Activity . psychologists study the processes of perception, learning, memory, thinking, and motivation, etc., using experiment as their method of enquiry, whereas physiological psychologists attempt to examine physiological bases of these behaviours. Developmental psychologists study qualitative and quantitative changes in behaviour from the beginning of human life to its end, whereas social psychologists focus on the study of experience and behaviour of individuals as they take place in social contexts. Theme : Human behaviour is a function of the attributes of persons and environment.
Kurt Lewin first proposed the famous equation B = f(P,E) – which suggests that behaviour is the product of a person and her/ his environment. What this equation simply tells us is that the variations we find in human behaviour are largely due to the fact that persons differ with respect to their various attributes because of their genetic endowments and diverse experiences and so do the environments they are placed in. Here the environment is conceptualised as it is perceived or made sense of by the person. Psychologists have for a long time considered that no two individuals are the same, if one considers their psychological attributes.
They vary with respect to their intelligence, interests, values, aptitudes and various other personality characteristics. In fact, psychological tests came to be constructed to measure such differences. A discipline called, differential psychology, which focused on individual differences emerged and flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Most of it still remains in the form of personality psychology.
Psychologists believe that although, core psychological processes are universal, they are susceptible to individual dispositions. Besides individual differences, psychologists also believe that there are variations in behaviour which occur due to environmental factors. This is a view which psychologists have taken from anthropologists, evolutionary theorists and biologists. Psychologists look for explanations of various psychological phenomena based on individual-environment interactions.
Although it is difficult, psychologists do seek out the relative importance of heredity and environment in explaining human behaviour. Theme : Human behaviour is caused. Most psychologists believe that all human behaviour can be explained in terms