To test these explanations for causes, researchers must often engage in the creative process of examining the different kinds of data collected. Detective Sherlock Holmes can draw accurate conclusions from bits and pieces of evidence. In the same way, each researcher must have an informed imagination to creatively integrate the known and the unknown. A well-trained psychologist can explain an observed phenomenon by using his insight into human experience and the facts that previous researchers have discovered about the same phenomenon. Many psychological studies have attempted to determine which of several explanations most accurately explains a particular pattern of behavior. Predicting what will happen Prediction in psychology is the expression of the likelihood that a particular behavior will occur and the likelihood that a particular relationship will be discovered. Precise explanations of the underlying causes of a particular behavior often allow researchers to make precise predictions about future behavior. So if we believe your roommate is shy, we can predict with confidence that he will feel uncomfortable when asked to talk to a stranger. When different explanations are used to explain a certain behavior or relationship, judgments are often formed based on how accurate and comprehensive predictions they can make. If your roommate is comfortable with strangers, we'll have to reconsider our judgment.

Just as observations must be very objective, the wording of scientific predictions must be precise enough that they can be tested and rejected when the evidence does not support it. Suppose, for example, that researchers predict that the presence of a stranger must cause anxiety in human infants and young monkeys over a certain age. We may want to examine the "stranger" factor to make predictions more accurate. Would a human infant or baby monkey show less anxiety if the stranger was also an infant rather than an adult, or if the stranger was of the same species rather than a different species? To improve future predictions, researchers create systemic changes in environmental conditions and observe their effect on infant responses. Controlling What Happens For many psychologists, control is the central and most powerful goal. To control means to govern the occurrence or non-occurrence of behavior—initiating behavior, maintaining behavior, stopping behavior, and influencing the form, intensity, or frequency of behavior. An explanation of the causes of behavior is persuasive if it sets the conditions that allow behavior to be controlled.

The ability to control behavior is important because it provides psychology with ways to help people improve their quality of life. Throughout Psychology and Life, you can see the different types of interventions psychologists use to help people take control of the problems in their lives. For example, Chapter 15 talks about the treatment of mental illness. We also describe how people use psychological power to eliminate unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, and to establish healthy behaviors, such as regular exercise (see Chapter 12). You will learn what types of parenting behaviors help parents maintain strong bonds with their children (see Chapter 10); you will learn about the forces that make strangers reluctant to lend a hand in times of crisis and how to overcome those forces (see Chapter 16). These are just a few of the many instances in which psychologists have used their knowledge to control and improve people's lives. From this perspective, psychologists are a fairly optimistic group, many of whom believe that almost any undesired pattern of behavior can be corrected with appropriate intervention. Psychology and Life maintains the same optimism

To test these explanations for causes, researchers must often engage in the creative process of examining the different kinds of data collected. Detective Sherlock Holmes can draw accurate conclusions from bits and pieces of evidence. In the same way, each researcher must have an informed imagination to creatively integrate the known and the unknown. A well-trained psychologist can explain an observed phenomenon by using his insight into human experience and the facts that previous researchers have discovered about the same phenomenon. Many psychological studies have attempted to determine which of several explanations most accurately explains a particular pattern of behavior. Predicting what will happen Prediction in psychology is the expression of the likelihood that a particular behavior will occur and the likelihood that a particular relationship will be discovered. Precise explanations of the underlying causes of a particular behavior often allow researchers to make precise predictions about future behavior. So if we believe your roommate is shy, we can predict with confidence that he will feel uncomfortable when asked to talk to a stranger. When different explanations are used to explain a certain behavior or relationship, judgments are often formed based on how accurate and comprehensive predictions they can make. If your roommate is comfortable with strangers, we'll have to reconsider our judgment.

Just as observations must be very objective, the wording of scientific predictions must be precise enough that they can be tested and rejected when the evidence does not support it. Suppose, for example, that researchers predict that the presence of a stranger must cause anxiety in human infants and young monkeys over a certain age. We may want to examine the "stranger" factor to make predictions more accurate. Would a human infant or baby monkey show less anxiety if the stranger was also an infant rather than an adult, or if the stranger was of the same species rather than a different species? To improve future predictions, researchers create systemic changes in environmental conditions and observe their effect on infant responses. Controlling What Happens For many psychologists, control is the central and most powerful goal. To control means to govern the occurrence or non-occurrence of behavior—initiating behavior, maintaining behavior, stopping behavior, and influencing the form, intensity, or frequency of behavior. An explanation of the causes of behavior is persuasive if it sets the conditions that allow behavior to be controlled.

The ability to control behavior is important because it provides psychology with ways to help people improve their quality of life. Throughout Psychology and Life, you can see the different types of interventions psychologists use to help people take control of the problems in their lives. For example, Chapter 15 talks about the treatment of mental illness. We also describe how people use psychological power to eliminate unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, and to establish healthy behaviors, such as regular exercise (see Chapter 12). You will learn what types of parenting behaviors help parents maintain strong bonds with their children (see Chapter 10); you will learn about the forces that make strangers reluctant to lend a hand in times of crisis and how to overcome those forces (see Chapter 16). These are just a few of the many instances in which psychologists have used their knowledge to control and improve people's lives. From this perspective, psychologists are a fairly optimistic group, many of whom believe that almost any undesired pattern of behavior can be corrected with appropriate intervention. Psychology and Life maintains the same optimism