Cognitive Perspective: A psychological approach that emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem solving, and other areas of behavior.

Mediational Processes In comparison, the cognitive approach believes that internal mental behavior can be scientifically studied using experiments. Cognitive psychology assumes that a mediational process occurs between stimulus/input and response/output.

Cognitive theory is an approach to psychology that attempts to explain human behavior by understanding your thought processes. 1 For example, a therapist is using principles of cognitive theory when they teach you how to identify maladaptive thought patterns and transform them into constructive ones.

There are several major contemporary approaches to psychology (behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic, evolutionary, biological, humanistic, sociocultural/contextual).

The five major perspectives in psychology are biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive and humanistic.

Learning Perspective. A psychological approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a person’s or animal’s actions; it includes behaviorism and social-cognitive learning theories.

Behaviorism focuses on the idea that all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment. This learning theory states that behaviors are learned from the environment, and says that innate or inherited factors have very little influence on behavior.

The main idea behind the behavioral perspective on personality is that all behavior is learned and therefore can be modified through conditioning. Conditioning is the process of encouraging desired behavior and discouraging unwanted behavior through a system of rewards and punishments.

Behavioral psychology focuses on understanding and modifying individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Behavioral psychologists rely heavily on empirical evidence and theories of human behavior and cognition. Professionals in this area often work as psychologists or counselors.