Psychology Sac Revision Topic : Research Methods Defining Psychology and its Subject Matter: - The term psychology comes from two Greek words: Psyche, meaning soul or mind, and - logos, which loosely translated means study or knowledge. By its original definition, psychology was initially described as ‘the study of the soul or - mind’. Definition: The scientific study of human thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Mental Processes and Behaviour: - Mental Processes refers to a persons thoughts and feelings, which are personal, or - subjective, and cannot be directly observed. Examples of Mental Processes are: how you learn and remember, your , choice of words in a conversation, your sensations and perceptions, how you experience happiness or sadness, - etc. These are private, internal experiences that cannot be observed by others in the way that we - can see externally expressed actions such as smiling and crying. Psychologist rely on making inferences about mental mental processes on the basis of - observable behaviour An Inference is a logical assumption, judgment or conclusion based on available evidence: e.g learning can not be directly observed as it is a mental process that occurs within the - individual. - Instead Psychologists observe performance, or what people do. Behaviour refers to any externally expressed actions made by a living person (or animal) - that can be directly observed. - Behaviour involves doing something - it is an active process. Behaviour is the means people can physically express their thoughts and feelings when interacting with the environment. e.g Talking, touching, running, perspiring, hugging, - flirting, texting, Skyping, touching a very hot object etc. Although the definition of Psychology distinguishes between mental processes and behaviour , these do not often occur independently of one another. e.g. how you behave in a particular - situation will be accompanied by underlying thoughts and feelings about a situation. Mental Processes and behaviour are only considered separately for the purposes of scientific study, in courses such as VCE Psychology, and in textbooks such as this.