You won't find the meaning of life or the secret of happiness in this text. But you will find an approach to investigating questions that has proven to be fruitful. The more you learn about psychology as a way of thinking, the better able you will be to evaluate the psychological assertions you encounter in daily life. There is still another reason for my fascination with psychology. Psychologists look at all the seasons of human life, from development in the womb to the emotional stages that people go through in the process of dying.
Psychologists study observable behaviors such as eating, fighting, and mating.
But they also dig beneath the surface to investigate how hormones affect emotions and how the brain registers pain. They probe the behavior of any number of species, from humans to house cats, from monkeys to moths. This rich diversity is, for me, perhaps psychology's most appealing aspect. To answer these questions, we begin our introduction to psychology by retracing its development. By seeing how psychology grew and changed, you will discover why it has the shape it does today.