PSY 105 Chapter 1: PSY105 Chapter 1: Psychology: Yesterday and Today
18 Nov 2015
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Psychology is the scientific study of mental processes (not observable) and behaviours (observable). Description: psychologists seek to describe very specifically the things that they observe (how we are able to see, how we interact in groups, how we remember events that have happened to us, etc. ) Explanation: telling what, where, when, and how is sometimes not enough. A key goal of psychologists is to answer the question of why? indeed, psychologists have developed hypotheses and theories to explain a huge variety of events, from why we sleep to how we learn. Prediction: psychologists also seek to predict the circumstances under which a variety of behaviours and mental process are likely to occur. Control: we often encounter situations in which we want to either limit or increase certain behaviours or mental processes whether our own or those of others. Learning objective: define psychology, and describe the goals and level of analysis psychologists use: the levels of analysis in psychology:
