ABSTRACT
Unlike older sciences, where there is reasonable agreement on what constitutes the main theory in each area, psychology is characterized by several schools of thought or perspectives. Each perspective has its own set of assumptions about what people are like, i.e. it has its own implicit ‘model of people’. While it might appear somewhat problematic for a science to have these differences of opinion, especially when some of these differences are mutually exclusive, it can be argued that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps multiple perspectives allow us a broader understanding of why people do the things they do, since each offers a complementary, rather than simply a competing view.
