Welcome to your first lesson in the "Basics of Psychology" course! I'm here to guide you through the foundational concepts that will help you achieve your goal of better understanding your own emotions, habits, and reactions.
This course is designed to first build a solid understanding of the "why"—the scientific principles behind our mental and behavioral worlds. Today, we'll start at the very beginning by tackling our first learning outcome: to define psychology as the scientific study of mind and behavior. This lesson will lay the groundwork for everything that follows, from how our brains work to why we develop certain habits.
Let's begin.
What Is Psychology?
At its core, psychology is a science dedicated to understanding who we are and why we do what we do. The word itself comes from the Greek words psyche (meaning "soul" or "spirit") and logia (meaning "study of").
To get a feel for the field, let's start with a brief introductory video.
Intro to Psychology: Crash Course Psychology #1
This video from CrashCourse provides a quick and engaging overview of what psychology is and the kinds of big questions it seeks to answer.
Please watch from the beginning of the definition at 00:34 until 01:09. The host, Hank Green, will give you the modern definition of psychology and a little historical context.
As the video mentions, the formal definition is the science of behavior and mental processes. Let's break that down into its two key components:
- Mental Processes: These are our internal, subjective experiences that cannot be directly observed by others. This includes your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, memories, and dreams.
- Behavior: These are the outwardly observable and recordable actions of an organism. This includes anything from smiling and talking to heart rate and brain activity that can be measured.
Given your tech background, you might think of it this way: behavior is like the output you see on a screen—the observable result. Mental processes are like the underlying code and processing—the internal logic that produces that output. Psychology aims to understand both the internal code and the final output, and how they relate to each other.
The following short video provides a very clear explanation of this distinction.
Intro to Psychology: What is Psychology?
This video from 5-Minute Psych clearly distinguishes between mental processes and behavior, providing simple examples for each.
Please watch from 00:41 to 01:28 to solidify your understanding of these two core components of psychology.
This Venn diagram provides a simple visual summary of how the two concepts combine to form the field of psychology.
Test your understanding!
For each of the following examples, decide whether it is primarily a mental process, a behavior, or a combination of both.
- Worrying about an upcoming deadline.
- Tapping your fingers on a desk.
- Remembering your first day of school.
- Deciding to order a pizza and then picking up the phone to call.
Show answer
- Mental process. Worry is an internal emotional and cognitive state.
- Behavior. Tapping is an observable action.
- Mental process. Remembering is an internal cognitive activity.
- Both. The decision-making ("I want pizza") is a mental process. The subsequent action of picking up the phone is a behavior. This shows how tightly linked they often are.
Why Is Psychology a Science?
The most important part of our definition is the word "scientific." It's what separates psychology from philosophy, self-help gurus, and "common sense." While we all have theories about why people act the way they do, psychology tests these ideas using rigorous methods.
Sometimes, what we assume is "common sense" turns out to be wrong when put to the test. Let's explore this distinction.
Psychology Basics: A Beginner's Guide to the Mind
The article 'Psychology Basics' from HelpGuide.org has a great section that contrasts scientific psychology with everyday 'common sense'.
Please read the section titled 'Psychology vs. “common sense”'. It uses a classic example to show why scientific testing is necessary.
So, what makes a field of study a science? It's not about wearing a lab coat or using test tubes. It's about the method. To understand why psychology qualifies, let's look at the core features of any science.
This article, 'Is psychology a science?', clearly outlines the criteria for a discipline to be considered scientific.
Please read the section titled 'What is a science?'. It lists three common features that define a scientific activity.
As the article states, science is characterized by:
- Empirical evidence: Claims are based on data gathered through observation and experimentation, not just on logic or belief.
- Systematic procedures: The research process follows a clear, organized, and often repeatable set of steps.
- Theory generation and evaluation: The evidence is used to build, support, or disprove theories that explain how things work.
Psychology uses these very principles. Psychologists pose questions, form testable hypotheses, collect data (through experiments, surveys, observations, etc.), and analyze that data to draw conclusions. This systematic approach is what allows us to move beyond speculation and build a reliable body of knowledge about the mind and behavior.
Conclusion
In this introductory lesson, we've established the fundamental definition that will anchor the rest of our course.
Key Takeaways:
- Psychology is formally defined as the scientific study of mind (mental processes) and behavior.
- Mental processes are our internal experiences, like thoughts and emotions.
- Behaviors are our observable actions.
- Psychology is a science because it relies on systematic methods and empirical evidence to test ideas and build knowledge, rather than relying on intuition or "common sense."
By understanding this framework, you're now equipped to explore how psychologists investigate the very topics you're interested in—like emotional regulation, addiction, and anxiety.
In our next lesson, we will build on this foundation by exploring the core psychological perspectives. These are the different lenses—such as biological, cognitive, and behavioral—that psychologists use to analyze mind and behavior. Each perspective offers a unique angle for understanding why we are the way we are.