1、Psychology and Life When you begin your introductory course in psychology, you may be quite pleasantly surprised by the wide-ranging terrain of contemporary psychology. Psychology and Life will reveal the intricacies of your human experience through rigorous research. Psychology and Life will lead y
2、ou from the inner spaces of brain and mind to the outer dimensions of human behavior. We will investigate the processes that provide meaningful structure to your experiences, such as how you perceive the world, communicate, learn, think, and remember. We will try to understand the more dramatic expr
3、essions of human nature, such as how and why people dream, fall in love, act aggressively, and become mentally ill. Finally, we will demonstrate how psychological knowledge can be used to understand and change cultural forces at work in our lives. As authors of Psychology and Life, we believe in the
4、 power of psychological expertise. The appeal of psychology has grown personally for us over our careers as educators and researchers. In recent years, there has been a virtual explosion of new information about the basic mechanisms that govern mental and behavioral processes. As new ideas replace o
5、r modify old ideas, we are continually intrigued and challenged by the many fascinating pieces of the puzzle of human nature. Foremost in the journey will be a scientific quest or understanding. We shall inquire about the how, what, when, and why of human behavior and about the causes and consequenc
6、es of behaviors you observe in yourself, in other people, and in animals. We will explain why you think, feel, and behave as you do. What makes you uniquely different from all other people? Yet why do you often behave so much like others? Are you molded by heredity, or are you shaped more by persona
7、l experiences? How an aggression and altruism, love and hate, and madness and creativity exist side by side in this complex creature-the human animal? To appreciate the uniqueness and unity of psychology, you must consider the way psychologists define the field and the goals they bring to their rese
8、arch and applications. By the end of the book, we will encourage you to think like a psychologist. In this first section, well give you a strong idea of what that might mean. Many psychologists seek answers to this fundamental question: what is human nature? Psychology answers this question by looki
9、ng at processes that occur within individuals as well as forces that arise within the physical and social environment. In this light, we formally define psychology as the scientific study of the behavior of individuals and their mental processes. Lets explore the critical parts of this definition: s
10、cientific, behavior, individual, and mental. The scientific aspect of psychology requires that psychological conclusions be based on evidence collected according to the principles of the scientific method. The scientific method consists of a set of orderly steps used to analyze and solve problems. T
11、his method uses objectively collected information as the factual basis for drawing conclusions. We will elaborate on the features of the scientific method more fully in Chapter 2, when we consider how psychologists conduct their research. Behavior is the means by which organisms adjust to their envi
12、ronment. Behavior is action. The subject matter of psychology largely consists of the observable behavior of humans and other species of animals. Smiling, crying, running, hitting, talking, and touching are some obvious examples of behavior you can observe. Psychologists examine what the individual
13、does and how the individual goes about doing it within a given behavioral setting and in the broader social or cultural context. The subject of psychological analysis is most often an individual-a newborn infant, a teenage athlete, a college student adjusting to life in a dormitory, a man facing a m
14、idlife career change, or a woman coping with the stress of her husbands deterioration from Alzheimers disease. However, the subject might also be a chimpanzee learning to use symbols to communicate, a white rat navigating a maze, or a sea slug responding to a danger signal. An individual might be st
15、udied in its natural habitat or in the controlled conditions of a research laboratory. Many researchers in psychology also recognize that they cannot understand human actions without also understanding mental processes, the workings of the human mind. Much human activity takes place as private, inte
16、rnal events-thinking, planning, reasoning, creating, and dreaming. Many psychologists believe that mental processes represent the most important aspect of psychological inquiry. As you shall soon see, psychological investigators have devised ingenious techniques to study mental events and processes-
17、to make these private experiences public. The combination of these concerns defines psychology as a unique field. Within the social sciences, psychologists focus largely on behavior in individuals, whereas sociologists study the behavior of people in groups or institutions, and anthropologists focus
18、 on the broader context of behavior in different cultures: Even so, psychologists draw broadly from the insights of other scholars. Psychologists share many interests with researchers in biological sciences, especially with those who study brain processes and the biochemical bases of behavior. As pa
19、rt of the emerging area of cognitive science, psychologistsquestions about how the human mind works are related to research and theory in computer science, artificial intelligence, and applied mathematics. As a health science-with links to medicine, education, law, and environmental studies-psycholo
20、gy seeks to improve the quality of each individuals and the collectives well-being. Although the remarkable breadth and depth of modern psychology are a source of delight to those who become psychologists, these same attributes make the field a challenge to the student exploring it for the first tim
21、e. There is so much more to the study of psychology than one expects initially-and, because of that, there will also be much of value that you can take away from this introduction to psychology. The best way to learn about the field is to learn to share psychologists goals. Lets consider those goals
22、. To appreciate the uniqueness and unity of psychology, you must consider the way psychologists define the field and the goals they bring to their research and applications. By the end of the book, we will encourage you to think like a psychologist. In this first section, well give you a strong idea
23、 of what that might mean. Many psychologists seek answers to this fundamental question: what is human nature? Psychology answers this question by looking at processes that occur within individuals as well as forces that arise within the physical and social environment. In this light, we formally def
24、ine psychology as the scientific study of the behavior of individuals and their mental processes. Lets explore the critical parts of this definition: scientific, behavior, individual, and mental. The scientific aspect of psychology requires that psychological conclusions be based on evidence collect
25、ed according to the principles of the scientific method. The scientific method consists of a set of orderly steps used to analyze and solve problems. This method uses objectively collected information as the factual basis for drawing conclusions. We will elaborate on the features of the scientific m
26、ethod more fully in Chapter 2, when we consider how psychologists conduct their research. Behavior is the means by which organisms adjust to their environment. Behavior is action. The subject matter of psychology largely consists of the observable behavior of humans and other species of animals. Smi
27、ling, crying, running, hitting, talking, and touching are some obvious examples of behavior you can observe. Psychologists examine what the individual does and how the individual goes about doing it within a given behavioral setting and in the broader social or cultural context. The subject of psych
28、ological analysis is most often an individual-a newborn infant, a teenage athlete, a college student adjusting to life in a dormitory, a man facing a midlife career change, or a woman coping with the stress of her husbands deterioration from Alzheimers disease. However, the subject might also be a c
29、himpanzee learning to use symbols to communicate, a white rat navigating a maze, or a sea slug responding to a danger signal. An individual might be studied in its natural habitat or in the controlled conditions of a research laboratory. Many researchers in psychology also recognize that they cannot understand
