外文资料翻译-- 生活中的心理学
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生活中的心理学蝴蝶效应1960年,美国麻省理工学院教授洛伦兹研究“长期天气预报”问题时,出现了疑难问题:她在计算机上用一组简化数据模拟天气的演变,原本是想利用计算机的高速运算来提高天气预报的准确性。
但是,事与愿违,多次计算表明,初始条件的极微小差异,会导致错误的结论。
心理情绪也是如此,有一组漫画显示,一个人在单位被领导训了一顿,心里很恼火,回家冲妻子发起了脾气,妻子无来由地被训,也很生气,就摔门而去。
走在街上,一条宠物狗拦住了去路,“汪汪”狂吠,妻子更生气啦,就一脚踢过去,小狗受到踢打,狂奔路过一个老人面前,把老人吓了一跳。
正巧这位老人有心脏病,被突然冲出的小狗一吓,当场心脏病发作,不治身亡。
洛伦兹发现了微小差异导致的巨大反差,她用一个形象的比喻来表达这个发现,一只小小的蝴蝶在巴西上空振动翅膀,它煽动起来的小小漩涡与其他气流汇合,可能在一个月后的美国得克萨斯州会引起一场风暴——这就是混沌学中著名的“蝴蝶效应”。
蝴蝶效应在心理学方面的应用:蝴蝶效应指一件表面上看来毫无关系、非常微小的事情,可能带来巨大的改变。
此效应说明,事物发展的结果,对初始条件具有极为敏感的依赖性,初始条件的极小偏差,将会引起结果的极大差异。
当一个人小时候受到微小的心理刺激,长大后这个刺激会被放大,电影《蝴蝶效应》中作了精彩诠释青蛙现象:青蛙效应强调的便是“生于忧患,死于安乐”的道理。
人天生就是有惰性的,总愿意安然现状,不到迫不得已多半不愿意去改变已有的生活。
若一个人久久沉迷于这种无变化、安逸的生活时,就往往忽略了周遭环境等等变化,当危机到来时就像那青蛙一样只能坐以待毙。
鲶鱼效应从前,挪威人在海上捕得沙丁鱼后,如果能让它们活着抵港,卖价就会比死鱼高好几倍,但只有一条渔船能做到带活鱼回港。
后来,人们发现这条船的鱼槽内不过是多了一条鲶鱼而已。
原来当鲶鱼装入鱼槽后,由于环境陌生,就会四处游动,而沙丁鱼发现这一“异类”后,也会因紧张而加速游动。
心理学50个常见的心理效应以及在现实生活中的示例心理学中存在许多有趣的心理效应,这些效应揭示了人类思维和行为背后的复杂机制。
在现实生活中,这些心理效应不仅可以帮助我们更好地理解自己和他人,还能指导我们在各种情境下做出更明智的选择。
1.选择支持效应(Choice-supportive bias):当我们做出一个选择后,往往会过度强调选择的好处,忽视其缺点。
比如购买了一部新手机后,我们可能会主动寻找该手机的优点,而忽略它的缺陷。
2.认知失调理论(Cognitive dissonance theory):人们在面对相互矛盾的态度或行为时,会感到不适,从而寻求方式来减轻这种不适。
比如抽烟者知道吸烟有害健康,但仍寻找各种理由来解释自己的吸烟行为。
3.锚定效应(Anchoring effect):当我们面临决策时,通常会受到先前接触到的信息或“锚点”的影响。
比如在购物时看到标价较高的商品后,我们可能会觉得其他商品的价格相对便宜。
4.羊群效应(Herd mentality):人们倾向于跟随大多数人的行为或意见,而不是做出独立的决策。
例如在股市中,当大多数投资者纷纷买入某只股票时,其他投资者也会跟风买入,导致股价上涨。
5.暗示效应(Halo effect):一个人的某一积极特征会影响他人对该人其他特征的评价。
比如长相英俊的人可能会被认为性格好,即使实际上并非如此。
6.频率错觉(Frequency illusion):一旦我们注意到某一事物,就会开始在日常生活中频繁遇到它。
比如了解了一种新词汇后,会发现这个词汇在接下来的日常交流中屡见不鲜。
7.漂亮女孩效应(The Cheerleader Effect):在群体中,个体看起来更吸引人的效果。
一组人员看起来比其中的一个人更有吸引力。
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我们生活中的心理学英语作文英文回答:Psychology is the study of the human mind and behavior. It helps us understand why people think, feel, and act the way they do. It is a fascinating subject that can be applied to various aspects of our lives, such as relationships, education, and even business.One aspect of psychology that I find particularly interesting is cognitive psychology. This branch focuses on how people perceive, process, and remember information. For example, it explores how we make decisions, solve problems, and learn new things. Understanding cognitive processes can help us improve our memory, enhance our problem-solving skills, and make better decisions.Another area of psychology that I find intriguing is social psychology. This field studies how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the presence ofothers. It examines topics such as conformity, obedience, and persuasion. For instance, social psychologists have conducted experiments to understand why people tend to conform to group norms, even if it goes against their own beliefs. This knowledge can be applied to various real-life situations, such as marketing strategies or creating inclusive communities.In addition to cognitive and social psychology, there are many other branches of psychology that contribute to our understanding of human behavior. For example, developmental psychology focuses on how people change and develop throughout their lives. It examines the physical, cognitive, and social changes that occur from infancy to old age. This knowledge can be used to design effective educational programs or interventions for individuals at different stages of life.Clinical psychology is another important branch of psychology. It focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders. Clinical psychologists work with individuals who are experiencing psychological distress andhelp them improve their well-being. They use various therapeutic techniques, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, to help clients overcome their challenges and lead fulfilling lives.Overall, psychology is a diverse and fascinating field that has practical applications in our everyday lives. It helps us understand ourselves and others better, and it provides valuable insights into human behavior. By studying psychology, we can gain a deeper understanding of whypeople think, feel, and behave the way they do.中文回答:心理学是研究人类思维和行为的学科。
第一章生活中的心理学一、心理学为何独具特色定义心理学(psychology):关于个体的行为及心智(mind)过程的科学研究行为(behavior)是有机体适应环境的方式。
心理学的目标描述,解释,预测,控制分析水平,从最宽的整体到最细微的具体水平。
行为数据是关于机体的行为及行为发生条件的观察报告。
Stop停下来检查一下❖心理学定义的四个成分是什么?科学,行为,个体和心智。
❖心理学家的四个目标是什么?描述,解释,预测和控制。
❖为什么解释行为和预测行为总是紧密联系?对造成特定行为方式潜在原因的精确解释,常常能让研究者对未来的行为做出精确的预测。
二、现代心理学的发展心理学的历史根基赫尔曼.艾宾浩斯(Hermann Ebbinghas,1850-1909):“心理学有这漫长的过去,但只有短暂的历史”威廉.冯特(Wilhelm Wundt,1832-1920 )于1879年在德国莱比锡建立了第一个正式的实验心理学实验室。
出版了《生理心理学原理》(Principles ofPhysiological Psychology )爱德华.铁钦纳(Edward Titchener,1867-1927)在康奈尔大学建立了一个实验室。
威廉.詹姆士(William James,1842-1910)撰写了《心理学原理》(The PrinciplesOf Psychology)1892年,斯坦利.霍尔(G.Stanley hall)创立了美国心理学协会(APA)结构主义:对科学方法,精确测量以及数据统计分析的强调,体现了冯特心理学的传统特色。
内省法(introspection),即由个体系统地检查自己有关特定感官经验的思维和感受。
铁钦纳强调“什么”是心理的内容。
结构主义的一个重要分支,由德国心理学家马克斯.惠特海默(Max Wertheimer,1880-1943)开创的,强调心理是以格式塔(有组织的整体)的方式理解许多经验,而不是简单部分的总和。
心理学与生活在线阅读(全)《心理学与生活》(Psychology and Life),为美国心理学家Floyd L. Ruch撰写的一部心理学教科书著作。
此书历经十九次改版,在第八版(1971年)时菲利普津巴多加入改版,最新版本则由津巴多及理查德格里格合作撰写。
《心理学与生活》是一本优秀的、经典的心理学教科书,不仅在美国,在全世界许多国家的心理学界都有着极高的知名度,是心理学基础教材中第一品牌书、被美国ETS(美国教育考试服务中心)推荐为GRE(美国研究生入学考试)心理学专项考试的主要参考用书。
是美国斯坦福大学多年来使用的教材,也是在美国许多大学里的"普通心理学"(General Psychology)课程选用的经典教材。
作为一本包含着丰富的教育思想和独特教学方法的成熟教材,原书中所有元素--如由600余条词汇及解释组成的"专业术语表",2000余条"参考文献",以及近1000条的"人名和主题索引"等等,对于教学、研究和学习都十分宝贵,此中译本完整地翻译和保留了这些资料。
心理学与生活在线阅读第一章生活中的心理学一、心理学为何独具特色1、定义心理学(psychology):关于个体的行为及精神过程的科学的研究。
科学的方法(scientific method)包括一套用来分析和解决问题的有序步骤。
这种方法用客观收集到的信息作为得出结论的事实基础。
(另定义见第二章)行为(behavior):机体适应环境的方式。
2、心理学的目标基础研究的目的是描述、解释、预测和控制行为、提高人类生活的质量。
(1)描述发生的事情行为数据(behavioral data):是关于机体的行为和行为发生时环境的观察报告。
选择一个适宜的分析水平。
按照事实的本相去收集它们(2)解释发生的事情通常承认大多数行为受到一些因素的共同影响,行为的这些内部决定因素叫做机体变量(organismic variables)。
生活中处处都有心理学(Life is full of Psychology)Life is full of psychology.Since graduating in 2001, the work has been going on for Twelfth years. The work of the relationship between frequent travel, has visited more than 10 countries, it is said to have gone through "ten thousand miles". Some people say, "walk ten thousand miles, you must first read ten thousand books, otherwise you will only walk without reading. That is the postman."". I love reading, but my book on psychology, psychology and life, by Gerrig and Zimbardo, should be the first. This textbook is informative and easy to understand. The person who lent me this book was my first teacher in psychology. The influence of the "influence" is the popularity of reading psychology, this book is just like Chinese ancient Legalists Han Fei, some teach "guile" too, but also very interesting. Later became familiar with some psychology books, such as "the walking man" "change the psychology of the 40 study" "beyond" inferiority "our inner conflict" and "personality" neurosis "motivation and personality" "works of Rodgers" the essence of "the art of love" "escape from freedom" "cognitive therapy" Beck "cognitive behavioral therapy" and so on. Slowly discovered that life hole are learning, human sophistication that article. How to communicate with employees and employees of the evaluation results, how to work attitude problem, and how to communicate with customers, to how to deal with others, learn some psychology very helpful; to maintain world peace and build a harmonious social order, to communicate with his wife and children, how to spend the life hard man since the beginning, without involving psychology; body disease and heart disease, society and culture, education and growth, development andevolution, love and marriage, democracy and science, psychology Everything is contained therein. containing. Finally, I seem to understand slowly that psychology is the study of human science, and man is the subject of this earth activity, so psychology goes deep into every aspect of life. This subject is all inclusive. Reading psychology can make life more clear. So, I was attracted by it.Listen to the teachers' class, enjoy the movies recommended by the teachers, read the psychology books, and know all kinds of people. Various personalities, temperaments, modes of thinking, behavior and will make me an eye opener. There are many blood quality, bile, mucus quality, depression,obsessive-compulsive type, impulsive, dependent, narcissistic, schizotypal, emotional and antisocial, someone close to people, people, people avoid confrontation people, everyone is different. There are about 7 billion people living in the world. How many people have lived on the earth since ancient times? It's terrible to remember. However, there are no two identical leaves in the world, and there are no two exactly alike people. Everyone has different origins, different experiences, different lives, and different ways of thinking. The world is ever-changing, so rich and colorful. I used to be very overbearing in my work, strong and strong sense of responsibility. Always hope others follow my train of thought. If other people have different ways of thinking, different practices, or different results, I am very anxious and irritable. In fact, a fear of loss of control, stubborn insistence, often from the heart of self-confidence. Always worry about other people's work, minor details should always be intimate or close monitoring. Also, love and hate, do notrub the sand in the eyes, with their different values, world view or different people, or even just thinking, people of different personalities do not love. As we grow older and learn more and more, we gradually understand that there are many different people, different ways of working and different modes of thinking, and the world becomes rich and colorful. I am grateful for the richness and variety of these things that make me feel different souls; I come to these different hearts and experience different worlds. The world is different because of you, the world is wonderful because of different.Accept the difference, fall in love with this wonderful, it is possible to stand in other people's perspective of the world.Irvin Yalom in the "gift of therapy" in a story about a girl, not with his father since childhood. In the eyes of his daughter, father is a critic and a critic. When my daughter got into college, my father drove her daughter to school. The daughter envisioned a certain degree of reconciliation with her father through the rare hours spent alone. But the whole trip turned into a disaster. My father was driving and complaining about the ugliness of the creek on the side of the road. It was full of rubbish and dirty. But what she saw was a brook without any pollution or original flavor. So, father and daughter two looked out of the window, silent all the way, ignore each other. Many years later, the daughter drove alone to revisit the old haunt. Then she was surprised to see that there was a small river on either side of the road. The river, seen from the driver's window, was polluted, piled up with garbage, and ugly, as his father described it. At last the daughter knew how to see the world from her father's window, but it was too late for herfather to die for many years. Erwin Yalom is the master, wrote "when Nietzsche Wept" and other famous psychological novel. But the author says it's a true story, the story of the visitor. So another great thing about learning psychology is learning how to be empathic. When we ask for practice, many people empathy for empathy, and rehearsal listening makes people feel very false. It is inappropriate to treat empathy purely as a skill, but to forget sincerity for technology. My team had a colleague was eliminated, this is a cruel thing, but also a difficult decision. But organizations should move forward, and individuals should have a more appropriate development. I informed the colleague two months in advance that I would take the initiative to understand the colleague's mortgage, girlfriend, family and so on. I put myself in his shoes and discussed the job hunting with him. The most important thing is to listen to him to find work in bursts of difficult things to get along with his girlfriend, how to explain with your family, at that time I almost did not say what is listening to, has given him great comfort. So, I see, empathy does not lie in the phrase "I can understand you."...". Psychology as a helping profession is not an empty talk.Another interesting feature of psychology is that there is no definite answer. In psychology, there is a question on how many years history of psychology has been given, and the answer given is 150 years. If traced, definitely longer. But psychology never has a definite answer. From Wundt to Wertheimer, from Freud to Adler, to Horneyan, from Wahson to Skinner, to Bandura, from Maslow to Rodgers, then to Seligman, some thoughts of tit for tat, some theories from fusion. Keep moving forward, exploring, never stopping. In evaluating current worldpsychology, Seligman says one word "good", the two word "not good", and the three word "not good enough"". This subject is not like mathematics, and mathematics has "the only answer" as beauty, and psychology has no only answer to beauty or even beauty. Freud stressed that the human instinct, desire and drive; while Wahson emphasizes environmental shackles, individual behavior under the restrict of the environment; and the humanism emphasizes the human nature of "good", but also a very important environment, an oak seed, do not need others to guide you can grow into a the oak, but must be unconditional positive attention. Analysis of the spirit to dig deep into the past; cognitive therapy that changing the visitor's cognition, to change their behavior to change their thoughts and feelings; behavior therapy that change people's behavior is the essence of the heart, what is not important; and the humanism that people will have to change, as long as we are given the appropriate environment. The theory of psychoanalysis cannot prove nor disprove; behaviorism is the emphasis on the study of people like that physical and biological behavior, Skinner is deeply admired progress of physics and biology, and that human behavior compared with 2500 before what progress. Previous psychological research,Especially the clinical research focus on abnormal psychology, and positive psychology that should pay attention to mental health more, especially those happy people...... it is a psychology of human thought gathered, thought of the feast, like a flower, all kinds of fresh flowers flourish, gathered in a contention of a hundred schools of thought, All flowers bloom together.The book says that the three great men who changed the world were Jews, Einstein, Marx, and Freud. Einstein's contribution to physics changed the world; Marx's philosophy changed the world by the practice of Communists; why is Freud? I understand that it is probably because Freud has changed the way that man knows himself, especially the unconscious theory, which makes it difficult for people to know themselves. When the heart changes, the world changes.。
生活中里面的心理作文英文回答:Psychology in Daily Life.Psychology plays a significant role in our daily lives. It helps us understand ourselves better and enables us to interact with others more effectively. In this essay, Iwill discuss the importance of psychology in various aspects of life and provide examples to illustrate my points.Firstly, psychology is crucial in understanding our own emotions and behaviors. It helps us identify the underlying reasons for our actions and reactions. For instance, when I feel angry or frustrated, I can use psychological techniques such as deep breathing or positive self-talk to calm myself down. Understanding the psychology behind my emotions allows me to manage them more effectively.Furthermore, psychology helps us understand and communicate with others. It provides insights into human behavior and helps us interpret the actions and motives of those around us. For example, when a friend cancels plans at the last minute, instead of getting upset, I can use my knowledge of psychology to consider possible reasons for their behavior. Maybe they are feeling overwhelmed or dealing with personal issues. By understanding their perspective, I can respond with empathy and support.Moreover, psychology is essential in building and maintaining relationships. It helps us navigate conflicts, resolve misunderstandings, and strengthen connections. For instance, when my partner and I have a disagreement, I can apply communication techniques learned in psychology to express my feelings effectively and listen actively. This understanding allows us to find common ground and work through our differences, ultimately strengthening our bond.In addition to personal relationships, psychology also plays a role in professional settings. It helps us understand workplace dynamics, motivation, and leadership.For example, a manager who understands the psychology of motivation can create a work environment that fosters employee engagement and productivity. By recognizing the importance of recognition and rewards, the manager can motivate employees to perform at their best.Overall, psychology is an integral part of our daily lives. It helps us understand ourselves, communicate with others, build relationships, and succeed in various aspects of life. By applying psychological principles, we can navigate challenges, manage our emotions, and improve our overall well-being.中文回答:生活中的心理学。
Psychology and LifeWhen you begin your introductory course in psychology, you may be quite pleasantly surprised by the wide-ranging terrain of contemporary psychology. Psychology and Life will reveal the intricacies of your human experience through rigorous research. Psychology and Life will lead you from the inner spaces of brain and mind to the outer dimensions of human behavior. We will investigate the processes that provide meaningful structure to your experiences, such as how you perceive the world, communicate, learn, think, and remember. We will try to understand the more dramatic expressions of human nature, such as how and why people dream, fall in love, act aggressively, and become mentally ill.Finally, we will demonstrate how psychological knowledge can be used to understand and change cultural forces at work in our lives. As authors of Psychology and Life, we believe in the power of psychological expertise. The appeal of psychology has grown personally for us over our careers as educators and researchers. In recent years, there has been a virtual explosion of new information about the basic mechanisms that govern mental and behavioral processes. As new ideas replace or modify old ideas, we are continually intrigued and challenged by the many fascinating pieces of the puzzle of human nature.Foremost in the journey will be a scientific quest or understanding. We shall inquire about the how, what, when, and why of human behavior and about the causes and consequences of behaviors you observe in yourself, in other people, and in animals. We will explain why you think, feel, and behave as you do. What makes you uniquely different from all other people? Yet why do you often behave so much like others? Are you molded by heredity, or are you shaped more by personal experiences? How an aggression and altruism, love and hate, and madness and creativity exist side by side in this complex creature-the human animal?To appreciate the uniqueness and unity of psychology, you must consider the way psychologists define the field and the goals they bring to their research and applications. By the end of the book, we will encourage you to think like a psychologist. In this first section, we’ll give you a strong idea of what that might mean.Many psychologists seek answers to this fundamental question: what is human nature? Psychology answers this question by looking at processes that occur within individuals as well as forces that arise within the physical and social environment. In this light, we formally define psychology as the scientific study of the behavior of individuals and their mental processes. Let’s explore the critical parts of this definition: scientific, behavior, individual, and mental.The scientific aspect of psychology requires that psychological conclusions be based on evidence collected according to the principles of the scientific method. The scientific method consists of a set of orderly steps used to analyze and solve problems. This method uses objectively collected information as the factual basis for drawing conclusions. We will elaborate on the features of the scientific method more fully in Chapter 2, when we consider how psychologists conduct their research.Behavior is the means by which organisms adjust to their environment. Behavior is action. The subject matter of psychology largely consists of the observable behavior of humans and other species of animals. Smiling, crying, running, hitting, talking, and touching are some obvious examples of behavior you can observe. Psychologists examine what the individual does and how the individual goes about doing it within a given behavioral setting and in the broader social or cultural context.The subject of psychological analysis is most often an individual-a newborn infant, a teenage athlete, a college student adjusting to life in a dormitory, a man facing a midlife career change, or a woman coping with the stress of her husband’s deterioration from Alzheimer’s disease. However, the subject might also be a chimpanzee learning to use symbols to communicate, a white rat navigating a maze, or a sea slug responding to a danger signal. An individual might be studied in its natural habitat or in the controlled conditions of a research laboratory.Many researchers in psychology also recognize that they cannot understand human actions without also understanding mental processes, the workings of the human mind. Much human activity takes place as private, internal events-thinking, planning, reasoning, creating, and dreaming. Many psychologists believe that mental processes represent the most important aspect of psychological inquiry. As you shall soon see, psychological investigators have devised ingenious techniques to study mental events and processes-to make these private experiences public.The combination of these concerns defines psychology as a unique field. Within the social sciences, psychologists focus largely on behavior in individuals, whereas sociologists study the behavior of people in groups or institutions, and anthropologists focus on the broader context of behavior in different cultures: Even so, psychologists draw broadly from the insights of other scholars. Psychologists share many interests with researchers in biological sciences, especially with those who study brain processes and the biochemical bases of behavior. As part of the emerging area of cognitive science, psychologists’questions about how the human mind works are related to research and theory in computer science, artificial intelligence, and applied mathematics. As a health science-with links to medicine, education, law, and environmental studies-psychology seeks to improve the quality of each individual’s and the collective’s well-being.Although the remarkable breadth and depth of modern psychology are a source of delight to those who become psychologists, these same attributes make the field a challenge to the student exploring it for the first time. There is so much more to the study of psychology than one expects initially-and, because of that, there will also be much of value that you can take away from this introduction to psychology. The best way to learn about the field is to learn to share psychologists’ goals. Let’s consider those goals.To appreciate the uniqueness and unity of psychology, you must consider the way psychologists define the field and the goals they bring to their research and applications. By the end of the book, we will encourage you to think like a psychologist. In this first section, we’ll give you a strong idea of what that might mean.Many psychologists seek answers to this fundamental question: what is human nature? Psychology answers this question by looking at processes that occur within individuals as well as forces that arise within the physical and social environment. In this light, we formally define psychology as the scientific study of the behavior of individuals and their mental processes. Let’s explore the critical parts of this definition: scientific, behavior, individual, and mental.The scientific aspect of psychology requires that psychological conclusions be based on evidence collected according to the principles of the scientific method. The scientific method consists of a set of orderly steps used to analyze and solve problems. This method uses objectively collected information as the factual basis for drawing conclusions. We will elaborate on the features of the scientific method more fully in Chapter 2, when we consider how psychologists conduct their research.Behavior is the means by which organisms adjust to their environment. Behavior is action. The subject matter of psychology largely consists of the observable behavior of humans and other species of animals. Smiling, crying, running, hitting, talking, and touching are some obvious examples of behavior you can observe. Psychologists examine what the individual does and how the individual goes about doing it within a given behavioral setting and in the broader social or cultural context.The subject of psychological analysis is most often an individual-a newborn infant, a teenage athlete, a college student adjusting to life in a dormitory, a man facing a midlife career change, or a woman coping with the stress of her husband’s deterioration from Alzheimer’s disease. However, the subject might also be a chimpanzee learning to use symbols to communicate, a white rat navigating a maze, or a sea slug responding to a danger signal. An individual might be studied in its natural habitat or in the controlled conditions of a research laboratory.Many researchers in psychology also recognize that they cannot understandhuman actions without also understanding mental processes, the workings of the human mind. Much human activity takes place as private, internal events-thinking, planning, reasoning, creating, and dreaming. Many psychologists believe that mental processes represent the most important aspect of psychological inquiry. As you shall soon see, psychological investigators have devised ingenious techniques to study mental events and processes-to make these private experiences public.The combination of these concerns defines psychology as a unique field. Within the social sciences, psychologists focus largely on behavior in individuals, whereas sociologists study the behavior of people in groups or institutions, and anthropologists focus on the broader context of behavior in different cultures: Even so, psychologists draw broadly from the insights of other scholars. Psychologists share many interests with researchers in biological sciences, especially with those who study brain processes and the biochemical bases of behavior. As part of the emerging area of cognitive science, psychologists’questions about how the human mind works are related to research and theory in computer science, artificial intelligence, and applied mathematics. As a health science-with links to medicine, education, law, and environmental studies-psychology seeks to improve the quality of each individual’s and the collective’s well-being.Although the remarkable breadth and depth of modern psychology are a source of delight to those who become psychologists, these same attributes make the field a challenge to the student exploring it for the first time. There is so much more to the study of psychology than one expects initially-and, because of that, there will also be much of value that you can take away from this introduction to psychology. The best way to learn about the field is to learn to share psychologists’ goals. Let’s consider those goals.The goals of the psychologist conducting basic research are to describe, explain, predict, and control behavior. These goals form the basis of the psychological enterprise. What is involved in trying to achieve each of them?The first task in psychology is to make accurate observations about behavior. Psychologists typically refer to such observations as their data (data is the plural, datum the singular).Behavioral data are reports of observations about the behavior of organisms and the conditions under which the behavior occurs. When researchers undertake data collection, they must choose an appropriate level of analysis and devise measures of behavior that ensue objectivity.In order to investigate an individual’s behavior, researchers may use different levels of analysis-from the broadest, most global level down to the most minute, specific level. Suppose, for example, you were trying to describe a painting you saw at a museum . At a global level, you might describe it by title, Bathers, and by artist,Georges Seurat. At a more specific level, you might recount features of the painting: some people are sunning themselves on a riverbank, while others are enjoying in water, and so on. At a very specific level, you might describe the technique Seurat used-tiny points of paint-to create the scene. The description at each level would answer different questions about the painting.Different levels of psychological description also address different questions. At the broadest level of psychological analysis, researchers investigate the behavior of the whole person within complex social and cultural contexts. At this level, researches might study cross-cultural differences in violence, the origins of prejudice, and the consequences of mental illness. At the next level, psychologists focus on narrower, finer units of behavior, such as speed of reaction to a stop light, eye movements during reading, and grammatical errors made by children acquiring language. Researchers can study even smaller units of behavior. They might work to discover the biological bases of behavior by identifying the places in the brain where different types of memories are stored, the biochemical changes that occur during learning, and the sensory paths responsible for vision or hearing. Each level of analysis yields information essential to the final composite portrait of human nature that psychologists hope ultimately to develop.However tight or broad the focus of the observation, psychologists strive to describe behavior objectively. Collecting the facts as they exist, and not as the researcher expects or hopes them to be, is of utmost importance. Because every observer brings to each observation his or her subjective point of view- biases, prejudices, and expectations—it is essential to prevent these personal factors from creeping in and distorting the data. As you will see in the next chapter, psychological researchers have developed a variety of techniques to maintain objectivity.While descriptions must stick to perceivable information, explanations deliberately go beyond what can be observed. In many areas of psychology, the central goal is to find regular patterns in behavioral and mental processes. Psychologists want to discover how behavior works. Why do you laugh at situations that differ from your expectations of what is coming next? What conditions could lead someone to attempt suicide or commit rape?Explanations in psychology usually recognize that most behavior is influenced by a combination of factors. Some factors operate within the individual, such as genetic makeup, motivation, intelligence level, or self-esteem. These inner determinants tell something special about the organism. Other factors, however, operate externally. Suppose, for example, that a child tries to please a teacher in order to win a prize or that a motorist trapped in a traffic jam becomes frustrated and hostile. These behaviors are largely influenced by events outside the person. When psychologistsseek to explain behavior, they almost always consider both types of explanations. Suppose, for example, psychologists want to explain why some people start smoking. Researchers might examine the possibility that some individuals are particularly prone to risk taking (an internal explanation) or that some individuals experience a lot of peer pressure (an external explanation)—or that both a disposition toward risk taking and situational peer pressure are necessary (a combined explanation).Often a psychologist’s goal is to explain a wide variety of behavior in terms of one underlying cause. Consider a situation in which your teacher says that to earn a good grade; each student must participate regularly in class discussions. Your roommate, who is always well prepared for class, never raises his hand to answer questions or volunteer information. The teacher chides him for being unmotivated and assumes he is not bright. That same roommate also goes to parties but never asks anyone to dance, doesn’t openly defend his point of view when it is challenged by someone less informed, and rarely engages in small talk at the dinner table. What is your diagnosis? What underlying cause might account for this range of behavior? How about shyness? Like many other people who suffer from intense feelings of shyness, your roommate is unable to behave in desired ways . We can use the concept of shyness to explain the full pattern of your roommate’s behavior.To forge such causal explanations, researchers must often engage in a creative process of examining a diverse collection of data. Master detective Sherlock Holmes drew shrewd conclusions from scraps of evidence. In a similar fashion, every researcher must use an informed imagination, which creatively synthesizes what is known and what is not yet known. A well-trained psychologist can explain observations by using her or his insight into the human experience along with the facts previous researchers have uncovered about the phenomenon in question. Much psychological research attempts to determine which of several explanations most accurately accounts for a given behavioral pattern。