behaviorism claims that animal and human behaviors are comparable and that the science of behavior is a natural science. It believes that one's environment highly influences the person's behavior. Skinner said that human beings could generate linguistic stimuli, which would then guide their behavior. His theory focused on the instructional control over human behavior. Behaviorism prevailed during the 19th century after which the cognitive perspective of psychology overtook it.

As a reaction to psychodynamics and behaviorism, the Humanistic psychology evolved in the 1950s. Theorists who dealt with this theoretical perspective of psychology sought to understand the meanings of human behavior. They advocated that the understanding of human behavior is personal and subjective. Human behavior is the outcome of the link between his/her ideas and experiences. In his postulates of humanistic psychology, James Bugental says that human beings have a human context and that they are conscious about their behavior in the context of others. He suggested that human beings have choices and responsibilities and that they are able to derive a meaning from behaviors and apply creativity to their thoughts. The humanistic perspective of psychology includes counseling and therapy. Self-help is a vital component of this theoretical perspective of psychology.

Understanding the different theoretical perspectives of psychology takes us nearer to the understanding of the complex human nature. It takes us closer to the comprehension of the development of the different types of personalities around us.