GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY

There are four major/ main/ primary goals of Psychology. (Mnemonics- DEPC)

1. Describe

• • • The First goal of psychology is to observe and gather information to understand the way the brain works and to know what is happening.
    • Find an accurate description of human behavior. It is hard to achieve an objective description of behavior & maintain an unbiased attitude.
    • By observing different human behavior, psychologists determine what is normal & healthy and what is not.
    • Psychology analyzes the thoughts, feelings, actions and goals of people through the help of various case studies, observations and surveys.
    • Example–
      1. Pavlov’s dog experiment– Here the description of the observation is noticing the salivation of dog at the sight of food.
      2. In an observation, a psychologist would say, “The subject smiled, laughed, and danced around the room.”

2. Explain

• • • Explain your described behavior.
    • Why does this behavior occur?
    • What circumstances cause it to occur?
    • To explain a behavior, psychologists must conduct experiments to ensure that the behavior is not random.
    • Pavlov used multiple dogs for experiments
    • When presented with an unconditioned stimulus (the food), the dogs began to salivate – which is the unconditioned response.
    • He notices that even the presence of his lab assistant, who fed the dogs, caused them to salivate. He realized that the lab assistant, which was once a neutral stimulus, had become a conditioned stimulus.

3. Predict

• • Forming a hypothesis.
  • Look for patterns, similarities in behavior.
  • Based on the observed behavior, a psychologist aims to predict how that behavior will appear again in the future.
  • If it applies to other people, will they show the same behavior?
  • Pavlov predicted that the bell- new neutral stimulus – would become a conditioned stimulus if he presented it with food enough times.

4. Control

• • • By Understanding, explaining and predicting the behavior, we can easily define, change, influence, or control behavior.
    • To make constructive and lasting changes in people’s lives.
    • In Pavlovian experiment, the behavior of the dog is controlled. Salivation takes place only when the bell rings.
    • What did Pavlov’s discovery mean for the future of psychology?
      • It meant that teachers could take control of their classroom easier,
      • Parents can teach children good behavior.
      • People can manipulate their own and others’ thoughts.
      • It is useful for training new employees faster, increasing the success of students and reducing drug addiction.
      • Becomes possible to help someone get rid of a nasty habit.

Click here for Practice MCQ tests