Briefly describe and compare each of three Psychological Perspectives covered by the course (Learning, Biological, & Cognitive). What are their basic assumptions about the nature of behavior? How are they similar? How do they differ?

Behaviorists use the study of learning, to predict and control behavior, this is one of the three main perspective psychology is viewed in; the learning perspective. It was developed mainly in the US, by Watson, Skinner and Pavlov, who all believed that experience is what formed the knowledge of behavior. Watson believed that behavior consists of association between the stimulus and how humans react and respond to it. Pavlov, who worked with classical conditioning, studied this with a dog and training him to salivate when hearing a specific tone. Skinner’s assumption was that behavior is determined by the “reward or reinforcement” (Eysenck 23). Watson thought that behavior is determined by the environmental factors rather than the inheritance. The learning perspective differs from the cognitive because it bases its assumptions purely on the observable behavior. However they are similar because both perspectives regard the concept of stimuli and response as part of their assumptions about behavior, even though behaviorist reduce it to just this concept.

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In contrast to the learning perspective which focused on observable behavior, the cognitive perspective looks into the internal processes, understanding how humans process and treat information. Cognitive perspective developed in the 1950’s because of the discontent with the behaviorist perspective, during the “computer revolution” where psychologists tried to understand more about our brain by comparing it to a computer. Psychologists researched the systems with which humans handle information; attention, perception, and short-term memory. The main assumption in this perspective is that human cognition relies on these processing systems. There are different types of processes; the bottom-up processing is the reality of what is happening, the stimuli, and the top-down processing is shaped by your knowledge and expectations. Humans respond to the stimuli, respond to it, manipulate it, and store it in our short-term memory. In comparison to the learning perspective, this perspective looks into behavior through the internal processes rather than what can be observed from the outside.

The biological perspective views behavior on the grounds that everything psychological is first physiological and to understand behavior we need to investigate the internal processes in the brain, endocrine system, genes, nervous system, neurochemistry and hormones. This perspective bases its research on animals and the experimental method to find out about behavior. The main assumptions are that humans share a substantial amount of characteristics with animals and that behavior always has a cause. It is believed that human behavior is largely dependant on genetics. Changes in our behavior can be linked with the interaction between environmental factors and our genetic disposition. It is proven, with the advanced brain scanning technologies that the physiology does affect behavior in certain ways, and using drugs and psychological therapy, we can help patients with psychological illnesses. This perspective is similar to the cognitive perspective because it investigates the internal processes, even though it goes to a much deeper level, looking into many more aspects of the human body and how they affect our behavior. The learning perspective has almost nothing in common with this perspective, because it bases its assumption purely on the observably behavior and the association between stimuli and response. Biopsychology is a more advanced and more researched approach to behavior and focuses on physiology much more than the other two approaches.

Works Cited:

Eysenck, Michael W. “Psychology”. New York: Psychology Press Ltd., 2001.