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Ask Doctor Bob Questions about psychology Week of August 25, 2003 Q. Why do people act the way they do? A. I'm going to need a whole semester to just begin to answer that question. I hope you're paying attention!
Q. What is psychology? A. See your book, page 6. "The study of mind, brain, and behavior." Most psychologists don't worry too much about it: psychology is what we do. "Did I just do psychology, or did I commit anthropology by mistake?" My easy definition is "using science to answer the question: 'why do people do that?'" If you want a longer definition, check out this one from an intro psych book by Carole Wade and Carol Tavris: "the discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism's physical state, mental state and external environment." Whew!
Q. I'd like to understand our instincts better. A. "Instinct" is not a word we like to use in psychology anymore. That's because it closes the book on the reason for the behavior. "Why did the bird fly south for the winter?" "Instinct." End of discussion. Calling something an instinct doesn't help us to understand the behavior. Back in the 1920s, psychologists made up long lists of instincts, but this was only an exercise in labelling behaviors without understanding them. (I have a textbook from this period with one of these lists.) These days, we now talk about "hard-wired behaviors," meaning these are rigid, biologically controlled behaviors that the animal has little choice about doing. While this may not seem like much of an improvement, it does leave the door open to finding out what triggers a behavior, and what biological mechanisms produce and manage the behavior.
Q. What is human behavior? A. The behavior emitted by creatures of the genus homo, species sapiens.
Q. What is considered a proper field of psychological investigation? A. Whatever a psychological scientist gets interested in. It runs the gamut from biological functions to how people behave in societies. If it involves living beings, a psychologist can stick her or his nose into it to see how it ticks. Some psychologists even ignore living beings rule, and study computers.
Q. How is it that matter can combine and create living organisms? A. Um, okay, you got me. There are a few things about life that are outside of the scope of psychology. This is really a question for chemistry, biology, or biochemistry.
Q. How do women's minds work?/Why do guys act the way they do? A. Men and women are far more alike than they are different—but we notice the differences. Modern brain imaging studies hint that when solving some problems, male brains tend to be active on only one side, while female brains may be active on both sides. Does this mean male and female brains are wired differently? Maybe—and maybe those differences are because of the difference experiences boys and girls have growing up. Just about everybody agrees boys and girls are treated differently from the second they are born. We don't know how much of the difference between men and women is biological, and how much is from their different experiences.
Q. How much is the work load outside of class, and what's the most important section? A. I follow the same rule as every other college course: for every hour you spend in class, you're supposed to spend three hours on your own, reading, studying, and doing assignments. What's the most important section? Whichever one we're studying right now, of course!
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