Why study Psychology?
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Perhaps by studying psychology we can get a better
understanding of why people act the way they do, or maybe you
want to learn more about your thoughts and feelings, we might
even find more effective ways to handle, or to help others
handle the stresses of daily life.
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The study of psychology will give you new ways to look at, and
interpret the world and the people who live in it.
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Psychology: Is the scientific study of behavior and mental
processes.
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Behavior: Is an action that other people can observe or
measure ( walking, talking, sleeping, pressing a switch)
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This also includes automatic body functions :such as heart rate,
blood pressure, digestion and brain activity.
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Mental Processes (Cognitive activities) These activities include
dreams, perceptions, thoughts and memories.
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Psychologists are also interested in studying people´s emotions
and feelings, remember that emotions can affect both behavior
and mental processes.
The Goals of Psychology
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Scientists seek to observe, describe, explain , predict and
control the events they study, psychologists have the same
goals, they observe and describe behavior and mental
processes to better understand them, this understanding
enables psychologists to explain, predict, and control behavior.
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Imagine that you are a profesional
basketball player, you´ve been
practicing for the day when you
play in a Super Bowl. When your
team had an opportunity to win the
game with a field goal, you missed, handing the
victory to the other team, this can be very hard on a
person´s self –esteem and self-confidence.
For this kind of situation sports psycologists help
athletes handle performance problems by applying
the goals of psychology.
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They observe and describe the behavior, by measuring
athlete´s heart rates and other body processes, they
know the problems that might occur when atheletes are
highly excited, interviews reveal that they often feel
very anxious during big games and they might become
distracted by cheers of the crowd and loose
concentration.
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Psychologists explain the behavior in terms of the
feelings of anxiety and the distractions that affected his
performance, a little anxiety is a good thing, it motivates
us, but too much is harmful it makes us shaky and
distracts us from the task at hand.
Psychologists next predict that athletes will do best
when anxiety is moderate and will falter when anxiety
becomes too intense.
 Finally they help athletes change, by teaching them ways
to controll their behavior and mental processes by
teaching them ways of keeping their anxiety at a
tolerable level.
 They also teach athletes how to filter out the sounds of
the fans, so they can focus on their task, helping the
team win the game.
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Psychology as a science
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Like natural scientists, psychologists seek to answer questions
by following the steps involved in the scientific research.
These steps include conducting surveys and
experiments, collecting and analyzing data.
and drawing conclusions.
Research: As a science psychologists test
ideas through varios methods.
Surveys
Experimentation
Psychological Theories
Psychologists organize their research about behavior
and mental processes into theories.
 A theory is a statement that attemps to explain why
things are the way there are and happen the way
they do.
 Psychological theories discuss principles that govern
behavior and mental processes.
 A principle is a rule or law, such as the principle that
you will get better grades if you study more.
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Section Review
1.
What is psychology?
2.
What is a behavior? Give examples.
3.
What are the five goals of psychology?
4.
Why is psychology defined as a science?
5.
Define theory and principle.