PSY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Psychological Science, Scientific Method, Psy
Document Summary
To put it briefly, psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Internal states inferred from behavior; these are unobservable. Example: a guy"s behavior may be lots of deep sighing, tapping his foot, and checking his watch while rolling his eyes. The mental processes that we can infer from this are that he is probably impatient and he may be irritated from having to wait on someone or something. All psychologists must rely on observed facts about behavior, even if they study the mind. Psychology spans many levels of analysis, from molecular influences to social influences. There is a ladder of possible causes for depression, and these range from molecules (genes), neurochemical (brain chemistry), neurological (brain structures), mental/cognitive (thoughts and feelings), behavioral (activities), and social (interactions, relationships with others) You can not just say that depression has a molecular cause because there are many other reasons someone may be going through depression.
