Perspectification (Yes Mrs. Perl, I created a new term)

When thinking of a blog post I was (as usual) at a loss for words. I can talk my head off all day but somehow when it comes to these blog posts I can't think of one thing. I stared at my notes for a good one second an something came to me (which is very unusual). I saw the title of Unit 1: Psychology's History and Approaches and realized that it was such a classic Mrs. Perl title (who knew she wrote our Psychology book). Suddenly all my mind could say was PERSPECTIVE! 

I took myself back to class this past week and thought of all the different approaches to psychology:

Dualists (people who think the mind and the body are separate entities; we're born with knowledge) like Socrates, Plato, and Renee Descartes. 

Monists (people who think the mind and body are the same; we learn through experience) like Aristotle. 

Empiricism which is the view that knowledge is derived from experience and can only be known by observation and experimentation. People who contributed to this belief are Francis Bacon and John Locke. 

Then finally when psychology is really born, with Wilhelm Wundt, we see things like structuralism (wanting to understand the structure of the mind) with people like Edward Titchener and functionalism (concerned with the function of the mind) with William James. 

All of these people and ideas all give a different piece of psychology.

I thought about all the different subfields of psychology: 

Biological psychologists who study the interaction between the mid and the body.

Developmental psychologists who study the development of person from 'womb to tomb.' 

Cognitive psychologists who look at how we perceive, pay attention, our memory, language, thinking, and problem solving. 

Educational/School Psychologists who study teaching, learning, human development, attitudes, and traits. 

Personality psychologists who study persistent traits.

Social psychologists who ponder how de view one another, interact, etc. 

Additionally, I thought about the bio-psycho-social approach, and the importance of seeing each one together as a whole, and not each separately. When looking at each one separately, one misses the whole picture. However, when looking at each affect as a whole - one gets the whole picture.

I thought this was so appropriate being that it is Mrs. Perl's class and that perspective is so important (how classic). I think going into our AP Psychology class it's very important for us all to make sure we're looking at the whole picture instead of just one perspective. It's important to look at all perspectives instead of just one and seeing a very narrow point of view.