Exploring Psychological Perspectives- Applications in Understanding Everyday Behavior and Relevance in Modern Society

Exploring Psychological Perspectives- Applications in Understanding Everyday Behavior and Relevance in Modern Society

One of the commonly used perspectives in psychology is the behavioral perspective, which focuses on learned behaviors. Its pioneers include Ivan Pavlov, John B Watson, B.F Skinner, and Edward Thorndike (Cherry, 2019). Unlike other perspectives, behaviorism focuses on overt and observable behaviors learned from one’s environment as opposed to internal states or underlying conflicts. This perspective is concerned with the manner in which behavior can be learned and reinforced. The behavioral perspective can be used to explain and understand how certain things like money or recognition can motivate employees to perform more productively in the workplace.

The second psychological perspective is the humanistic perspective, which is a holistic perspective that attributes human actions and characteristics to free will and the inherent drive for self-actualization. This perspective focuses on maximum human achievement and potential as opposed to symptoms and psychological disorders. The theory places emphasis on the inherent goodness of humans and pays particular attention to personal creativity, experiences, and empathy (Bland & DeRobertis, 2020). Psychologists who make use of this perspective concentrate on the things that drive humans to develop, change, and grow their personal potential. An everyday example of the humanistic approach is striving to find meaning in one’s life through soul-searching, finding what is missing, and pursuing it in order to attain self-actualization. This could be done through finding a new hobby or even career and relationships. I believe that the humanistic perspective is the most relevant one in today’s society due to the increased emphasis on leading a quality and happy life. Individuals are able to attain heightened self-awareness and understanding, and given their free will, they can attain their best possible self. With emphasis on freedom of self in the current society, this approach seems most relevant today.

The last perspective is the psychodynamic perspective, which originated from Sigmund Freud’s work. This perspective places emphasis on the role of the unconscious mind, interpersonal relations, and childhood experiences to help explain human behavior and also help treat mental illnesses (Bornstein, Maracic & Natoli, 2018). An example of how this perspective applies in everyday life is one’s fear of sexual relations in adulthood due to traumas experienced in childhood, such as sexual abuse.

References

Bland, A. M., & DeRobertis, E. M. (2020). Humanistic perspective. Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences, 2061-2079. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1484-2

Bornstein, R. F., Maracic, C. E., & Natoli, A. P. (2018). The psychodynamic perspective. Sage Publications.

Cherry, K. (November 26, 2019). Perspectives in Modern Psychology. Verywellmind. https://www.verywellmind.com/perspectives-in-modern-psychology-2795595

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The job of a Psychologist is to describe, explain, predict, and possibly change behavior. Toward this end, different psychological perspectives have emerged to explain behavior.

Exploring Psychological Perspectives- Applications in Understanding Everyday Behavior and Relevance in Modern Society

These include the neuroscience, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and humanistic perspectives. Describe three (3) perspectives and illustrate each by using an example from everyday life. Which perspective has the most relevance in today’s society, and why?