Psychology 101
GRAND ISSUES OF PSYCHOLOGY
THE GRAND ISSUES OF PSYCHOLOGY

These are large scale questions or themes of
psychology that are part of all aspects of the
field
 Stability
vs. Change
 Nature vs. Nurture
 Rationality vs. Irrationality
STABILITY VS. CHANGE
 How
do we change over time?
Changes
involved in many aspects of
psychology
Thinking
Physical
functioning
Personality
Many other aspects of behavior
NATURE VS. NURTURE

What things do we inherit from our family and
what things do we learn?
 Where
does aggression come from?
 Attractiveness?
 Can be called evolutionary psychology?
 What
are we born with and what do we develop?
RATIONALITY VS. IRRATIONALITY
RATIONALITY VS. IRRATIONALITY
Why would you hesitate eating a chocolate
cockroach?
 Reason overridden by two factors:

 Emotions
 Gut
feelings
Other examples – procrastination, lashing out
because you are in a bad mood, stick with bad
decision even though you know you are wrong