Chapter 1: The Science of Psychology
Learning Objectives
The goal of this chapter is to enable you to do the following:
- Describe psychology’s place as an academic discipline within the context of the sciences
- Describe how application of the scientific method has resulted in the development of technologies that have transformed the human condition
- Describe the historical development of the current definition, goals, and methods of psychology
- Describe how non-experimental and experimental research procedures relate to the issues of internal and external validity
- Describe how the assumption of determinism and possibility of self-control relate to human potential
- Provide examples of frequency and intensity measures of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
