AP Psychology: History & Approaches Notes

Understanding the history of psychology and the current psychological perspectives, or approaches, is critical to your success on the AP Psychology exam. Use these AP Psychology study notes to review what you’ve learned in class and get ready for test day. Then test your readiness with our AP Psychology quiz, featuring realisting practice questions and detailed answer explanations. 

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AP Psychology History & Approaches: Key Takeaways

Different contemporary psychologists view human thought and behavior from different perspectives. The current psychological perspectives can be placed into eight categories: 

1. Humanist Perspective
2. Psychodynamic Perspective
3. Biopsychology (or Neuroscience) Perspective
4. Evolutionary (or Darwinian) Perspective
5. Behavioral Perspective
6. Cognitive Perspective
7. Social-Cultural (or Sociocultural) Perspective
8. Biopsychosocial Perspective

If you ask psychologists which of these perspectives they most agree with, they might say that each perspective has valid explanations depending on the specific situation. This point of view, sometimes called eclectic, claims that no one perspective has all the answers to the variety of human thought and behavior. In the future, some perspectives might be combined, or new perspectives might emerge as research continues.

AP Psychology History & Approaches: Key Terms

Review the following key terms related to AP Psychology history and approaches. 

• Humanist Perspective: Humanists, including theorists Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) and Carl Rogers (1902–1987), stressed individual choice and free will. Humanists believe that we choose most of our behaviors and these choices are guided by physiological, emotional, or spiritual needs.
  
• Psychodynamic Perspective: Psychologists using this perspective believe that the unconscious mind—a part of our mind that we do not have conscious control over or access to—controls much of our thought and action. This perspective thinks that to understand human thought and behavior, we must examine our unconscious mind through dream analysis, word association, and other psychoanalytic therapy techniques.
  
• Biopsychology (or Neuroscience) Perspective: Biopsychologists explain human thought and behavior strictly in terms of biological processes. Human cognition and reactions might be caused by the effects of our genes, hormones, and neurotransmitters in the brain or by a combination of all three.
  
• Evolutionary (or Darwinian) Perspective: Evolutionary psychologists (also sometimes called sociobiologists) examine human thoughts and actions in terms of natural selection. Some psychological traits might be advantageous for survival, and these traits would be passed down from the parents to the next generation.
  
• Behavioral Perspective: Behaviorists explain human thought and behavior in terms of conditioning. Behaviorists look strictly at observable behaviors and at human and animal responses to different kinds of stimuli.
  
• Cognitive Perspective: Cognitive psychologists examine human thought and behavior in terms of how we interpret, process, and remember environmental events. In this perspective, the rules that we use to view the world are important to understanding why we think and behave the way we do.
  
• Social-Cultural (or Sociocultural) Perspective: Social-cultural psychologists look at how our thoughts and behaviors vary among cultures. They emphasize the influence culture has on how we think and act.
  
• Biopsychosocial Perspective: This modern perspective acknowledges that human thinking and behavior results from combinations of biological (“bio”), psychological (“psycho”), and social (“social”) factors. Psychologists who emphasize the biopsychosocial perspective view other perspectives as too focused on specific influences on thinking and behavior (sometimes called being reductionistic).