ABSTRACT
What we mean by the human condition can change dramatically from place to place and time to time. Within the past 400 years, humans have transformed the planet earth from its natural state, and we are now adapting to a rapidly changing human-constructed environment. The transition from relying upon personal experience and authority figures to the use of the scientific method to understand nature is responsible for this transformation. Science requires that its subject matter be observable and measurable. Although psychology was originally defined as the study of conscious experience (a.k.a. the study of the mind), it became apparent that advancement as a science required behavioral observation. Explanation within a science usually consists of cause-effect relationships. The scientific revolution resulted in humans acquiring the knowledge to understand nature and develop impactful technologies.
4The current definition, goals, and methods of psychology evolved from the early structuralist, functionalist, Gestalt, and behaviorism schools. Psychology attempts to explain individual behavior (thinking and feeling, in addition to acting) as resulting from the interaction between nature (i.e., inherited characteristics) and nurture (experience). The human genome enables the four “tions,” essential to our ability to transform the environment and the human condition: imagination, communication, manipulation (of tools), and collaboration. Learning can be understood as an experience-based adaptive process enabling individuals to predict, and sometimes control, appetitive and aversive environmental events.
