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Psychology is defined as the science of behavior and mental processes. Psychology is considered to be a science because psychologists acquire knowledge through systematic observation. The four main goals of psychology are to describe, predict, understand, and influence behavior and mental processes.
       The influential early psychologists and their areas of interest include Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener and J. Henry Alston (structuralism), Max Wertheimer (Gestalt psychology), William James (functionalism), Hermann Ebbinghaus and Mary Whiton Calkins (human memory), Alfred Binet (measurement of intelligence), Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson and Margaret Floy Washburn (behaviorism), and Sigmund Freud (psychoanalysis). Humanistic psychologists believe that humans determine their own fates through the decisions they make.
       Although some contemporary behaviorists continue to rule out the study of mental processes, other behaviorists, like Bandura, stress the importance of cognition. Contemporary psychoanalysts continue to emphasize unconscious conflicts, but suggest that motives other than sex and aggression are important.
       A contemporary approach, the neuroscience perspective, studies the relationship between the nervous system, heredity, hormones, and behavior. A contemporary perspective that emphasizes culture, gender, and ethnic factors is the sociocultural perspective. Another contemporary perspective that emphasizes the role of natural selection in behavior is the evolutionary perspective. Although the number of women and ethnic minorities in psychology has grown dramatically in recent years, prejudice still plays a negative role in psychology as in all scientific and professional fields.
        Modern psychologists work in basic or applied fields. Psychologists who work in basic areas conduct basic research, whereas applied psychologists put psychological knowledge to work helping people in a variety of settings.

Most psychologists would agree with the following statements:

  1. Human beings are biological creatures.
  2. Each person is unique, yet the same.
  3. People can be understood only by taking into account their culture, ethnic identity, and gender identity.
  4. Human lives are in a continual process of change.
  5. Behavior is motivated, not random or aimless.
  6. Humans are social animals working together in groups.
  7. People play an active part in choosing their experiences and constructing perceptions.
  8. Behavior can be either adaptive or maladaptive.







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