The major perspectives represent fundamental assumptions that underlie the research questions and methods that are used in order to answer the questions of psychology. Most all perspectives define psychology as the discipline interested in studying human behavior and mental processes, but that covers a lot of ground and the causes of behavior and mental processes are not always clear. ("Major Perspectives in Psychology", 2011). Psychodynamic Perspective:
Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ‘Nature, by an absolute and uncontrollable necessity has determined us to judge as well as to breathe and feel’ Although many modern commentators have demurred from Hume's views, some have notably concurred with it, seeing his analysis of our epistemic predicament as a major contribution to the theory of knowledge. In ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Hume tries to explain the problem of induction by humans. Hume distinguishes between impressions and ideas; he says that impressions are sensory impressions, emotions, and other vivid mental phenomena. Ideas are thoughts or beliefs or memories related to these impressions. According to Hume we build up all our ideas from simple impressions by means of three laws of association: Resemblance, Contiguity, & Cause and Effect.
Many “myths” were brought about to answer all these questions and many more. I would define a “myth” as a tale that individuals created in ancient times to answer important questions that they lacked the necessary scientific knowledge to grasp otherwise. 2. Why do myths from different cultures around the world address such similar or universal themes? Think about how myths explain the unknown and the tribulations of mankind.
The scientific method is used by researchers all around the world to discover new theories and ideas. Science in itself is a compilation of explanations about objective actuality that is derived from observed or hypothesized phenomena and then tested through experimentation. Human ability to make more accurate qualitative and quantitative observations has allowed for greater knowledge acquisition. However, the knowledge acquired through observation in the field of science is in a constant state of change, possibly due to the fact in the majority of testing in the world is viewed only through a scientific evolutionary lens (J. Morris, n. d.). Although there are always new discoveries, theories that were once thought to be unchanging are being challenged.
There have been several well respected scholars to weigh in on the issue, however the two major players in the debate were Martin Bernal who authored Black Athena, and Mary Lefkowitz who authored a rebuttal titled Black Athena Revisited. 2. How can the Black Athena Debate be resolved? Unless there is some type of indisputable evidence found in the future, I don’t know how the debate will truly be resolved. There will always be parties on both sides of the argument that believe they are right.
Matthew Rigsby Dr. Karuso Developmental Psych Tu/Th 9:25 11 March 2013 Major Issues: Development and Growth Since the beginning of time, humankind has been constantly striving to solve the mystery of development. Not until very recently has there been a field of study opened up to this broad field. Three major issues that still are being argued over today are: Nature vs. Nurture, Continuity vs. Stages, and Stability vs. Change. Every psychologist that majors in the field has a differing opinion on each issue, and that in turn affects the public's view on each subject and how they see development as a whole.
The term motivation refers to an internal state that activates and gives direction to our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Even though there have been numerous definitions that have been given to the term motivation over the years, a common perspective of term is that all motives are triggered by some kind of incentive. In psychology, emotion refers to the experience of feelings. Like motives, emotions also trigger and have an effect on behavior, but it is hard to guess the type of behavior that a specific emotion will stimulate. Motivation and emotions are unmistakably related impressions for three reasons - because both motives and the stimulation of emotion trigger behavior, motives are often associated with emotions, and emotions usually have motivational qualities of their own.
Knowledge also plays an important role in a person's world view. Similar to Naturalist and Secular Humanist, I think that everyone has the ability to empower themselves through knowledge. I Believe that human problems are caused through lack of knowledge and mistakes. Learning instead of being judgmental can greatly change someone views. In my experience, people views of certain things are often distorted due to lack of understanding.
People’s attitude towards the use of standard and non-standard English varies depending on their upbringing, culture and subjectiveness ass the two forms of English are different in purpose and are context dependent. The use of non-standard English can be to save time due to its ease in its construction and can also enable communicating ones beliefs and culture. However unlike non-standard English, Standard English make it difficult for interlocutors to build closeness due to it mainly being used to convey prestige, power, formality and professionalism. Due to the advancements in technology, many people have shifted from once using Standard English to now using non-standard English majority of the time. Since Standard English is usually time consuming to construct and difficult to use, people find it easier to use non-standard English, where the governing rules and grammar are more flexible making it efficient and easy to use.
Personality can mean many things but collectively the definition according to Feist & Feist in 2006, “…a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior” (Feist & Feist, 2006). It is hard to understand personality when no one can even agree about the true definition of personality so that is why we have to study it and assess the information that will help us understand what influences our own traits and characteristics. Quantifiable Human Nature The field of psychology is based on the basic ways in which humans will react through perceptions, position, and the point of views from of a lot of theorists. In the area of psychology according to Feist and Feist in 2009, “there are six dualistic dimensions on human nature and they are determinism versus free choice, pessimism versus optimism, causality versus teleology, conscious versus unconscious determinants of behavior, biological versus social influences, and finally uniqueness versus similarities” (Feist & Feist). First a thing where a human does anything willingly is called free choice.