Contemporary Theories of Psychology

1. Contemporary Theories of Psychology What does contemporary mean?

2. The four contemporary Psychologies We now consider some of the more recent developments in psychology and describe the major perspectives and theories in psychology today.

3. Four major perspectives • Four perspectives that are prominent in contemporary psychology are called the biological, behavioural, cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives. • Each contemporary perspective represents a different point of view about human behaviour and mental processes.

4. Biological Perspective • The biological perspective focuses on the biological (physiological) influences on behaviour and mental processes, including the brain and the rest of the nervous system, the endocrine (hormone) system, the immune system and genetics.

5. Biological Perspective • A major assumption of the biological perspective is that all our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are associated with underlying bodily activities and processes.

6. Behavioural Perspective • The behavioural perspective focuses on how behaviour is acquired or modified by environmental consequences such as rewards and punishments. A key assumption of the behavioural perspective is that all behaviour can be explained in terms of learning processes.

7. Cognitive Perspective • In contemporary psychology, the cognitive perspective focuses on how we acquire, process, remember and use information about ourselves and the world around us. Basically, the emphasis is on understanding how we take in information and how we treat the information in order to think, feel and behave as we do.

8. Cognitive Perspective • A major assumption of the cognitive perspective is that internal mental processes are important in their own right, as well as important influences on observable behaviour.

9. Socio cultural perspective • The socio-cultural perspective focuses on the roles of social and cultural influences on human behaviour and mental processes. It is assumed that socio-cultural factors such as sex, race, age, income level and the culture in which people grow up are important influences.

10. Socio cultural perspective • The socio part of the term refers to the study of influences within a society or culture; for example, how sex, race, age or income level can affect how we think, feel or behave. The cultural part refers to the study of similarities and differences in how people think, feel and behave across different cultures