Analytical Summary

The first chapter of Robert S Fieldmans' book "Understanding Psychology"is called "Introduction to Psychology". The aim of the chapter is to give us the basic understanding about the science of psychology.

It begins with a module that is called "Psychologists at Work". The main definition of psychology is given as the very first sentence of the module and it is followed by an enumeration of all the subfields of the before-mentioned science. Module ends with a brief illustration of the work of psychologists and their career prospects.

The second module ("A Science Evolves: The Past, the Present and the Future") has got two major themes. First of them is the history of psychology, it's founding fathers and key figures (which includes Wilhelm Wundt, Herman Ebbinghaus, William James and others). Second gives us a summary of todays perspective of psychology: the neuroscience, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive and humanistic perspectives.

The last covered module, called "Psychology's Key Issues and Controversies", focuses on its name and is a brief explanation of modern issues of psychology. It mostly revolves around the contradictions of psychologies main perspectives. Examples are given, also the reason and virtues of such inconsistency.

To finalise, the main intent of these three modules, is to introduce us to psychology. Feldman achieves his goal by explaining what is psychology, describing the work of psychologists, giving the history and showing the main perspectives of a modern science of psychology.