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Investigating Psychology

Updated Monday, 3rd February 2020

Investigate the conceptual and historical issues in Psychology with this interactive feature.

Investigating Psychology is a tool to enable you to explore the development of psychological thinking not only across time, but also within the context of social, conceptual and historical changes; the development and application of different perspectives and methods; and through chains of influence between researchers.

Please note, the dates included in this interactive are relevant to a key moment in the individual's career and not necessarily their date of birth.

Note: some information given here about Hans Asperger and Asperger syndrome is now out of date. You can find more current information in Week 1 of our badged course Understanding autism.

Instructions

For best results, use a modern web browser. Upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer or try a free alternative like Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Playing on a tablet or mobile device?

Play in full-screen mode, select the 'Start Investigating Psychology' link and open the feature in a new browser tab.

What are we missing?

It is our hope that the Investigating Psychology resource will continue to grow over the years, so if there is a person, context, perspective or method that you feel should be included, please email us with a description and the reasons for its inclusion. Thank you.

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    Starting with psychology

    Starting with psychology

    The most 'important and greatest puzzle' we face as humans is ourselves (Boring, 1950, p. 56). Humans are a puzzle, one that is complex, subtle and multi-layered, and it gets even more complicated as we evolve over time and change within different contexts. When answering the question 'what makes us who we are?' psychologists put forward a range of explanations about why people feel, think and behave the way they do. Just when psychologists seem to understand one bit of 'who we are' up pops some new evidence to show a different side! It is not easy to pin down all the many influences. This free course, Starting with psychology, makes a start.

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