Levels of psychology
There are three main levels of analysis within psychology: biological influences, psychological influences and social-cultural influences. From these three levels of analysis there are 7 current perspectives used to study human behavior. This essay will define each perspective and discuss how each perspective could be used to investigate love.
The Neuroscience perspective of psychology focuses on “how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences” (Myers pg 11). Researches from this perspective would focus on what brain functions and processes results in emotions like love. How do neurotransmitters affect a person’s feelings of love at a given moment and over a long period of time. “Each neurotransmitter travels a designated path in the brain and has a particular effect on behavior and emotions” (Myers pg 61). To study the effect of neurotransmitters on the emotion of love researchers could monitor test subjects’ brain while introducing them to stimuli that would produce feelings of love. During the test subjects could be exposed to pictures of family members and romantic partners. At the end of the experiment researchers would be able to analyze the difference in brain functions when exposed to the pictures and when not exposed to the pictures.
The Evolutionary perspective of psychology focuses on “how the natural selection of traits promotes the perpetuation of one’s genes” (Myers pg 11). From this perspective researchers would try to answer the questions like: 1) How has evolution shaped humans’ ability to love? 2) From an evolutionary perspective why do humans feel emotions of love? Researchers may conclude humans developed emotions like love to help with the mating process. Humans’ ability to love helps them find a mate and therefore further the species. It also helps create stronger family units which may be important for survival. Researches could investigate on whether natural selection promoted the ability to love in humans.
The Neuroscience perspective of psychology focuses on “how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences” (Myers pg 11). Researches from this perspective would focus on what brain functions and processes results in emotions like love. How do neurotransmitters affect a person’s feelings of love at a given moment and over a long period of time. “Each neurotransmitter travels a designated path in the brain and has a particular effect on behavior and emotions” (Myers pg 61). To study the effect of neurotransmitters on the emotion of love researchers could monitor test subjects’ brain while introducing them to stimuli that would produce feelings of love. During the test subjects could be exposed to pictures of family members and romantic partners. At the end of the experiment researchers would be able to analyze the difference in brain functions when exposed to the pictures and when not exposed to the pictures.
The Evolutionary perspective of psychology focuses on “how the natural selection of traits promotes the perpetuation of one’s genes” (Myers pg 11). From this perspective researchers would try to answer the questions like: 1) How has evolution shaped humans’ ability to love? 2) From an evolutionary perspective why do humans feel emotions of love? Researchers may conclude humans developed emotions like love to help with the mating process. Humans’ ability to love helps them find a mate and therefore further the species. It also helps create stronger family units which may be important for survival. Researches could investigate on whether natural selection promoted the ability to love in humans.