Introduction to Psychology.

Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior.

Though it is easy to think that everyday situations have commonsense answers, scientific studies have found that people are not always as good at predicting outcomes as they think they are.

The hindsight bias leads us to think that we could have predicted events that we actually could not have predicted.

People are frequently unaware of the causes of their own behaviors.

Psychologists use the scientific method to collect, analyze, and interpret evidence.

Employing the scientific method allows the scientist to collect empirical data objectively, which adds to the accumulation of scientific knowledge.

Psychological phenomena are complex, and making predictions about them is difficult because of individual differences and because they are multiply determined at different levels of explanation.

Development of psychology.

The first psychologists were philosophers, but the field became more empirical and objective as more sophisticated scientific approaches were developed and employed.

Some basic questions asked by psychologists include those about nature versus nurture, free will versus determinism, accuracy versus inaccuracy, and conscious versus unconscious processing.

The structuralists attempted to analyze the nature of consciousness using introspection.

The functionalists based their ideas on the work of Darwin, and their approaches led to the field of evolutionary psychology.

The behaviorists explained behavior in terms of stimulus, response, and reinforcement, while denying the presence of free will.

Cognitive psychologists study how people perceive, process, and remember information.

Psychodynamic psychology focuses on unconscious drives and the potential to improve lives through psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.

The social-cultural approach focuses on the social situation, including how cultures and social norms influence our behavior.