1 - The Goals of Psychology

As a science, psychology has some important goals to achieve. First, psychology must observe and record facts to understand what is happening. The goal of psychology is to find an accurate description of human behaviour.

Sometimes to achieve an objective description of behaviour is very difficult for many different reasons. Human behaviour is very complex and may be interpreted in a number of ways. A psychologist may not maintain an unbiased attitude when describing the behaviour that has been observed.

In an actual observation the psychologist would say, “The person smiled, laughed, and danced around the room.”

In an inferred observation the psychologist would say, “The person was overwhelmed with happiness.”


A second goal of psychology is to explain the data that has been collected. That task may seem straight forward, but it is complicated by a number of factors. One of these factors is the psychologist’s basic theory about the nature of human beings. Are people born “bad” or “born in sin”? Do parents have to discipline and mold the actions of the young firmly to curb this “bad” streak they have? Are people born “good”?  You may be relieved to know that opinions on these questions swing from one extreme to the other among knowledgeable psychologists throughout the world.

A third important goal for psychology is to seek to know the future regarding human behaviour. That is sometimes an impossible task because it means predicting and preparing for events before they happen. There are also many instances when predictions will prove to be wrong. Why? Human behaviour is very complex, and not even the most talented and conscientious psychologist has it completely figured out!