© Boardworks Ltd 20151 of 7

What is psychology?

© Boardworks Ltd 20152 of 7

Icons key: For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation

Teacher’s notes (in Notes Page)

Extension activity Sound Video

Accompanying worksheetFlash activity (not editable)

Web links

By the end of this section students will be able to:

Define psychology

Explain the role of research evidence

Identify areas of interest in psychology

Identify different perspectives in psychology

© Boardworks Ltd 20153 of 7

What is psychology?

We all have some theories about why people behave the way they do, but how do we know for certain that those theories are correct? Psychologists study human behaviour and mental processes scientifically.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) founded the first experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany, beginning the development of psychology as a discipline.

Psychology is the scientific study of human mind and

behaviour.

Psychology differs from common sense because it tests theories and provides evidence to support or disprove explanations of human behaviour.

© Boardworks Ltd 20154 of 7

Research

Psychology bases its claims on research evidence. When psychologists want to test a theory they form a hypothesis – a statement predicting what they expect to happen as a result of their research.

With the help of research, psychologists are able to:describe and explain behaviourspredict when a particular behaviour is likely to occur if necessary, modify that behaviour.

There are various ways in which psychologists gather information to test their theories, including experiments, self-report methods and case studies. These are known as research methods. The research will produce either quantitative data or qualitative data, which will then be analysed to see if there is support for the hypothesis.

© Boardworks Ltd 20155 of 7

Areas of interest in psychology

© Boardworks Ltd 20156 of 7

Perspectives in psychology

© Boardworks Ltd 20157 of 7

Want to see more?

This is only a sample of one of many Boardworks Psychology presentations.

To see more of what Boardworks can offer, order a full presentation completely free:

www.boardworks.co.uk/psychologypresentation