Abstract
What is psychology? Psychology can be defined as the science that studies the behaviour of man and animals or, more simply, the scientific study of behaviour. An alternative to this definition refers to psychology as the scientific study of ‘behaviour and experience’. This is preferred by some on the grounds that the term ‘behaviour’ is traditionally used to refer to actions and events which are directly observable (running, laughing, crying and so on), whereas many important aspects of human ‘experience’ are not observable in this way. For example, feelings and emotions, attitudes, beliefs and moods are important and common aspects of our lives and yet cannot be observed directly.
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© 1981 The British Psychological Society
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Griffiths, D. (1981). What is Psychology? Introduction. In: Psychology and Medicine. Psychology for Professional Groups. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16594-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16594-0_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-31877-5
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