WHAT IS HUMAN BEHAVIOR PSYCHOLOGY IS The scientific

WHAT IS HUMAN BEHAVIOR?

PSYCHOLOGY IS…. The scientific study of the mind and behavior What does that actually mean?

WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE? Why are some people the life of the party and others prefer to curl up with a good book? Why do you remember certain events but not others? Why do people lie? Why are some people always happy?

WHAT TOPICS DO PSYCHOLOGISTS STUDY? -learning and memory -sensation and perception -motivation and emotion -thinking and language -personality and social behavior -intelligence -infant, child & adolescent development -mental illness … and much more.

THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY People have studied the mind and how it works since the time of the ancient Greeks (400 – 500 BC) , but the scientific study of psychology only dates back to a little over a hundred years ago. Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology lab in 1879, this marked the beginning of the scientific study of psychology

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A PSYCHOLOGIST? Research Promote physical or mental health (change unhealthy behaviors) Help people learn Work in communities Workplace Basic – study how/why people act the way they do Applied – use/apply research

WHAT DOES THIS TELL YOU ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY? https: //www. ted. com/talks/ben_ambridge_10_myths_about_psychology_debu nked#t-882948

HOW DO PSYCHOLOGISTS ANSWER QUESTIONS? Psychology attempts to investigate the causes of behavior using systematic and objective procedures for observation, measurement and analysis, backedup by theoretical interpretations, generalizations, explanations and predictions

HOW PSYCHOLOGISTS WORK Psychologists use human behavior as a clue to the workings of the mind. Although we cannot observe the mind directly, everything we do, think, feel and say is determined by the functioning of the mind. So psychologists take human behavior as the raw data for testing their theories about how the mind works.

Each psychological perspective is underpinned by a shared set of assumptions of what people are like, what is important to study and how to study it. Some conduct detailed biological studies of the brain, others explore how we process information; others analyze the role of evolution, and still others study the influence of culture and society.