Section 3-1: What IS Psychology?

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What exactly is the big P? Psychology, that is. If your mind went somewhere else with that you are already experiencing an aspect of technology psychology. Whoops! I just did it myself. Freudian slip. If I were to describe psychology to someone that had never so much as heard the word before, using my own words, I wouldn't describe it so much as "a study of the mind" but rather as a study of the human condition. Consider if you will Psychology as being a sort of anti-biology. Not that the two must be opposed to one another, but rather where biology may try to trace and study the characteristics contained within humans back through an evolutionary line, Psychology observes that what makes us different from our evolutionary ancestors. Our thoughts and their influence on our behavior... what is it that sets humans apart?

By using my own words to describe psychology I have already revealed to a trained psychological expert some of the theories in the field that I agree or disagree with. Just read the first chapter of this courses textbook and you will already be able to label me as someone who is not entirely onboard with the school of behaviorism into psychology. At the time of this passages initial writing my journey into the field of psychology was young and new... now with a semester almost behind me I can say that behaviorism does have it's place in psychology, it is in fact most useful in the field of learning, reward schedules, and operant conditioning.

Indeed, each theory of psychology has its own place on the spectrum to create a whole image of psychology today... where would we be without the theories of the unconscious mind brought to us by Freud, or on the opposite end of things, Behaviorism focusing on conscious actions using the scientific method... studied by Watson and refined by B.F. Skinner. Indeed we also need the positive psychology of Martin Segilman and the Humanistic approach of Carl Rogers to remind us that we are... Human after all.

What else besides humans could create new sound that did not exist?

What else besides humans could create words like vehicle?
What else beside humans could make these vehicles faster than any animal?

What else besides Humans could achieve what we have achieved?






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Psychology. The study of Being Human.