Week 1 Project: Perspectives in Psychology
In the psychology field, there are seven major perspectives that help to explain human emotion, thought, motivation, and behavior. These seven major perspectives are as follows:

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic
Behavioral/Learning
Cognitive
Humanistic/Positive
Sociocultural/Cross-Cultural
Neuropsychology/Behavioral Genetic
Evolutionary
Choose two major perspectives of psychology from the list above and discuss the following for each: key assumptions, the main focus, and key figures/psychologists.

You need to follow all APA formatting rules so you should have an APA title page, an APA formatted reference page, and APA formatted in-text citations. The paper should be 2 to 3 pages in length and submitted in an MS Word document that includes the following:

The perspectives in psychology are the key points of view that psychologists use to understand the human mind. Psychologists have different perspectives, depending on their research and their approach to understanding people and their behavior. They can be divided into three groups: biological, humanistic, and psychodynamic. Therefore, this paper focuses on evolutionary and cognitive psychology. Evolutionary psychology is a perspective in psychology that examines the biological roots of human behavior.

This field studies the evolutionary history of species, as well as their natural environments. Evolutionary psychologists are interested in how these factors have shaped human behavior, and what they expect to find when studying human behavior (Wullenkord & Hamann, 2021). Evolutionary psychology can also be described as a perspective in psychology that argues for the biological basis of human behavior, and it is an attempt to explain how humans evolved from their ancestors, as well as how their behaviors have changed over time.

Evolutionary psychologists believe that much of human behavior can be explained by evolution, especially sexual reproduction and genetic mutations. Evolutionary psychologists often focus on sex because they see it as a key aspect of survival, especially when it comes to reproductive success. They also believe that genetic mutations are important because they allow species to adapt to new environments or circumstances to remain successful. Evolutionary psychology is a branch of psychology that examines the evolutionary origins and behavioral consequences of human thoughts, desires, and behaviors (Eronen & Bringmann, 2021). It draws from both biology and social science to study how our minds, bodies, and societies have changed over time.

One assumption of evolutionary psychology is that all humans are related. This means that there is some group or group of groups who have common traits and interests. Another assumption that the field makes is that all human beings share a common ancestor from which all other humans have evolved. The main focus of evolutionary psychology is on how our ancestors’ behaviors shaped the human mind and brain over time so that each generation would adapt more quickly when faced with new challenges.

For example, if you had an ancestor who was afraid of snakes but didn’t see any around him or her all day every day for hundreds of years. Also, the focus of evolutionary psychology is on how we are similar to each other instead of how we are different from each other. One key figure in this area is Richard Dawkins, who wrote The Selfish Gene. Evolutionary psychologists use many different types of evidence in their research like fossils, genetic information, behavioral observations, and many more.

The other one of the most important perspectives in psychology is Cognitive. Cognitive perspectives differ from other perspectives by focusing more on human cognition, perception, and learning than on emotions and behavior.

Cognitive psychologists believe that people can think about their thoughts and that of others, which allows them to make predictions based on past experiences (Eronen & Bringmann, 2021). Moreover, Cognitive psychology is a field of psychology that examines the mental processes that allow humans to process information and respond to their environment. The field focuses on how people think, learn, perceive, remember, and use language.

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Cognitive psychologists believe that emotions are not necessary for humans to function normally in society. Instead of focusing on how emotions impact behavior, cognitive psychologists focus on how people think about their emotions and how they change those thoughts over time. Cognitive psychologists also focus more on individual differences between people than other psychological perspectives.

In contrast to personality theories which focus on similarities between individuals such as introversion/extroversion or agreeableness/agreeableness; cognitive psychologists focus on finding differences such as intelligence level or language ability among individuals instead of similarities such as age or gender. The key figures in cognitive psychology are Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts (1943), Alan Turing (1954), H. M. Waddington (1964), Donald Hebb (1949), John Eccles (1955), Roger Sperry (1962), and Stephen Kosslyn (1980).

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References

Eronen, M. I., & Bringmann, L. F. (2021). The Theory Crisis in Psychology: How to Move Forward. Perspectives on psychological science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 16(4), 779–788. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620970586

Wullenkord, M. C., & Hamann, K. (2021). We Need to Change: Integrating Psychological Perspectives Into the Multilevel Perspective on Socio-Ecological Transformations. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 655352. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.655352