Chapter 1: An introduction to psychology
What is psychology
● Scientific study of behavior and mental (thoughts and emotions) processes
● Psychologists work in a variety of subfields, but all focus on studying behavior and
underlying mental processes
○ Clinical psychologists and counselors provide therapy, exploring the causes
of psychological disorders
● Other types of psychologists
○ Working in labs - studying human interactions
○ School psychologists - studying children behavior
○ Neuropsychologists - studying the brain
○ Forensic
○ Media psychologists - studying human interactions with technology
○ Health psychologists - working with hospitals
○ Industrial and organizational psychologists - working for large companies
○ Social psychologists
○ Sports psychologists
○ Military psychologists
○ Animal behavior
○ Geropsychologists - working with older persons
○ Developmental psychologists - studying people’s growth and development
Basic Research Applied Research
- Gather knowledge - Change behaviors and customs
- Build upon existing knowledge - Often leads to real world application
Qualitative Research Quantitative Research
● Goals of psychology
○ The goals lay the foundation for the scientific approach and the research
designs used
Describe Describe or report what is benign observed
Explain Organize and make sense of research findings
Predict If it's valid, it may be used to make predictions and find patterns
Change Refers to how we can apply the results given so that they lead to an
improvement
● Common sense
What is psychology
● Scientific study of behavior and mental (thoughts and emotions) processes
● Psychologists work in a variety of subfields, but all focus on studying behavior and
underlying mental processes
○ Clinical psychologists and counselors provide therapy, exploring the causes
of psychological disorders
● Other types of psychologists
○ Working in labs - studying human interactions
○ School psychologists - studying children behavior
○ Neuropsychologists - studying the brain
○ Forensic
○ Media psychologists - studying human interactions with technology
○ Health psychologists - working with hospitals
○ Industrial and organizational psychologists - working for large companies
○ Social psychologists
○ Sports psychologists
○ Military psychologists
○ Animal behavior
○ Geropsychologists - working with older persons
○ Developmental psychologists - studying people’s growth and development
Basic Research Applied Research
- Gather knowledge - Change behaviors and customs
- Build upon existing knowledge - Often leads to real world application
Qualitative Research Quantitative Research
● Goals of psychology
○ The goals lay the foundation for the scientific approach and the research
designs used
Describe Describe or report what is benign observed
Explain Organize and make sense of research findings
Predict If it's valid, it may be used to make predictions and find patterns
Change Refers to how we can apply the results given so that they lead to an
improvement
● Common sense
