Personal Observation Of Human Behavior Essay

1) Why are people’s personal observations of human behavior often unreliable? What is the general purpose of psychology and how is the scientific method used to study observations of human behavior?

Personal observations of human behavior are often unreliable because their interpretations are not conducted in an objective, unbiased manner. The observations will often be subjective, and may reflect that person’s feelings or perspectives. When a personal observation is made of human behavior, prior life experiences, personal feelings and perceptions render the results unreliable, because they cannot be viewed or interpreted by anyone else. The general purpose of psychology is to describe, explain, predict and control or influence behavior and mental processes. Psychologists use these goals to observe and research, along with the use of the scientific method. The scientific method is a way of conducting research, and is used to guide scientists by demanding that the evidence is always valid and verifiable, and not subjective. The scientific method serves as a guideline for researchers and assists in lessening the possibility of unreliable results or errors in their conclusions.

2) Select (3) three of the major psychological theorists and their theories. Explain how each is

Titchener was a student of the German psychologist Willhelm Wundt. He developed the first major school of thought, which was called Structuralism. Structuralism focused on the idea of breaking down our conscious experiences into elements. These elements were identified by experiments and procedures called introspection. Unfortunately, when Titchener died in 1927, Structuralism ended. It was criticized for being unreliable due to “too much individual variation in the experiences and reports of research subjects.” (McLeod, S.A. 2011). Structuralism as a school of thought was also not widely accepted because Titchener was not concerned with the areas of animal and child