What is Psychology?

Psychology: Chapter 1, Section 1

Why Study Psychology?

• Class Discussion: What would you like to learn from our study of psychology?

• You may want to know why people, or even you, act the way you do

• You may want to know more about your thoughts and feelings

• Maybe you want to help yourself or others deal with the stresses of life

Behavior Processes• Psychology is the scientific study of behavior

processes and mental processes• Behavior is any action that people can observe and

measure• For example, this morning, you woke up at a certain

time, you probably brushed your teeth and got dressed, and got yourself to school. These actions were all observable and measurable behaviors

• Behavior also includes involuntary body functions like heart and breathing rate and blood pressure. These can also be observed and measured

Behavior Processes

•The study of psychology involves the study of our behavior, much of which can be as measurable as a checklist•Did we brush our teeth or not this morning?

Mental Processes

• We also engage in cognitive activities, also known as mental processes

• These may include dreams, perceptions, thoughts and memories

• Some of these things cannot be directly measured– brain waves can be measured that show that someone is dreaming, but there is no way to see inside exactly what someone is dreaming

Mental ProcessesWe can see what someone’s brain waves look like, and have a general idea of how actively their brain is working, but we cannot tell from these charts what someone is thinking

Emotions and Feelings

• Psychologists not only look at behavior and mental processes, but also emotions and feelings

• Emotions can affect both behavior and mental processes

• You may feel stressed when taking a test, and that could affect your result

• Psychologists use psychological constructs when they are trying to learn more about things we cannot see, touch or measure directly

Emotions and Feelings•Emotional stress can really affect our behavior and mental processes•Too much stress can make our test scores lower than they should be

The Goals of Psychology

• As with any scientist, psychologists try to observe, describe, explain, predict, and control the events they study

• A psychologist may observe you writing your notes, describe how intensely you are writing, explain that you are writing to be able to study well, predict that with such good notes you will probably do well on the test, and then control factors that could best help you do well on that test

Psychology as an Observational Science

Much of what a psychologist does is observe and describe the actions of people

Psychology as a Science• Psychology is both a social science and a natural

science• As a social science (which includes history,

sociology, anthropology, economics, and political science), it is concerned with how people interact with themselves and with others

• As a natural science (which includes biology, chemistry, and physics) it is concerned with the natural world, including the anatomy and physiology of the brain

Psychology is both a Natural and a Social Science

As a natural science, we’ll look at the anatomy of the brain As a social science, we’ll explore why

people interact the way they do

Research

• Psychology has various research methods• The most popular are surveys and experimentation• A survey is where data is collected by asking

questions of people in a particular group• While most psychologists focus on human behavior,

some do focus on animal behavior, such as rats and monkeys

• Some believe that findings among animals can be applied to humans

ResearchPsychologists study how rats figure out a maze to learn more about how humans learn

Psychological Theories• Psychologists organize their research about mental

processes and behavior into theories• A theory is a statement that attempts to explain

why things are the way they are • Psychological theories discuss principles that govern

behavior and mental processes• A principle is a rule or a law, such as, “the harder

you study, the better you will do”• A theory is useful if it can predict behavior or

mental processes. If it can’t, then the theory may be discarded

Assessment

• Complete Section One Review:– #1-3 on page 6– #1-2 on page 7