ofviewpoints,major ways in which behavior can be explained. These viewpoints
greatly influence how research is done, how psychologists approach the study of
behavior.
Viewpoints in psychology are major ways.
Answer: in which behavior can be explained.The first viewpoint to be identified is the biological viewpoint.The bio-
logical viewpoint asserts that behavior can be explained in terms of such factors as
genes, the endocrine system, or the brain and nervous system. The biological
viewpoint assumes that we are all organisms, made out of protoplasm, and the
most solid explanations are those that recognize this.
Let us say that a child is suffering from mental retardation. Assume that the
child receives a diagnosis of Down’s syndrome, a set of signs and symptoms sug-
gesting that the child has three chromosomes on what is normally the twenty-first
pair of chromosomes. Mental retardation is very frequently associated with this
condition. Consequently, the genetic condition provides an explanation of the
mental retardation.
Assume that thirty-four-year-old Jane C. says, “I feel lazy.” This may seem to
be a psychological condition. If it is later discovered that she has a sluggish thyroid
gland and a low basal metabolism, her laziness may be explained in terms of her
low thyroid production.
Bill, a forty-five-year-old engineer, suffers from chronic depression. If it is dis-
covered that he has low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin,a chemical mes-
senger in the brain, he may be prescribed a psychiatric drug that brings the
serotonin to an optimal level. His depression has been explained in terms of the
brain’s neurotransmitters.
As you can see, the biological viewpoint is a powerful and useful one. It is the
viewpoint that tends to be favored by psychiatry, a medical specialty, and physio-
logical psychology (see “Fields of Psychology” on page 12).
The biological viewpoint asserts that behavior can be explained in terms of such factors as
.
Answer: genes, the endocrine system, or the brain and nervous system.
The second viewpoint to be identified is the learning viewpoint.The learn-
ing viewpoint assumes that much, perhaps most, behavior is learned. Behaviors
are acquired by experience. The learning viewpoint owes much to the influence
of the philosopher John Locke (1632–1704), who said that the mind at birth is a
tabula rasa(i.e., a “blank slate”), meaning that there are no inborn ideas.
Let’s say that Opal smokes two packages of cigarettes a day. She thinks of it as
a “bad” habit, and the learning viewpoint agrees with this commonsense way of
Introduction: The Foundations of Psychology 9