The Complete Psychology

Levels of Analysis: Brain -- Person -- Group*

1. Psychological topics can be understood in terms of three types of events, each of which provides a field for analysis. Events at the three levels of analysis are constantly changing and influencing one another. To fully understand what is going on in any life situation, one must look at all three levels.

2. To understand the events at each level of analysis, we must relate them to the physical world that surrounds us, our physical environment.

a. BRAIN: The mechanism is the brain and the biological factors that affect it. At the level of the brain, psychologists consider the brains activity as well as its structure and properties.

b. PERSON: At the level of the person, psychologists focus on the content of mental processes how we use the information that our brains store and process. This includes beliefs, desires, and feelings.

c. GROUP: Social environments foster shared beliefs and practices passed on to its members as culture. At the level of the group, psychologists consider the ways that collections of people shape individual mental processes and behavior.

3. Events at the different levels are constantly interacting, changing, and influencing one another. This view of psychology encourages examining how different types of theories illuminate the same phenomena and also how these theories are interconnected in the field of psychology.

* See also page xv in the preface to your textbook.