Psychologists try to understand the mind and the behaviour of humans and other animals.
The many ways of doing this are reflected in the different approaches psychologists use in their work. Some psychologists conduct research on how we see or hear, and how we understand what we see or hear. They may be interested in how this ability to understand what we see or hear changes from birth to old age. Other psychologists are interested in how we speak, how we understand others when they speak to us, how we learn about the world around us, how we remember past events, how we behave in social situations, and how social situations may influence the way we behave. The aim of the staff at the Department of Psychology at the University of Strathclyde is to give students the opportunity to learn about these different approaches, about how research on the mind and behaviour is carried out, and about how that knowledge can be applied to solve everyday problems.