Understanding Psychology: Goals, Fields & Benefits

1. Intro to Psychology 1.1

2. My Questions: Intro to Psychology • Explain the two major components that are studied to define psychology. • What are the four goals of psychology? Describe each in a sentence. • Remember your own question that you still have.

3. What is Psychology? • By definition psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. • Behavior is any outward action or reaction that can be seen and measured. • Mental processes is anything that occurs in your mind like thoughts, feelings, and memories.

4. Goals of Psychology • Psychology has four goals when uncovering the mysteries of human or animal behavior: 1)description 2) explanation 3) prediction 4) control • 1) Description occurs when a researcher makes an observation about a behavior and writes down everything. • 2) Explanation happens next when the researcher comes up with a theory about why it the behavior is occurring.

5. Goals of Psychology • 3) The researcher then makes a prediction about what will happen in the future if the situation stays the same. • 4)Finally, the researcher implements control to change the behavior from an undesirable behavior to a desirable behavior. • Now, with a partner, choose a strange or negative behavior that you have witnessed before and set up a plan using the four goals of psychology to understand the behavior better.

6. Why do Psychologists Perform Research and Experiments? • Psychologists come up with theories to explain human behaviors. • These theories are strongest when they are supported by facts and data from research and experiments. • When research and experiments do not support their theories, psychologists must change their theories.

7. Some of the Major Subfields of Psychology • Clinical Psychologists-diagnose and treat psychological disorders. • Counseling Psychologists- diagnose and treat less severe problems like stress, marital problems, or work issues. • Developmental Psychologists-study the changes in the way people think, relate to others, and feel as they age. • Physiological Psychologists-study the biological reasons of behavior.

8. Where Psychologists Work • 35% work at Universities or Colleges • 21% are self-employed • 18% work for private businesses • 10% work for the government • 7% work for schools • Average salary of a typical psychologist according to salary.com is $82,ooo

9. How does Psychology Benefit Society? • Overall, every psychologist has the same goal in mind: to help others. • Research into what causes racist behavior can minimize these problems in communities. • Psychologists who study child development can improve schools in a ways that can help students achieve. • Trained therapists can help adults through the loss of a teenage son or daughter who has committed suicide.