PSYC 1004 Chapter 1-2: psychnotes
5 Oct 2015
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Psychology Chapter 1 notes 09/30/2015
What is psychology?
- a science with a specific focus on behavior
-emphasis on discovering and explaining the causes of behavior
- comes from two greek words, psukhe, meaning breath or soul and logos meaning word or reason.
-modern meaning is pyscho meaning mind and logy meaning science
-“the science of the mind”
Why behavior is studied
-the goal is to understand human behavior
casual events- events that cause other events
-different categories of these events are referred to as “the levels of explanation
-this does not mean one approach is better than another one
Areas of Psychological Research
-research pyschologists are put into two different categories :types of behavior they investigate, and in the
casual events they analyze
-physiological psychology- the branch of psychology that studies the physcological basis of
behavior
-comparative psychology-studies the beahvios of members of a veriety of species in an attempt to
explain behavior in terms of evolutionaty adaptation to the environment
-behavior genetics- studies the role of genetics in behavior
-cognitive pscychology-studies the mental processes and complex behaviors such as perception,
attention, learning and memory, verbal behavior, concept formation, and problem solving.
-cognitive neuroscience-attempts to understand cognitive psychological functions by studying the
brain mechanisms that are responsible for them
-developmental psychology- studies the changes in behavioral, perpetual, cognitive, social, and
emotional capactiies of organisms as a function of age and experience
-social psychology- devoted to the study of the effects people have on one anothers behavior
-personality psychology- attempts to categorize and understand the causes of individual
differences in temperament and patterns of behavior
-evolutionary psychology- explains behavior in terms of adaptive advantages that specific
behaviors provided during the evolution of a species. They use natural selection as a guiding principal.
-cross-cultural psychology- studies the impact of culture on behavior
-clinical psychology-devoted to the investigation and treatment of abnormal behavior and mental
disorders
How is Psychology Used?
