PSYC 1315 1st Edition Lecture 1 Outline of Current Lecture I What is Psychology A Goals and Tools II Philosophers and Theologians A Ancient Philosophers B Temperament III Transactional vs Transformational IV Research Areas of Psychology Current Lecture l A Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental process The goals of psychology are to describe predict explain and control the behavior of experiments and their meaning The tool psychologists use to study the behavior of people or animals is the scientific method ll A Before 1875 we looked to philosophers and theologians to answer the questions about the universe Psychology just applies the scientific method to these questions to get a better and more specific idea of what we re looking for Before psychology was formed Plato and Aristotle were the great philosophers at that time and they debated whether knowledge was revealed or acquired during our development as children Today psychologists debate this question in terms of nature vs nurture They make previous questions more specific B Temperament refers to one s personality characteristics Ancient Greeks referred to temperament in terms of four humors 1 They thought that if someone had a lot of blood they were enthusiastic 2 If someone had a lot of yellow bile it stood for anger 3 If it was black bile instead it stood for depression 4 Phlegm represented apathy lll These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Transactional leaders are people who are not good at change These leaders get hired because they are easily trained and are not so energetic about change Transformational leaders are very energetic and they are people who will change companies whether the company wants a change or not lV The major research areas of psychology are developmental experimental social cognitive personality psychometrics and physiological Developmental psychologists study how people become who they are from conception to death Experimental psychology deals with different experiments and testing the boundaries of science Social psychology studies people s interactions with one another Cognitive psychology examines one s attention and memory Personality psychology studies the characteristics and personalities of individuals Psychometrics develops good tests usable in experiments Physiological psychology studies how people will continue to take a drug long after it stops giving them pleasure
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