Here's a breakdown of what general psychology covers:
Core Areas:
* Sensation and Perception: How we receive and interpret information from the environment.
* Learning and Memory: How we acquire, store, and retrieve information.
* Motivation and Emotion: The forces that drive our behavior and how we experience and express feelings.
* Cognition: Mental processes like thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, and language.
* Social Psychology: How we interact with others and are influenced by social situations.
* Developmental Psychology: How we change and grow throughout the lifespan.
* Personality: Individual differences in behavior, thought, and emotion.
Key Features:
* Focuses on universal principles: General psychology seeks to identify commonalities in human experience rather than individual variations.
* Employs scientific methods: It relies on systematic observation, experimentation, and data analysis to study psychological phenomena.
* Provides a foundation for other areas of psychology: General psychology serves as a building block for specialized fields like clinical, developmental, and industrial/organizational psychology.
In essence, general psychology aims to understand the basic building blocks of human behavior and mental processes, providing a foundation for exploring more specific psychological topics and applications.