Final answer:
The psychological perspective that emphasized the human tendency to actively organize perceptions is the cognitive perspective, contrasting with the deterministic views of behaviorism and psychoanalysis.
Step-by-step explanation:
The cognitive perspective in psychology centers on the belief that human beings are active participants in their perception of the world, rather than passive observers. Unlike behaviorism, which asserts that all behavior is learned through interaction with the environment, or psychoanalysis, which emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts, the cognitive perspective posits that humans have inherent capabilities to process and organize the information they receive from the environment.
In answering a related question, cognitive psychology is the branch that focuses on the study of human thinking. The rise of humanistic psychology in the mid-20th century, with thinkers like Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, further challenged the deterministic views of previous schools, emphasizing the potential for good within all humans and the concept of self-actualization. Then came the cognitive revolution, which shifted the attention back to the mind and the ways in which it comprehends, processes, and organizes information.
Ulric Neisser's seminal textbook on cognitive psychology cemented the approach as a dominant perspective within the field. This contrasted sharply with behaviorists like B. F. Skinner, who focused predominantly on externally observable behaviors and environmental reinforcements, disregarding the cognitive processes underlying them.
The cognitive perspective recognizes and studies the complex processes that allow individuals to make sense of their experiences, solve problems, plan for the future, and fully engage with the environment in an intentional, organized manner.