Chapter 1 The Science of Psychology
"I wished, by treating Psychology like a natural science, to help her become one."
—William James (Psychologist)
The field of psychology The scientific study of the brain, behavior, and mental processes. is the scientific study of the brain, behavior, and mental processes. That's a pretty good beginning definition of a highly complex, diverse, and extraordinarily fascinating area of study. Psychology is about how people and other animals interact with the world. Psychologists try to understand how our behaviors, thoughts, and emotions are influenced by our development, culture, sexuality, self-identity, and interactions with others.
The range of interests in psychology is tremendous. One psychologist might study how a simple chemical in our brain influences how one might become addicted to cocaine, while others look at how the same chemical spikes when we are falling in love. A psychologist might investigate how childhood trauma increases cancer risk later in life, but a colleague in the same department might research how cults manipulate their followers. Still other psychologists are interested in the minds and behavior of animals and study how dolphins communicate, how honeybees make choices, or how a crow learns to use tools. Finally, psychology can assist us in finding ways to help people with learning disabilities, depression, stress, or grief.
One of my primary goals in this textbook is to help you, the reader, understand the diversity of psychology and how differing interests interconnect. Along the way, I hope to dispel some commonly held myths about psychology and demonstrate how the science of psychology is interconnected with just about every aspect of the human experience.
I do my best to communicate difficult topics in a clear, concise, and, most important, interesting and exciting way, understanding that not everyone is a psychology major. You might be taking this course as a general education requirement, and many of you are likely coming into this course with some preconceived ideas about the field of psychology. Before you jump headlong into the fascinating field of psychology, here are some of the goals and unique features of this textbook.
Goals and Unique Features
The Science of Psychology. I take to heart the quote by William James that opens this chapter about treating psychology as a science. There are rules and guidelines in science that answer questions and develop new questions about the natural world. The scientific method has brought us modern medicine, built space crafts, and opened windows to a better understanding of ecosystems, our changing climate, and global pandemics. For over a century, many individuals have been applying these same methods to understand and predict the complexity of human behavior. This textbook focuses on their work.
Clarity and Readability. Psychologist Raymond Cattell (1965) once wrote that psychologists often “describe things which everyone knows in language which no one understands.” That quote always makes me laugh because it can be true at times. Psychologists often use fancy names, jargon phrases, or acronyms to describe theories or conditions. This text tries to avoid these phrases or words when possible. However, when vocabulary words unique to psychology are used, they are defined and explained using common and conversational language.
Connections. The subfields of psychology are often mistakenly presented as isolated areas in an introduction to psychology course (Gurung et al., 2016). One might discuss the workings of the brain and nervous system and then shift gears and discuss child development as an entirely separate topic in psychology. The different fields of psychology are often interconnected in many ways. For example, to understand drug addiction's complex and tragic behavior, it's essential to consider developmental psychology, neuroscience, social psychology, genetics, and the principle of learning and motivation. Therefore, at the end of each chapter section, a subsection called “Connections” explains how the section’s content connects to other areas of psychology or other sciences. The “Connections” subsections begin in Chapter 2 “Neuroscience”.
Myths, Lies, and Scams. There are many popular myths and misunderstandings about psychology. For instance, there are myths that we only use 10 percent of our brain’s capacity or that our handwriting reveals our personality. There are companies that scam the public based on bad science and fraudulent claims, such as brain supplements to help memory in old age. In each chapter, I tackle several of these common myths, lies, and scams related to different psychology fields. This helps readers of this textbook to think critically about psychology and science. Learning some of these myths, lies, and scams may also make readers conscious consumers when it comes to bogus products that make unsupported claims.
Contemporary Issues. Psychology is a relatively young science, and it is changing rapidly. At the end of each chapter, one topic in psychology is addressed that is gaining a lot of attention today and is poised to show tremendous changes in the future; for example, topics such as implanting and erasing memories, hallucinogenic drugs used in therapy for depression, and the growing field of cyberpsychology.
Online Resources. There are many fantastic online resources for psychology, including podcasts, videos, interactive websites, and articles. I’ve included at least fifteen short videos scattered throughout each chapter. Most of the videos are high-quality animations or videos created by universities, under five minutes, and from reputable channels such as TEDx, Two-Minute Neuroscience, and SciShow. Use these videos as a break from reading to make the content a bit clearer and more enjoyable. There are also longer videos and podcasts (e.g., TED Radio Hour, The Hidden Brain, and Radiolab) referenced at the end of each chapter for more in-depth learning about the chapter content.
This first chapter begins with details about historical and modern-day approaches to psychology and describes several of the subdisciplines in the field. We'll then move on to discuss psychology as a science and the methods used for research. The chapter ends by discussing some new and future trends for evaluating experimental results.