Key ideas

• Because no single explanation covers all behavior, psychologists look at it through different lenses called perspectives, or approaches, each showing something the others miss.
• The biological, behavioral, cognitive, sociocultural, and evolutionary perspectives explain the same behavior through the brain and body, learning, thinking, culture, and ancestral survival.
• The psychodynamic and humanistic perspectives came out of therapy rather than research labs, so their ideas are harder to test scientifically.
• You should be able to identify each perspective from the question it asks about a behavior (e.g., "How did he interpret what happened?" = cognitive).

Key terms

psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes — how people act, think, and feel.

perspectives (approaches)

Different lenses psychologists use to explain behavior, each highlighting something the others miss.

biological perspective

Focuses on the brain and body, such as hormones and brain areas that drive behavior.

behavioral perspective

Looks only at observable behavior, explaining it as learned through rewards and punishments.

cognitive perspective

Focuses on how we think, including how we interpret what happens to us.

sociocultural perspective

Focuses on how the society, culture, and people around us shape behavior.

norms

A culture's unwritten rules about how to behave, such as how to handle conflict.

evolutionary perspective

Focuses on how behaviors may have helped our ancestors survive, reproduce, and pass on their genes.

psychodynamic perspective

Sees behavior as driven by unconscious thoughts and feelings, like the hidden part of an iceberg (psycho = mind; dynamic = the interplay between conscious and unconscious minds).

unconscious

Thoughts and feelings we aren't aware of; the part of the iceberg below the surface, versus the conscious mind above it.

humanistic perspective

Focuses on human potential, seeing people as basically good with the power to choose who they become and grow.

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