Psychology2016

4 CHAPTER 1

The History of Psychology

Some people believe psychology is just the study of people and what motivates their

behavior. Psychologists do study people, but they study animals as well. And to better

understand what motivates behavior, psychologists study not only what people and ani-

mals do but also what happens in their bodies and in their brains as they do it. The study

of psychology is not important only to psychologists: psychology is a hub science and find-

ings from psychological research are cited and used in many other fields as diverse as

cancer research, health, and even climate change (Cacioppo, 2013; McDonald et al., 2015;

Roberto & Kawachi, 2014; Rothman et al., 2015; van der Linden et al., 2015). Before examin-

ing the field of psychology, participate in the survey What Do You Know About Psychology?

to understand more about your own preconceived notions of people and human behavior.

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Behavior

includes all of our outward or overt actions and reactions, such as talking, facial expres-

sions, and movement. The term mental processes refers to all the internal, covert (hidden)

activity of our minds, such as thinking, feeling, and remembering. Why “scientific”? To

study behavior and mental processes in both animals and humans, researchers must

observe them. Whenever a human being observes anyone or anything, there’s always

a possibility that the observer will see only what he or she expects to see. Psychologists

don’t want to let these possible biases* cause them to make faulty observations. They

want to be precise and to measure as carefully as they can—so they use a systematic**

approach to study psychology scientifically.

How long has psychology been around?

Psychology is a relatively new field in the realm of the sciences, only about 138 years old. It’s

not that no one thought about why people and animals do the things they do before then; on

the contrary, there were philosophers,*** medical doctors, and physiologists**** who thought

about little else—particularly with regard to people. See Figure 1. 1 for a timeline of the history

*biases: personal judgments based on beliefs rather than facts.

**systematic: according to a fixed, ordered plan.

***philosophers: people who seek wisdom and knowledge through thinking and discussion.

****physiologists: scientists who study the physical workings of the body and its systems.

Simulate the Experiment, What Do You Know About Psychology?

Survey WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY?

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INTRODUCTION SURVEY RESULTS

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psychology
scientific study of behavior and mental
processes.