The Constantly Changing World of Psychology How can we use Psychology to determine the cause of human behavior? Psychology is defined as, “The scientific study of behavior and mental process” (Ciccarelli 5). Psychology has been a field of study for about one hundred and thirty five years. Being a relatively new field of study, psychology is rapidly changing. From 1879 to today, there have been many different philosophers who have proposed many different viewpoints, from William Wundt, who is the founder of psychology and objective introspection to John B. Watson who was the founder of behaviorism. “Two of the seven perspectives used today are from the early days of psychology” (Ciccarelli 13). There is not one single viewpoint that is used today. Philosophers use different perspectives or even combine a few perspectives to determine the cause of behavior. …show more content…
Mental processes attributes to what goes on in people’s minds that goes unseen. Behavior refers to actions that can be seen on the outside. The goals of psychology, description, explanation, prediction, and control are designed to determine the cause of behavior. Description, in psychology, involves observing the who, what, when, and where of a particular behavior. Explanation is trying to determine why a behavior is occurring. According to Ciccarelli, “The goal of description provides the observations, and the goal of explanation helps to build the theory” (5). Prediction is making an educated guess about when, where, and why a behavior would happen down the road. “The focus of control, or modification of some behavior, is to change a behavior from and undesirable one to a desirable one” (Ciccarelli 5). In other words, the goal is to change