Intro Psy perspectives

1. Thinking Critically with
Psychological Science

2. What is Psychology?
 How we study:
 Scientific Method
 What we study:
 Behaviors
 Observable actions
 Mental Processes
 Non-observable
 are things like sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts,
beliefs, and feelings (the non-observable)
 Psychology is…
 The scientific study of behavior and mental processes

3. Goals of Psychology
1. Describe
 Behaviors or Mental Processes or people engaging in them
 What is the person doing?
2. Understand
 Why
 Why is the person doing it?
3. Predict
 Factors that trigger or indicate
 What starts the behaviors onset?
4. Influence
 Change/manipulate
 How can we stop (or start) the behavior?

4. Contemporary Psychology
Perspectives – varying schools of
thought of WHY (goal 2) behaviors happen
 Biopsychology
 Communication of brain to body &
Genetics (brain prevents you from acting
that way)
 Behavioral
 Learning (taught to act that way)
 Cognitive
 Thoughts (thinking how awesome you are
makes you try harder so you actually
accomplish the goal; thinking you stink
makes you not perform as well)
 Social
 Groups & Culture (act that way because
our friends do)
 Evolutionary
 Survival of fittest (natural selection of
certain characteristics)
 Psychodynamic
 Unconscious issues (part of your mind
you are unaware of is impacting your
conscious experiences)
 Humanistic
 Self-improvement (sub-consciously
striving to become better as a person)

5. Levels of Analysis in
Psychology
 Level of the brain
 Level of the person
 Level of the group