1. Psychology: Chapter 1, Section 1
What is Psychology?
Psychology: Chapter 1, Section 1

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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?
Behavior Processes

5. 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

6. Mental Processes
We 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

7. 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

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

9. 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

10. Psychology as an Observational Science
Much of what a psychologist does is observe and describe the actions of people

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Research
Psychologists study how rats figure out a maze to learn more about how humans learn

15. 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

16. Assessment
Complete Section One Review:
#1-3 on page 6
#1-2 on page 7