1.1 The Science of Psychology: Getting to Know You

The field you are studying in this textbook can be defined in one simple sentence: Psychology  The science of the mind and behavior. is the science of the mind and behavior. Let’s look at the key words in this definition: science, mind, and behavior.

First, science: Science avoids mere opinions, intuitions, and guesses and instead strives to nail down facts by using objective evidence—evidence not influenced by an observer's feelings or interpretations.  A scientist uses logic to reason about the possible causes of a phenomenon and then tests the resulting ideas by collecting additional facts that will either support the ideas or refute them.

Second, mind: The mind is what the brain does. Or, more accurately, the mind is what your brain does—the mental events it produces—both when you engage in “thinking” activities, such as storing memories, recognizing objects, and using language, and also when you are “feeling” something, such as when you are depressed or savoring the experience of being in love.

How can we collect objective facts about the mind, which is hidden and internal? One way, which has a long history in psychology, is to work backward, observing what people do and inferring from outward signs what is going on “inside.” This basic approach is commonplace in science. For instance, astronomers have observed flames roiling on the surface of the sun and drawn inferences about the inner workings of stars. Similarly, psychologists have observed that unintended facial expressions offer a window into a person’s emotional reactions, and that the size of the pupils of the eyes offer a window into what a person finds interesting (the pupils are relatively large when a person is paying close attention).

Another, more recent method for studying facts about the mind does not require drawing inferences from behavior. Instead, researchers use brain-scanning techniques to take pictures of the living brain that show its physical changes as it works and then relate those physical changes to the mental events they produce. For example, a brain structure called the amygdala is activated whenever people are afraid and often when they have strong emotional reactions in general—and hence, if researchers see it activated, they have grounds for drawing inferences about the accompanying mental events.

Third, behavior: By behavior The outwardly observable acts of a person, alone or in a group. , we mean the outwardly observable acts of a person, either alone or in a group. Behavior consists of physical movements—voluntary or involuntary—of the limbs, facial muscles, or other parts of the body. A particular behavior typically is preceded by mental events, such as a perception of the current situation  (for instance, the distance to the cup) and a decision about what to do next (how forcefully to swing the club). A behavior may also be governed by the relationship between the individual and a group of people. Tiger Woods might not have performed the way he did in 2002 had he been playing in 1920, when many in the crowd would not have wanted a non-White person to win.

So there are layers upon layers: An individual’s mental state depends on brain functioning, and mental events affect his or her behavior, and—at the same time—these events are affected by the surrounding group (the members of which, in turn, have their own individual minds and behaviors).

The field of psychology is dedicated to helping us understand ourselves and each other by using the tools of science. But more than that, research in the field of psychology is designed not simply to describe and explain mental events and behavior but also to predict and control them. As an individual, you’d probably like to be able to predict what kind of person would make a good spouse for you or which politician would make sound decisions in crisis situations. As a society, we all would greatly benefit by knowing how people learn most effectively, how to control addictive and destructive behaviors, and how to cure mental illness. The field of psychology can help us become masters of our own fates, to control what otherwise might seem to be inevitable consequences of human nature.

To answer questions about Tiger Woods’s successes and failures, were you a psychologist, you would try to understand psychological phenomena at different levels of analysis (to use the most widely accepted terminology). To understand the idea of levels of analysis, let’s begin by considering a building, say the City Hall in your city or town.

First, imagine the building and then zoom in so that all you can see are bricks, boards, cement blocks, or other basic building materials. At this level of analysis, what’s important is the nature of the physical structure.

Second, imagine that you can use X-ray vision so that you can see the internal organization of the building, the rooms, corridors, stairways, and so on. Now you can tell which are offices, which are waiting rooms, where the restrooms are, and so forth. The building materials are no longer key; rather, you are now considering the functions and contents of different parts of the structure.

Third, zoom out so you can see the building situated in your city or town. Now you can see how roads and electric lines lead to and from City Hall, how it is positioned relative to other structures (such as a parking lot), and so on.

In this example, you have been looking at the same thing—a building—but considering it from different levels of analysis. Notice also that characteristics evident at each of the different levels affect each other: The physical structure affects the building’s function: If the building has a wood frame, it can’t be as tall as a building with a steel frame, which can support more weight. The building’s function, in turn, affects its relation to other structures: If it weren’t as large, it would not require as large a parking lot (because there wouldn’t be as many visitors) and so other buildings could be closer to it. We can perform exactly the same sort of analysis when we consider psychological phenomena, as we discuss in the following sections.