Perspectives of psychology
Cognitive psychology
From the perspective of psychology, cognitive psychology refers to the internal information processing and internal representations of the world. In the point of view of psychology, cognition is not particularly a general purpose; it uses strategies or heuristics that increase generally the possibility of solving problems that are faced routinely by the present day’s human ancestors. This explains people’s inability to socialize with people, love, or work (Myers, 2010).
A practical application of cognitive perspective can be seen when a person is predisposed cognitively to identify incorrectly patterns in random sequences. The fallacy of gamblers is a good example of this argument. Gamblers may believe falsely that they hit lucky streak even though every outcome is in real sense random and independent or the trials held previously. From the perspective of psychology, human beings find it easier to make predictions and diagnoses using frequency data than when that same data is presented as percentages or probabilities, presumably because the present day ancestors lived in small tribes relatively in which frequency information was available more readily (Evan, 2008).
Humanistic psychology
According to the humanistic psychology, psychologists conceptualize traits of an individual because of the selection which depends on frequency, or because of facultative adaptations, or even because of the usual variation around an optimum. In this regard, humanistic psychology explains psychology disorders that make people unable to love or work. This is because humanistic psychology identifies the commonalities existing in the nature of basic human psychology, or people (Myers, 2010).
A practical application of humanistic perspective of psychology can be seen in the inference that there are elemental differences among people in their humanistic traits which shows conundrum aspect. It can also be seen in different behavioral morphs predisposed genetically may be represented by personality traits, as well as the frequency of competing strategies of behavior in the entire population that determine alternate strategies of behavior. Humanistic perspective can also be explained with heritability concept which explains the differences between people, and not the degree or extent to which individual traits are as a result of genetic and/ or environmental factors (Evan, 2008).
Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology perspective is a sub-disciplines of psychology founded on various premises. It explains the evolution of humanity and how brain functions. This perspective explains that brain is a device of information processing and produces behavior in response to internal and external inputs. According to evolutionary perspective, brain has neural mechanisms that evolve from it and are designed to solve recurring problems over the time of evolution and this gives modern people Stone Age minds (Myers, 2010). The adaptive mechanisms of brain are shaped by sexual and natural selection; distinct mechanisms of neurons are specialized to solve problems in the past humanity evolutionary.
A practical application of evolutionary psychology can be seen in the numerous mechanisms of human brain specialized and sensitive to various information or input classes. This is what manifests human behavior. The reason why we may perceive most mental problems as easy and nonmedical, while in reality they are difficult problems to solve (Evan, 2008).
In conclusion, all the perspectives discussed: cognitive, humanistic, and evolutionary explain some aspect of human development. For example, cognitive perspective of psychology explains an increase in the possibility of solving problems that are faced routinely by the present day’s human ancestors.Cognitive perspective influences psychology today as people rely on its explanation for not being able to do certain things or perform some functions. For example, people’s inability to socialize with people, love, or workHumanistic perspective explains the concept of human traits as due to selection which depends on frequency of doing things, and identifies the commonalities existing in the nature of basic human psychology, or people. This perspective influences psychology today in such a way that people tend to use it to explain why they behave in a particular way. For example, an individual loves swimming because he or she does it frequently. On the other hand, evolutionary perspective explains the evolution of humanity and how brain functions. From this, it is evident that these psychology perspectives revolve around human growth and development. This perspective influences psychology today by indicating how the brain functions. For example, a person may perceive particular information or problem as easy to solve, while another sees the same problem as a difficult concern.
References
Evan, Dylan (2008). Introducing Evolutionary Psychology, Lanham, MD: Totem Books
USAGaulin,
Myers, David G. (2010).Exploring Psychology, New York: Worth Publishers.
