Four Psychological Perspectives Essay

The other four perspectives are behavioral perspective, social structural perspective, cognitive perspective, and evolutionary perspective. First, the behavioral perspective assumes that human behavior can be explained through observable, verifiable behaviors, rather than people's thoughts. It argues that if a behavior is followed by something favorable or by removal of something unpleasant, the behavior is more likely to occur. Stimulus induces response, and reinforcement makes it more likely for that response to occur. Two subset theories under this perspective are social leaning theory, which assumes that leaners acquire new responses through observing a model, and social exchange theory, which assumes that people view social relationships
To change their behavior, role expectations have to be changed. Some limitations are that it cannot explain deviant actions, nor how role expectations came to be what they are in the first place. Third, cognitive perspective assumes that people’s cognitive processes intervene between external stimuli and behavioral responses. People use schemas to explain information about others. It also argues that humans select stimuli that are important, and actively control the interpretation of the stimuli in the environment. People strive to keep up with the cognitive consistency; therefore, they will change their behavior when an internal conflict takes place. Some limitations are it oversimplifies the people information processes, and it also is not directly observable. Lastly, evolutionary perspective holds that social behavior is the result of genetic material and humans pass the favorable genes to their offspring. The main focus is survival and individuals seek to sustain their genes. This is all for natural selection. Some limitations are that it requires circular reasoning and problem comes up when alternative outcomes are