Definition of Psychology

 Sternberg (1998:05) says, “Psychology is both a natural science and a social science involving
the study of how organisms, primarily people, think, learn, perceive, feel, interact with
others and understand themselves.”

 Sternberg (1998) also defines Psychology in short as the study of the mind, behaviour and
the relationships between humans and other organisms.

 Sdorow (1993:04) defines psychology as “the science of mental processes and behaviour.

 Along the same lines, attention et al (2000:03) assert that “Psychology is the scientific study
of mental processes and behaviour.”

 According to Santrock (2000), the three main aspects to the definition of psychology are:
Science, mental processes and behaviour.

 As a science psychology uses systematic methods to observe, describe, predict and explain
behaviour. Thus, its methods are not casual, but are carefully and precisely planned and
conducted.

 Behaviour in psychology refers to everything we do that can be directly observed e.g. two
people kissing, a baby crying, etc.

 Mental processes include thoughts, feelings and motives that each of us experiences
privately, and that cannot be observed directly. Though thoughts and feelings cannot
directly be seen, they are nonetheless real e.g. thinking about kissing someone and a baby’s
feelings when its mother leaves the room.

 Psychology involves the study of diverse phenomena such as (i) personality (i.e how we
would characterize ourselves and what gives us our characteristics), (ii) Motivation (i.e what
prompts us to do what we do), (iii) Cognition (i.e how we think), and

 Deviant behaviour (i.e how and why do people we know behave in such strange ways.)

Psychology as a Science

 Entails scientific thinking which involves more than a collection of facts, is not always
absolutely correct, does not always follow a rigid, orderly progression of steps and is not
always objective and value-free.

 Makes use of scientific theories and research findings which are verifiable, cumulative,
parsimonious and public.
  Employs particular set of methods for ascertaining or at least striving to find the truth-even
if the truth contradicts what was expected.

 The methods are in effort to ensure that scientific data (facts) and theories are:

(a) verifiable and accurately reported

(b) cumulative

(c) public, and

(d) parsimonious

Characteristics of Scientific Findings

(a) Verifiable

 There must be some means of confirming the findings e.g they must be (i) replicable (i.e can
be repeated using the original methods and produce the same results as were obtained
initially.)

(ii) reliable (i.e. it can be counted on used procedure to produce the same results time

after time).

(iii) valid (i.e. the investigation should investigate and show what it is to

show)

(b) Cumulative:

 It is sometimes said, “there is nothing new under the sun.” and in science even the newest
ideas build on the old.

 When there appear to be radical shifts in scientific research, as when a scientist rejects
traditional approaches and blazes a new trail, - such trailblazers are involved in revolutionary
science, scientific work that radically modifies and contradicts altogether the existing
paradigm, inventing instead, a new paradigm.

 Those who widen and extend existing paths are engaged in normal science, scientific work
that gradually and progressively builds on a paradigm established by others. (Kuhn, 1970).

 Thus, whether scientists embrace or reject the work of their intellectual ancestors or
predecessors, they profit from the earlier work.

(c ) Parsimonious
  William of Occam (1285-1349), cited in Sternberg (1998:11) asserts that, “it is in vain to do
with more what can be done with fewer.”

 Thus, when formulating hypotheses (tentative proposals regarding expected consequences

of research) and drawing conclusions from data, scientists try to use relatively few words or
concepts, while providing complete information.

 The purpose of scientific analysis is to discover and explain, or at the very least describe
systematically some phenomenon or set of phenomena as simply as possible.

(d) Public

 In order to benefit science and society, results of conducted studies should become public –
usually through scientific journals (periodicals that report research results to the scientific
community).

 Writing about research enables editors and peer reviewers of reputable scientific journals to
scrutinize carefully the relative scientific merits of the articles that are submitted for
publication.

 Publication also permits readers to learn of research findings that may lead to further
research or to relevant applications in the field of interest.

 Publication also enables sharing of ideas with fellow scientists who would have the
opportunity to read, pause, re-read, reflect, mull over details and carefully analyse the
research, and to consider possible applications of the information.

 Broader publication by reporters in the non-scientific news media would also be possible, of
the findings, based on the news value (i.e the general appeal and popular interest of the
findings.)

Psychology as a Natural Science

 Involves the study of the laws of nature.

 Many natural scientists in psychology study human behaviour, e.g. (i) Geneticists study the
influence of heredity on behaviour, and (ii) Physiologists study physical and biochemical
influences on behaviour.

 However, psychologists view these various roads to understanding behaviour as

complementary, not a mutually exclusive.

Psychology as a Social Science

  Involves the study of the law of thoughts, feelings, and behaviour of humans and other
organisms.

 Involves the study of humans and other organisms in interaction with others or the
environment.

Misconceptions about Psychology as a Science

(a) It is always correct:

 Scientific accounts are not always correct, hence psychological accounts.

 Thus, views held today will seem outdated and peculiar in future.

 To be of value, psychology, as a science must be dynamic and constantly evolving, as new

theories supersede old ones.

(b) It is always conducted via an idealized method:

 Scientists in general, and psychologists in particular rarely use the orderly, linear, simplistic
scientific methods they learned in school.

 All scientists sometimes have to revise their original hypotheses or fine-tune their research
procedures in order to get them to work after making false starts.

( c) It is always conducted with perfect objectivity:

 Scientists sometimes fail to reach their goal of being objective in deciding what to study,
how to study it, and how to interpret the findings of their studies.

 When they fall prey to other errors in thinking they can rationalize.

 Scientists often fall prey to what is known as confirmation bias, - a tendency to confirm
rather than to refute existing beliefs. (Halpern,1995).

 Kuhn (1970) says that, like anyone else, scientists who may be psychologists, may seek an
interpretation of the evidence that best fits what they already believe.

 Value – preconceptions regarding what is valuable also influence topics scientists deem
worthy of study, how they should be studied, and how the results of those studies are
interpreted.
(d) It is merely a collection of facts:

 Emphasis on products, such as facts may override emphasis on processes, such as the
pursuit of knowledge and understanding.

 This leads to a more important misconception about psychology as a science, that it is

merely a collection of facts.

 However, facts become part of the scientific enterprise only when presented in the context
of a theory (i.e. a statement of some general principles explaining particular events.)

 Theories, which are not merely opinions, but analyses of relations among sets of facts, are
necessary to make science not only descriptive but also explanatory.

The Goals of Psychology as a Science/Psychological Research:

 Psychologists, as scientists seek to accomplish a number of goals in their work.

 Following are goals of psychological research and the question that psychologists ask when
trying to reach the goals.

Goal Questions

(1) Description - What happens?

-When and where does it happen?

- How does it happen?

(2) Explanation -Why does it happen?

(3) Prediction -What will happen next?

(4) Control - How can we influence this behaviour or

intervene in this situation? /What conditions
affect the behavior?

Description
  Refers to characterizing what and how people think, feel or act in response to various kinds
of situations.

 Sdorow (1993:37) says, “description is the enumeration of the characteristics of an event,

object or individual.”

 Before predictions are made about people’s behaviour, displayed behaviour needs to be
described.

 Thus, as Boire (1983) cited in Sdorow (1993) asserts, good observational skills are essential
to psychologists.

 However, instead of arbitrarily describing everything they observe, psychologists describe

only things that are relevant to their research problem, hence Doyle (1930) cited in Sdorow
(1993:37) says that;

A fool takes in all the lumber (facts) that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be
useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things… It is of highest
importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.

 More to being systematic descriptions must be precise (i.e should use concrete rather than
abstract language.)

 Thus, for instance while describing a friend as generous would be acceptable in everyday
conversation, it would be too imprecise for scientific communication

 To solve such a problem, scientists, including psychologists use operational definitions (the
definitions of behaviours or qualities in terms of the procedures used to measure them) e.g.
the term generous may be defined operationally as “donating more than 5% of one’s salary.”

(2) Explanation

 Addresses why people think, feel or act as they do.

 Entails the discovery of the causes of changes in overt behaviour, mental experiences and
physiological processes.

 Explanation involves the discovery and statement of causation (i.e. the effect of one or more
variables on another variable.) where a variable is an event, behaviour, condition or
characteristic that has two or more values e.g. age, height, temperature, intelligence, etc.

 Thus, two variables can be correlated to find the degree of relationship between two or
more variables, in order to show causation.

 Correlation can either be positive (i.e. one in which variables tend to change in the same
direction) or negative (i.e. one in which variables tend to change in opposite directions.
  Explanations need to be elaborate or clear

(3) Prediction

 Is a declaration about the future made in advance, based on observation, experience and
reasoning (Sternberg, 1998).

 For instance, Melanoma risk report of 1983, reported that there is positive correlation
between educational level and the likelihood of developing a deadly form of skin cancer
called malignant melanoma. Thus, as educational level rises, the probability of getting the
disease also rises.

 Predictive information (hypotheses) can be double-edged sword (i.e. it can help predict
future behaviour, but if overvalued, it can lead to erroneous judgments.)

 NB. Predicting something about someone can make that thing come true, hence self-
fulfilling prophecy seems common.

 People, therefore need to be careful about making predictions, especially pessimistic ones,
about people’s behaviour, as those predictions may contribute to bringing about the very
behaviour.

 Prediction can, therefore, end up not only anticipating but exerting some control over future
behaviour.

 However, prediction in psychology is rarely as precise as it is in ‘hard sciences’ like physics

and chemistry.

(4) Control:

 Psychologists also try to control behaviour, experiences and physiological processes by

manipulating factors that affect them.

 Control means altering conditions that influence behaviour in predictable ways Coon et al
(1990).

 For example if a psychologist suggests changes in a classroom that help children learn better,
the psychologist has exerted control.

 People can control not only their behaviour, but also their minds- which is a major goal of
interventions to improve intellectual abilities, e.g. a number of educational programs are
designed to help students develop their thinking skills (Sternberg and Grigorenko, 1997).

 N.B Control is an essential ingredient in the conduct of experiments and in experimental

designs control is used in another sense.
Psychology as an Art:

 As an art, psychology refers to its applied side.

 It is the application of psychological knowledge to practical problems.

 It is a skill or knack for doing things which is acquired by study, practice and special
experience.

 Examples of practitioners of the art of psychology are; (a) a psychotherapist talking to a

worried client, (b) an educational psychologist advising a school board on a new curriculum
(c) a social psychologist trying to lessen tensions between management and workers in an
industry, etc.