Ap Psychology on the Psychological Perspectives

The Major Psychological Perspectives

Behaviorism is a highly deterministic view that declares there is no free will, defines psychology as the science of behavior. Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike and Skinner are the four major psychologists that help develop and enhance this view. They studied behavioral responses and the ways those responses are influenced by stimuli in the environment. .

The psychoanalytic view largely focuses on the unconscious influencing human behavior. Developed by Sigmund Freud and his followers (the neoFreudians), the main idea was that humans are born with unconscious drives that seek some kind of outlet or expression from the very start. This deterministic viewpoint says that there is no such thing as free will.

The humanistic view emphasizes “the whole person and the importance of each person’s subjective experience,” the central concept being the need for self-actualization. Humanists believe that of all the motives that people have the need to develop to our full potential is the most important one. This view focuses on the free will of people, instead of the deterministic view where we are only powered by conditioned responses and the unconscious mind. The two important people involved with the humanists are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, Rogers with his “client centered therapy,” and Maslow with