Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, and as such, we investigate the minds of humans and other species. We try to understand the mind at many different levels of analysis, from taking measurements from the brain, through learning about the individual, all the way to understanding groups and organizations. The kinds of questions psychologists attempt to answer are: How do we perceive the physical world? Does our view of it coincide with reality? How do we make sense of the social world? Can we really understand the minds of others? Which others, and do the groups “they” belong to matter? Why do we pay attention to some things and not others? How do memories form and how do we forget? Can we be said to have a memory even if we can’t “remember”? What are the rules by which we reason and think? What’s the role of emotion as expressed in the joy, surprise, sadness, anger and fear of everyday life as well as in depression, schizophrenia, and other disorders? What are the causes of these kinds of disorders, and how can they be treated? Are we rational beings or only boundedly so? Why do we believe in religion, do we have unshakable feelings of morality, and how best should we study our own consciousness? How do all these processes develop from infancy to adulthood? To answer these and other questions about the mind, psychologists pay attention to evolutionary factors, biological bases, cultural and social inputs, as well as the day-to-day situations in which individuals find themselves. Most of the research conducted in Harvard’s Department of Psychology concerns basic psychological processes such as attention, perception, memory, categorization, reasoning, decision-making, language, cognitive and social development, social cognition, intergroup relations, and morality. In addition, some members of the department conduct research on the etiology, development, and treatment of psychopathology. All members of the department share the common goal of understanding mind, brain, and behavior through empirical investigation, and their teaching and research reflect this goal.