Introduction

Welcome to Psych101 in a Nutshell. Our goal is to provide you with a condensed, informative overview of main topics in the field of psychology.

What is Psychology?

Psychology is the study of cognitions, emotions, and behavior. The basic goals1 of the field are to describe, explain, predict, control, and improve.
  1. Describe – observe and describe behaviors
  2. Explain – provide explanations for observed behaviors/reactions
  3. Predict – once behaviors have been described and explained, using that knowledge we can speculate what may occur in the future
  4. Control – given the knowledge gained through the previous three goals, a major goal of the field is to exert control over predicted outcomes. IE, control disorders so that the person’s life is minimally impacted by it
  5. Improve – Psychologists do not purely hope to exert control over behaviors but to do so with a positive result. They wish to improve a person’s life.
Continue upon your learning path with this information in mind.

1)Goals - http://allpsych.com/psychology101/intro.html