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4 


CHAPTER 1: THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN YOUR LIFE 

functionalists was “What is the function or purpose of a behavior?” 

3。 John Dewey; an American philosopher; founded the school of functionalism; 
which led to many advances in education。 
4。 The Legacy of Structuralism and Functionalism: Both live on。 Today 
psychologists employ a variety of methods to study both the structure and the 
function of mental life and behavior。 
E。 Current Psychological Perspectives 
1。 Contemporary psychology is dominated by seven perspectives or conceptual 
approaches: Biological; Psychodynamic; Behavioristic; Humanistic; Cognitive; 
Evolutionary; and Cultural。 Each of these approaches espouses points of view 
and sets of assumptions that influence both what will be studied and how it 
will be investigated。 Most psychologists blend and borrow from several of 
these perspectives。 At the end of the description of each perspectives is an 
analysis of that approach to understanding the causes of aggression。 
2。 Biological Perspective: The biological perspective attempts to explain behavior 
in terms of the influence of genes; the brain; the nervous system; and the 
endocrine system by examining underlying physical structures and processes 
a) From the biological perspective; even the most plex behavior can 
be understood by deposing the behavior into smaller units; such 
as the firing of neurons in the brain 

b) A unifying theme for biological researchers is that; although the 
environment and experience can modify behavior by altering 
underlying biological structures and processes; behavior originates 
from biological forces 

c) How biological psychologists study aggression: By examining the 
genetic and biochemical bases of aggressive behavior in both normal 
individuals and abnormal individuals prone to aggression 

3。 Psychodynamic Perspective: The psychodynamic perspective holds that 
behavior is determined by powerful inner forces; such as instincts and 
biological drives; and by attempts to resolve conflicts between personal needs 
and society’s demands。 The purpose of behavior; according to this view; is to 
reduce tension。 
a) Psychodynamic principles of motivation originated with Sigmund 
Freud; a Viennese physician; and his work with mentally disturbed 
patients。 Freud’s ideas have had a greater influence on more areas of 
psychology than any other person has。 

b) Freud emphasized the primacy of early childhood in mental 
development; but more recent psychodynamic psychologists have 
broadened Freud’s theory to include social influences and interactions 
that occur over the individual’s lifetime 

c) How psychodynamic psychologists study aggression: By examining 
the unconscious drives and conflicts that are expressed in aggressive 
behavior and attempting to understand how aggression reduces 
psychological tension 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE 

4。 Behaviorist Perspective: Behaviorists seek to understand how environmental 
contingencies and stimuli control behavior in terms of three essential aspects: 
Antecedent; behavioral response; and consequence 
a) Antecedent environmental conditions refer to the state of the 
environment before a behavior is performed 

b) Behavioral response; the main object of study; refers to the action to be 
understood; predicted; and controlled 

c) Consequence refers to what results from the behavioral response 

d) Behaviorists are interested in observable behavior and often use 
nonhuman animals so that they can control the conditions of 
experimentation more pletely than they can with human 
participants 

e) Behaviorists argue that principles derived from research with 
nonhuman animals apply to humans as well 

f) Behaviorist principles have yielded more humane approaches to the 
education of children and to the treatment of behavior disorders 

g) How behaviorists study aggression: By examining the stimulus 
causes and consequences of aggressive behavior。 Specifically; they ask 
how the behavior has been reinforced in the past。 

5。 Humanistic Perspective: Humanistic psychology; a more optimistic 
alternative to the psychodynamic and behaviorist models; suggests that 
humans are innately good and that the main task of humans is to strive for 
growth and development of their potential。 
a) Humanists are phenomenologists in that they study the individual 
actor’s personal view of events; focusing on the subjective world 
experienced by the person; not an objective reality 

b) Unlike behaviorism; humanistic psychology examines the human as a 
whole (holistic approach) and does not attempt to reduce mental life to 
elemental parts 

c) How humanists study aggression: By examining maladaptive values; 
social conditions; and goals that hinder growth and self…actualization 

6。 Cognitive Perspective: In contrast to behaviorism; which focused primarily on 
observable behavior; cognitive psychologists are most interested in human 
thought and all the processes of knowing; such as attending; thinking; 
remembering; and understanding 
a) Cognitive psychologists view behavior as partly determined by past 
experiences but also influenced by an individual’s inner world of 
thought and imagination about the ways that the world could be。 To 
cognitive psychologists; an individual’s subjective reality is more 
important than the objective reality that behaviorists strive to capture。 

b) Cognitive psychologists often use the puter as a metaphor for the 
human mind and study higher mental processes such as perception; 
memory; language use; problem solving; and decision making 

c) How cognitive psychologists study aggression: By examining 
thoughts associated with aggressive behavior and the influence of 

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CHAPTER 1: THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN YOUR LIFE 

viewing violence on television and video on attitudes toward 

aggression 

7。 Evolutionary Perspective: The evolutionary perspective extends the idea of 
natural selection to explain how mental abilities evolved over millions of 
years; just as physical abilities did 
a) Evolutionary psychologists identify adaptive problems that early 
humans may have encountered such as avoiding predators; finding 
food; reproducing; and raising children; and then generate inferences 
about the mental processes that might have evolved in response to 
these problems 

b) Evolutionary psychology is different from other perspectives in that it 
has a much longer temporal focus (millions of years) than other 
perspectives 

c) How evolutionary psychologists study aggression: By examining the 
possible evolutionary advantage that could have been derived from 
aggressive behavior in the past 

8。 Cultural Perspective: Cultural psychologists investigate cross…cultural 
differences in the causes and consequences of behavior。 Partly in response to 
American psychology’s reliance on white; middle…class college students as the 
subject matter of psychology; cultural psychologists cross national boundaries 
in an attempt to understand how cultural groups differ on standard measures 
of mental processes and to understand what new measures and concepts 
might more accurately capture and describe the mental life of various cultural 
groups。 
a) Important concepts investigated by cultural psychologists include 
perceptions; human development; emotions; social norms; and the 
notion of “the self”。 

b) Cultural psychologists point out that psychological principles derived 
from one cultural group cannot be automatically applied to other 
cultural groups。 A famous example of this is the application of 
psychodynamic principles; based on the traditional western roles of 
mothers and fathers; to the Trobriand Islanders of New Guinea; for 
whom parenting roles are much different and the mother is the main 
authority figure。 

c) How cultural psychologists study aggression: By examining how 
aggression differs across cultures。 Questions cultural psychologists 
might ask include: Are the same types of aggressive behaviors 
performed with the same frequency in each culture? How is 
aggression dealt with culturally? What types of aggression are 
culturally sanctioned? What does aggressive behavior mean in 
different cultures? 

IV。 What Psychologists Do 
A。 Surveys suggest that there are over 500;000 psychologists worldwide。 Approximately 62;000 to 
82;000 work as researchers。 Psychologists often specialize in subfields; such as clinical; cognitive; 
personality; developmental; social; industrial; educational; sports; health; and cultural psychology。 
When most people think of a psychologist; however; they think of a clinical psychologist who works 
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PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE 

with clients with psychological problems and with problems of living。 Clinical psychologists; in 
turn; are often confused with psychiatrists; who are medical doctors that have specialized in the 
treatment of mental illness。 

B。 Early in its history; research and practice in psychology was dominated by men。 In the last decade; 
however; women have received the majority of Ph。D。’s awarded in psychology。 
C。 Even when women were

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