A major goal of psychology is to predict behaviour by understanding its causes. Making predictions is difficult, in part because people vary and respond differently in different situations.

differences in extraversion, intelligence, self-esteem, anxiety, aggression, and conformity.

we cannot always predict who will become aggressive or who will perform best in graduate school or on the job.

behaviour is that almost all behaviour is multiply determined, or produced by many factors.

depression is caused by lower-level genetic factors, by medium-level personal factors, and by higher-level social and cultural factors.

single cause.

are not independent of one another

much human behaviour is caused by factors that are outside our conscious awareness,

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), who argued that many psychological disorders were caused by memories that we have repressed and thus remain outside our consciousness.

biological influences

abilities and characteristics of individual people

social groups,

Research psychologists use scientific methods to create new knowledge about the causes of behaviour, whereas psychologist-practitioners, such as clinical, counselling, industrial-organizational, and school psychologists, use existing research to enhance the everyday life of others.

collect and interpret data in their everyday lives

accepting explanations for events without testing them thoroughly may lead us to think that we know the causes of things when we really do not.

Empirical methods include the processes of collecting and organizing data and drawing conclusions about those data

scientific method as the set of assumptions, rules, and procedures that scientists use to conduct empirical research.

Statements that cannot be objectively measured or objectively determined to be true or false are not within the domain of scientific inquiry

Values are personal statements such as “Abortion should not be permitted in this country,” “I will go to heaven when I die,”

it cannot offer a secure foundation for our self-esteem.

People with healthy self-esteem are able to take risks and to give their all to a project or ambition, because, although failure may hurt or upset them, it is not going to damage or diminish them.

It is instructive to compare healthy self-esteem with pride and also with arrogance. If self-confidence is “I can” and self-esteem is “I am”, then pride is “I did”. To feel proud is to take pleasure from the goodness of our past actions and achievements.

arrogance stems from hunger and emptiness.

so there can be no such thing as excessive self-esteem. Instead, it betrays all the opposite.

Whenever we live up to our dreams and promises, we can feel ourself growing. Whenever we fail but know that we have given our best, we can feel ourself growing. Whenever we stand up for our values and face the consequences, we can feel ourself growing. Whenever we come to terms with a difficult truth, we can feel ourself growing. Whenever we bravely live up to our ideals, we can feel ourself growing. That is what growth depends on. Growth depends on bravely living up to our ideals, not on the ideals of the bank that we work for, or our parents’ praise, or our children’s successes, or anything else that is not truly our own but, instead, a betrayal of ourself.

Nor is he someone who ever betrayed knowledge and integrity in favour of deception and unconsciousness.

More than a great philosopher, Socrates was the living embodiment of the dream that philosophy might one day set us free.

handles most of our emotions and “no brainer” decisions.

e automatic pilot brain does a good job of steering the ship of self.

First, it was designed to protect us from danger and it frequently overreacts without thinking with unnecessary fear or anxiety.

reates stories to explain informatio

umps to conclusions

ery egocentric view

strong attachments to money, material objects, and people that it is reluctant to let go of.

owered dopamine levels might give us time to stop and think.

ast experience of similar patterns

willing to educate ourselves as new information becomes available