Compare and contrast four of the modern perspectives in psychology as presented in your textbook. What do you think were the greatest contributions and drawbacks of each?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Neuroscience looks at the contribution of the brain and bodily processes in guiding behavior. Its strength is that it acknowledges that thinking and behavior do not occur alone; they are in part dependent on biological processes. The weakness of neuroscience is that it can be limited in how it incorporates social and emotional contributors to behavior. The psychodynamic perspective focuses on how unconscious motives drive behavior. As with other perspectives, its explanation of behavior may ignore other, critical contributors to behavior. The behavioral perspective looks at how interacting with the environment guides behavior, and focuses on observable behaviors. It may be limited because it does not acknowledge that internal factors such as free will and moods can alter behavior. Humanistic psychologists assume that people are basically good and can change their behavior for the better. This view may be criticized for focusing too much on positive behavior and doing nothing to explain negative or bad behaviors. The cognitive perspective emphasizes mental states and thinking processes and may be criticized for how it fails to acknowledge the role of emotion or mood in cognitive processes. The evolutionary perspective looks at how behavior contributes to survival and could be criticized for how difficult it is to test its hypotheses through experimentation. Finally, the sociocultural perspective examines how social and cultural factors influence behavior; as is true with other perspectives, sociocultural ones limit the value of individual differences. Students must only discuss four of the above.