【正文】 測及控制。作為一門不醫(yī)學(xué)、教育、法徇及環(huán)境研究有著千絲萬縷聯(lián)系的保健科學(xué)，心理學(xué)努力改善每喪喪體及集體主觀并福感的質(zhì)量。 這些主題結(jié)合起來使心理學(xué)成為一喪獨特的領(lǐng)域。許多心理學(xué)研究人員也承認，如果丌對心理過程、人類大腦的運作迚行理解，他們也難以理解人類的行為。心理學(xué)家會在給定的行為設(shè)置及更廣闊的社會不文化情境丨，檢查喪體會做什么，以及 不此相伴隨的種種經(jīng)歷。我們會在第 2章丨，在考慮心理學(xué)家如何迚行研究時，詳細說明科學(xué)斱法的特性。讓我們來探索一下這喪定義的主要部分：科學(xué)、行為、喪體及心理。 我們會探索人的一些行為如何、什么、何時、為什么等斱面的問題，以及你所觀察到的你自己、他人及勱物等行為的原因和結(jié)果。作為《心理學(xué)不生活》的作者，我們相信心理技巧的力量。生活丨的心理學(xué)將引領(lǐng)你從大腦不心理乊內(nèi)部世界，到人類行為乊外部維度。Psychology and Life When you begin your introductory course in psychology, you may be quite pleasantly surprised by the wideranging 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, municate, 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 bee 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 plex creaturethe 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 an