Explain the various goals of psychological enquiry. Write in points and give 1 line about each goal.
Answers
Answer:
The four main goals of psychology are to describe, explain, predict and control the behaviour and mental processes of others.
Describe
Psychology aims to understand the behaviour of others and gather information about the way the brain works in order to better serve humanity. By observing different human behaviours, psychologists determine what is normal and healthy and what is unhealthy. Psychology analyzes the thoughts, feelings, actions and goals of people through the help of various case studies, observations and surveys.
Have you ever heard of Pavlov’s dogs? Pavlov noticed that his dogs were salivating as the result of a stimuli – the lab assistant approaching – before food was even presented to them. This observation acted as a description of what was happening. Once psychologists can describe a behaviour or phenomenon, they can use that as a basis for learning more about that behaviour. And yes, many psychologists have studied animals in order to learn more about human behaviour.
Explain
Why does this behaviour occur? Under what circumstances will it occur again? In order to explain a behaviour, psychologists must conduct experiments to ensure that the behaviour is not an anomaly. If there’s only one person (or animal) exhibiting this behaviour, it certainly isn’t a cultural norm. In the case of Pavlov, he was able to conduct an experiment using multiple dogs that all seemed to behave in the same way. Through this experiment he was able to notice a handful of important things about the behaviour of others. And thus, classical conditioning came to be.
When presented with an unconditioned stimulus (the food), the dogs began to salivate – which is the unconditioned response. When presented with delicious food, humans tend to salivate, right? After the dogs were fed for a period of time, Pavlov began to notice that even the presence of his lab assistant, who fed the dogs, caused them to salivate. Once he noticed this was happening, he realized that he had come across a wonderful psychological discovery. The lab assistant, which was once a neutral stimulus, had become a conditioned stimulus. To further his experiment, Pavlov introduced a bell as a neutral stimulus.
Predict
Based on past observed behaviour, a psychologist aims to predict how that behaviour will appear again in the future and if other people will exhibit the same behaviour. Pavlov predicted that the new neutral stimulus – the bell – would become a conditioned stimulus if he presented it with food enough times. Sure enough, after presenting the dogs with food at the same time the bell was sounded, he was able to condition the dogs to salivate when the bell rang even when they weren’t presented with food. This discovery held a lot of importance in the world of psychology and allowed many people to influence the behaviour of others.
Control
What did Pavlov’s discovery mean for the future of psychology? It meant that teachers could take control of their classroom easier, parents could teach their children to exhibit good behaviour, and manipulative older siblings could control the behaviours of their younger siblings. In other areas of psychology, experiments are used to train new employees faster, increase the success of students and reduce drug addiction.