PSYA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Progressive Education, Natural Philosophy, Paul Broca
Document Summary
However, the focus of psychology turned from the mind, which cannot be observed directly, to behaviour, which can. The use of different levels of explanation refers to a common choice of causes to study and methods of research to use. One reason for studying behaviour, in contrast to studying a non-observable mind, is that human behaviour is the root of many of the world"s problems: poverty, crime, over- population, drug addiction, bigotry, pollution, oppression, terrorism, and war. Some psychologists are scientists, trying to discover the causes of behaviour; some of us are practitioners of applied psychology, applying what our scientific colleagues have learned to the solution of problems in the world outside the laboratory. Social psychology is the study of the effects of people on people; the study of the effects people have on each other"s behaviour. Clinical psychologists are the people we call on to apply to individuals what we have learned about the causes of a disorder.
