After completing their study of this module, students should be able to:
1. Define psychology.
2. Trace psychology’s prescientific roots, from early understandings of mind and
body to the beginnings of modern
science.
3. Explain how the early psychologists sought to understand the mind’s structure
and functions, and identify some
of the leading psychologists who worked in these areas.
4. Describe the evolution of psychology from the 1920s through today.
5. Summarize the nature-nurture debate in psychology, and describe the principle
of natural selection.
6. Identify the three main levels of analysis in the biopsychosocial approach,
and explain why psychology’s varied
perspectives are complementary.
7. Identify some of psychology’s subfields, and explain the difference between
clinical psychology and
psychiatry.
8. Describe some effective study techniques.