Psychological Explanation

Abstract

Abstract Psychology is an unusual term. It refers both to a set of phenomena (as in, ‘our psychology makes us act this way’) and to the discipline that studies them. Definitions of the discipline are easiest to find. Psychology is ‘the scientific study of the human mind and human behavior’, investigating the internal contours of individuals’ judgments and decisions (McGraw 2006). But not all claims we can make about mental processes can usefully be called psychological, invoking psychology as a distinct set of phenomena with causal implications rather than as a broad subject for study.