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There is a lot to be gained from studying a topic in psychology from more than one perspective. Discuss this claim drawing on chapters 2 an 3 of book 2 to illustrate your points. Psychology is a subject which is based on theory and uses various scientific methods to both collect and analyse data. There are many different psychological perspectives adopted by psychologists who take different viewpoints from each other, even though the topic they are interested in is the same. This essay aims to address the question that there is a lot to be gained from studying a topic in psychology from more than one perspective, by looking at the topics of language and meaning from the perspectives of the social constructionists, evoulutionary psychologists and cognitive psychology. And the topic of the psychology of sex and gender from the perspectives of social contructionists, evoulutionary psychology, biological psychology and psychodynamic psychology. One advantage of studying a topic in psychology from various different perspectives, is that each perspective has a different "object of knowledge" and therefore the questions that each perspective will pose, the evidence they collect and the methods they use to collect that evidence will be different. Which in turn causes each perspective either to conflict, coexist or complelement each other. If we look at the topic of the psychology of sex and gender from a social constructionist perspective, the object of knowledge we would be consentrating or interesreted in is that of the social and cultural context of how sex and gender affect our lives, as social constuctionists beleive that the world is constructed in language, it argues that biological sex is not central to explaining what it is to be male or female. Social constructionist theory believes that the anatomical differences that we are born with are nothing more than a signpost to which socially constructed gender differences of masculine and feminine are attached. However if we look at the biological perspective thier object of knowledge defines sex and gender at a biological level of differences in hormones, genetic inheritance and brain structure, as biological psychology defines and sees the world contsructed at a genetic pre-disposiontioned level. Therefore we can see that these two perspectives are in stark contrast with each other and thier theories and objects of knowledge directly challenge each other. Evoulutionary psychology's object of knowledge is the process of how humans evolved through sexual selection and the functions and behaviours that led to successful sexual selection.Evolutionary psychology argues that sexual behaviour and partner choice are determined by behaviours and dispositions that have been selected for in evoulutionary history, and that these differences between male and female are coded for within the genes. If we look at evoulutionary psychology and biological psychology's objects of knowledge they are both to some extent very similar, as they are both concerned with sex and gender at a biological level, they both view gender as a consequence primarily of biological sex and that the differences in males and females arsie from biological factors, which are selected for during evolution. Therefore these two perspectives can be seen to compliment each other. Psychodynamic perspective on the other hand is unique as its object of knowledge is distintcly psychlogical, it is unique as it combines both biological and cultural factors and explanations of gender. Psychodynamic theory takes in to account both family dynamics and anatomical differences when constructing explanations of gender. Therefore it can be seen to coexist with all of the previous theories, and possibly compliment biological and social constructionist theories. If we take the next topic of language and meaning we can see that the object of knowledge for the different perspectives is also different, evolutionary psychology focuses on the origins of language and the possible benefits conveyed to early humans, and uses both material and behavioural data to attempt to establish how language might have been produced by a particular set of characteristics and environmental conditions. Cognitive psychology's object of knowledge focuses on the information proccessing system which resides in the individual brain, and how the lexical, semantic and syntactic information produce language and meaning using conectionist models to interperet thier findings. Finally social constructionist theory looks at the co-construction of meaning between communicating individuals, using both material and behavioural data, it searches for meaning in the use of the communication between individuals and makes use of hermuenitic methods to identify the nature of use. We can see that the cognitive and social constructionist perspectives conflict as the cognitive perspective views language and meaning as constructed by the individual and transmitted between individuals, whereas the social constructionist perspective views language and meaning as being constructed between two individuals. So we can see that these perspectives conflict, however cognitive psychology and social constructionist psychology also coexist with each other, as cognitive psychology focuses on the individual production and generation of meaning, and social constructionists focus on what happens in terms of meaning once an utterance has been made. So we can see that these perspectives can both conflict and coexist with each other. That said there are also conlficting accounts presented within a single perspective. If we look at the evoutionary perspective we can see that there are conflicting accounts as to how and when language evolved and its importance in the evolutionary perspective. Pinker (as cited in cooper et al 2007) believed that language offered an adaptaional advantage and that the facility for language appeared at some point in our evolutionary history, the capacity for which then spread via the process of natural selection as it promoted evolutionary fitness. Pinker(2007) argues that languague is the foundation for other cognitive abilities. However a confilicting explanation from Dan Sperber (as cited in cooper et al 2007) also an evolutionary psychologist beleives that it is the ability of metarepresentation, which is the ability to reflect on our own and others mental processes that in fact conveyed a large advantage in allowing humans to predict how they and others might react or behave in social interaction. Sperber(2007) argues that its the ability of metarepresentaion that was selected during natural selection and that language developed because it enabled people to formulate and communicate these ideas with each other. The debate between psychologists of whether language evolved because it confered an adaptaional advantage which became the basis of other cognitive abilities or whether it confered and advantage more narrowly in terms of social interaction communication and co-operation, is still a highly contested one within this perspective and topic. So far we have seen that one advantage of studying a topic in psychology from different perspectives is that each perspective adopts a different object of knowledge, and therefore gives a 'bigger picture' as no single perspective can tell the full story each has its own limitations, however all of the perspectives are valid in thier own way. One disadvantage of studying a topic in psychology from different perspectives is that as the perspectives use different methods, objects of knowledge and come to different conclusions, it can be difficult to fully conclude whether these perspectives compliment, coexist or conflict with each other. While thier objects of knowledge may conflict the methods they use could compliment each other, and the theories they produce could coexist. If we take the topic of language and meaning as an example, cognitive psychology and social constructionism conflict in their theories as to what meaning is and where it is made. However they also coexist with each other in terms of production of meaning. Another example can be seen in the topic of the psychology of sex and gender, as psychoanalytical psychology and social constructionist perspectives adopt an hermeneutic approach and focus on the interpretaion of meaning from peoples beleifs and experiences whereas the biological and evoulutionary perspectives adopt a more scientific principle. So we can not really compare the evidence gathered from a hermeneutic method to that gathered from a scientific method. However that said one major advantage to collect both scientific and hermeneutic data is we have evidence form both sides of a major debate within psychology that of the nature - nurture debate. By having evidence from both sides we can look at this debate from both sides and draw our own conclusions. So there are both advantages and disadvantages to studying a topic in psychology from more than one perspective, however there are far more advantages than disadvantages. As was explained earlier psychology is a subject which is based on theory, and therefore having more than one theory from different perspectives gives us a wider range of opinions. As psychologists we are constantly looking at our social world and interpreting evidence from our own perspective, which leaves us asking more questions and looking for answers. And by having other perspectives available to us we can compare our perspective with those and sometimes get answers to our questions, or open up our questions for debate. word count 1450 References Cooper, T. & Kaye, H.(2007) Language and Meaning. In Cooper, T & Roth, I. (EDS) Challenging Psychological Issues Book 2(2nd ed., pp. 120 - 122). Milton Keynes The Open University.