tailieunhanh - Schaum's Outline of Introduction to Psychology_1

Fortunately for you, there's Schaum's Outlines. More than 40 million students have trusted Schaum's to help them succeed in the classroom and on exams. Schaum's is the key to faster learning and higher grades in every subject. Each Outline presents all the essential course information in an easy-to-follow, topic-by-topic format. You also get hundreds of examples, solved problems, and practice exercises to test your skills. | CHAPTER 1 Psychology Definition and History We are all interested in how people act. Not only do we want to know what is happening quite frequently we want to know why. Although these questions often are answered in a rather loose or undisciplined fashion a more rigorous body of knowledge concerning behavior has developed. This body of knowledge is called psychology. DEFINITION AND PURPOSE Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and cognitive processes. As such psychology describes thinking and behavior and looks at the relationships between them the what and tries to explain the causes for them the why . EXAMPLE . Why did you buy this book What do you expect to accomplish If you accomplish your goals will you be likely to buy another similar book in a different subject Psychologists try to answer questions like these to determine how people think how they act. and why they do. The descriptions of behavior or thought that result from psychological study are not casual or without aim. The study of behavior and mental processes has as its purposes understanding prediction modification or improvement of actions or thoughts. Basically understanding and prediction occur when a psychologist anticipates events that will occur in natural or contrived situations whereas modification and improvement mean the psychologist has somehow manipulated the situation and subsequently observed an expected result. EXAMPLE . It is understandable and predictable that a child in the early stages of language development at first may call all beverages pop. Manipulating the child s experiences will lead to learning different labels so that the child eventually correctly identifies water milk. and pop as different drinks. AREAS OF STUDY Humans and Animals. Behavior is defined as any observable or measurable response by a person or animal. The definition of psychology includes the study of all behavior including both animal and 1 Copyright 2001 The McGraw-Hill Companies .