Aliya Qureshi, Academic Content Writer at Edumarz.
Psychology is the science that studies behaviors, experiences, and mental processes.
Why do they study these phenomena?
Psychologists seek to understand thoughts, emotions, feelings, and/or behaviors. They seek to explain all of this. They seek to know what motivates people or animals to behave/act in a way.
How do psychologists study behaviors and cognition?
To do so psychologists follow a scientific approach, and that is why Psychology is known to be a science. Scientific studies are standardized ways of:
making observations,
gathering data,
forming predictions based on the data gathered,
testing those predictions, and
interpreting results using analytical methods.
To study behaviors psychologists use a variety of methods because human behavior is complex. Behaviors are influenced and motivated by multiple factors, many of which are unknown even to the individual, at times. Many of these methods include observation, experiments, surveys, etc.
Contents of this chapter will make you familiar with:
The goals and nature of Psychological Enquiry.
Different types of Data that psychologists prefer to use.
Methods of Psychological Enquiry.
Methods for analyzing the gathered data.
Limitations and ethical considerations while conducting a psychological enquiry.