2. Chapter 1 WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY Section 1: Why Study Psychology? Section 2: What Psychologists Do Section 3: A History of Psychology Section 4: Contemporary Perspectives
How has the study of psychology developed over time?
>Another definition of psychology would be: the science of mental life >How do psychologists study behavior and mental processes? They OBSERVE and MEASURE. >Psychologists seek to understand and explain thought, emotion, and behavior. Let’s look at behavior . What are some examples? > waking up this morning, getting out of bed, laughing (these activities are OBSERVABLE by other people) What about your heartbeat? Or brain activity? Are these activities observable? How? >What about mental processes? MENTAL PROCESSES and here is where you have a new word – you will also see this written as COGNITION and COGNITIVE ACTIVITIES ….. It has to do with thought processes – things like perception, remembering, problem solving, decision making … Thoughts! Dreams! But these activities can’t be observed! How do we know that these activities are going on? Can we measure thoughts or dreams or memories? Brain waves measure brain activity … but thoughts - dreams – memories are private mental processes. >Psychologists are also interested in studying people’s EMOTIONS -- … can affect both behavior AND mental processes. You had emotions about coming into this class … first day … maybe you didn’t know me …. -- you probably felt a little anxious or nervous. Your heart rate probably went up … which causes your blood pressure to rise. These behaviors can be measured and therefore observed, right? But your thoughts? No – only when you tell someone can those PRIVATE MENTAL PROCESSES be observed.
… how mental processes help organisms adapt to their environment – what were their functions??