Paper Topic:

Psychology Questions.

Define psychology

Psychology is the science of mind and behavior

Psychology is the discipline which , through scientific study , endeavors to achieve the goals of observation , description , understanding prediction and control of behavior and psychological processes

Explain what is meant by behavior

Behavior ( alteration of Middle English behavour , from behaven ) is

a : the manner of conducting oneself

b : anything that an organism does involving action and response to stimulation

c : the response of an individual , group , or species to its environment

The following are Psychology 's Goals : 3 . Explain how

description , 4 understanding , 5 . prediction , and 6 . control are used and practiced in psychology

When conducting research , psychologists share some goals . He /she need to decide on how they will measure the phenomenon they are interested in so they can describe that phenomenon . Once psychologists can describe the phenomenon , they can then begin to understand that phenomenon Psychologists often assert that they understand a phenomenon when they are able to explain it . To evaluate their understanding , psychologists make and test predictions (i .e . hypotheses ) about the phenomenon under investigation . Once psychologists gain an understanding (and can predict ) the phenomenon they are interested in , they can then exert some control . The ultimate goal is to then apply the information they gathered about the phenomenon to "real-world " issues /problems

Description /Prediction Explanation / Control

What are people doing or thinking ? What causes (influences , makes people to do or think what they do

What is happening ? Why is it happening

What do people do in a certain situation ? How can manipulating drugs situations , or instructions change people 's behavior

Answered only by non-experimental / descriptive /correlational research Answered only by using experiments Define and differentiate the following branches of Psychology

7 . Structuralism

Structuralism was a school of thought that sought to identify the components (structure ) of the mind (the mind was the key element to psychology at this point . Structralists believed that the way to learn about the brain and its functions was to break the mind down into its most basic elements . They believed , the whole is equal to the sum of the parts

Wilhelm Wundt , who is considered the pioneer Structuralist , set up the first psychological laboratory in 1879 . Following Wundt was Titchner who popularized the field (he was one of Wundt 's students . TItchner was interested in the conscious mind . He used a technique called introspection to try to understand the conscious mind . Introspection is a process of having a person look inward , focus on , and try to understand the emotion or thought they are experiencing at that moment

8 . Functionalism

Functionalism was the psychological school of thought that followed Structuralism and moved away from focusing on the structure of the mind to a concern with how the conscious is related to behavior (How does the mind affect what people do

One of the major proponents of Functionalism was Thorndike who studied the primary issue of functionalism - what function does a nehavior have . In addition , this school of thought focused on observable events...

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