Psychology Is A Discipline That Studies The Mind And Behavior

Psychology has revealed how the learning perspective is concerned with the environment and experiences leading to effects on a person’s actions. Within this perspective, behaviorists focus on the environmental rewards and punishers that maintain or discourage specific behaviors. B.F. Skinner once stated, I am sometimes asked, ‘Do you think of yourself as you think of the organisms you study?’ The answer is yes. So far as I know, my behavior at any given moment has been nothing more than the product of my genetic endowment, my personal history, and the current setting. (Skinner, 1983). In the average college classroom, behaviorism effects students’ way of learning in that their behavior is shaped by either positive or negative reinforcement.

Ludy, B. (1986). Why don't they understand us? A history of psychology's public image. American Psychologists, 41, 941-946.

Explanations of narcolepsy are in majority biological. Scientists have discovered that narcoleptics often are lacking in hypocretin which is a chemical in the brain that control sleep and wakefulness. A lack of this chemical may explain the sudden attacks of sleep.

Every aspect of psychology excites me. As I take more classes, and my exposure to different theories and perspectives as well as topics and fields increases, I want to know more. The possibilities and applications of psychology are endless. When I wrote about peace and positive psychology for a career paper in an English class, my thoughts on psychology's impact expanded. Influenced by humanistic psychology, positive psychology focuses not only on the health or unhealthiness of an individual, but his or her potential to thrive and live a happy life. The prior theories have opened up the long-neglected opposite side of the spectrum of one’s psychological health. I am inspired by countless psychologists, but notably Abraham Maslow and Martin

Studies such as the afore mentioned Milgram study showed that what may appear to be the most expected outcome may, in truth, be very different. I would also go on to argue that in actuality all sciences are some adaptation of common sense (Oppenheimer, 1956), leaving Psychology in this way, no different to any of the others. Ben Goldacre even argues that particular forms of science, such as neuroscience, regularly offer empirically incorrect research in reputable journals, claiming statistically significant results without the appropriate statistical tests (Guardian).

Psychology is the “science or study of the thought process and behavior of humans and other animals by their interactions with the environment”.(The Columbia Encyclopedia,2015) Studying sense perception, thinking, learning, cognition, emotions and motivation, personality, abnormal behavior, interactions between themselves and the environment are all vital to the interpretation of Psychology. With the formulation of the Hypothesis, based on casual observations, a systematic scientific testing procedure begins in order to obtain a resolution or determine if further test needs to be done. Psychology is considered to be a science in that it has many disciplines organized around them. Also data collection through “observation and measurement, using scientific research methods, and the research gathered in a controlled approach by sifting through all the information to derive all the descriptive, and measurable data needed for justification of the hypothesis” realizing that results may vary due to different factors.(Feist & Rosenberg, 2015, p.6)

Authored by Keith E. Stanovich, How to Think Straight About Psychology is a known work of the psychology world which was published in 1986. Beginning courses in psychology use his text frequently. Stanovich primary purpose for writing the text is to bring attention to his observation that the public’s understanding of psychology is different from psychology as a modern science. Psychology as a modern science explains the underlying functions that shape human attitudes and behavior. To the people who misunderstand this, the field of psychology is not a real science, but a pseudo-science instead. How to Think Straight About Psychology describes people’s several false impressions of psychology and it gives its readers a factual understanding of the field as a modern and scientific psychology while explaining how this science works.

In the book “Discovering Psychology” psychology is defined as “The scientific study of behavior and mental processes” (Hockenbury, 2014, p.3). What I’m testing for in participants is their general knowledge of psychology based on specific questions. The questions and their correct answers will be addressed when I explain the method by which I tested their knowledge. The participants answers to these questions will reveal how much they know about psychology. If they have any misconceptions, it will be revealed in their responses. Their ages will also be used in order to show which group has a better grasp of what psychology is.

The problem is clearly presented above. The purpose of research was to assess the misconceptions students bring with them to the introductory psychology classroom and to explore tools to help change such misconceptions or beliefs (Taylor, A.K., and Kowalski, P. 2012). Students’ misconceptions in Psychology: How you ask matters…sometimes. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 12(3), 62-77 Eric Number: EJ992117).

Berezow (2012) defined what separates science from non-science in five criteria. He stated that a science must have; clearly defined terminology, quantifiability, highly controlled experiments, reproducibility, and predictability and testability (What separates science from non-science, 2012) His claim that a discipline must meet each of these criteria to be defined as a science puts limits on psychology. There isn’t enough known about psychology, when compared with subjects such as physics and chemistry, to have clearly defined terminology for everything studied. Humans are a lot more difficult to study than particles and chemical compounds, meaning that test results will be a lot more varied, are a lot harder to control and are more difficult to reproduce but this variability can be overcome with the use of statistics. In terms of how quantifiable psychology is, it is incredibly difficult to quantify something with no physical measurements. Scales and definitions are invented every day in

There exist various schools of psychology, each having a different approach. Most psychologists agree that no one ‘approach ' is correct. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and adds to our understanding of human behaviour.

Psychology is the science of our actions, thoughts and behavior. as psychology developed a new form of science most of it was and still is based off of theories, because most of it cannot for certain be proven although makes sense. Studies of the brain are made to try and get answers and grow our knowledge of the functions of our brain. Experiments also are a big factor in psychology; they try to prove the reason behind some of our choices.

Psychology is defined as the study of the human mind and its functions the mind is studied through experimentation and observation and just like the other sciences, needs empirical evidence, therefore, it is a science. There has always been a large debate about it though because the mind is such a tricky topic, some people even go on to call it an art which they back up with valid points. Psychology is different from many other sciences because it’s less concrete. For example in chemistry, biology and physics most things we learn about are laws, well in Psychology there are no laws that have been discovered yet. Because the mind is such a sensitive thing laws are tricky because there could always be one outcast, the same doesn’t apply for the other sciences though because if we are told that the mass of one Oxygen atom is 15.999 g/mol, we could never find one Oxygen atom that wasn’t 15.999 g/mol. As there are differences there are also similarities between Psychology and other sciences. One similarity as stated before is that psychology as all other sciences need empirical evidence to support claims and make theories and, for other sciences, laws. Another similarity is that things like “common sense” and popular opinion aren’t always the best to use to find answers you’re looking for.

When it comes to psychology it is described as the discipline that is “concerned with behavior and mental process” (Wade & Travris, 2017, p.3), while also how they are affected by an organism’s external and internal environment. Then there is the scientific perspective also known as the scientific psychology in, which is rather based on research and empirical evidence, in which it is “gathered by careful observation, experimentation, and measurement” (Wade & Travris, 2017, p.3). Pseudoscience, psychobabble, popular opinion, and plain old common sense all relate to psychology topics in which scientific psychology challenges them with psychology’s methods and reliance on empirical evidence. Another example of how psychology addresses topics from a scientific perspective is with critical thinking. With critical thinking, one assesses claims and makes judgments that are based on well-supported reasons and evidence instead of emotions “critical thinking is fundamental to all science, including psychological science” (Wade & Travris, 2017, p.7). Psychology is the scientific study of human feelings, behavior, and thought. There are four major perspectives in psychology and those are biological, learning perspective, cognitive, and social cultural perspective. Psychological scientists typically use these four perspectives, because they each reflect a different question about human behavior, how the mind works, and it allows them to explain why people do what they do.

Psychology is a study of mind and behavior. Psychological research is mostly focused on the relationship between thought, behavior and emotion; how one influences the other and what are the consequences of such interaction. Put simply, psychology is a field associated with the drive to understand the way human mind works. The topic is slightly enigmatic, but at the same time very challenging and complicated. Where representatives of the exact sciences depend on data, facts and figures, psychologists tend to rely on behavior. Seeing that the majority of work done by psychologists is