Question

Investigate and develop a 5 pages document on "what is Psychology" Based on chapter 1 of the textbook Psychology 9th edition 2010 by D.G. Myers.

Answer 1

Psychology is really a very new science, with most advances happening over the past 150 years or so. However, its origins can be traced back to ancient Greece, 400 – 500 years BC.

To be human is to be curious about ourselves and the world around us. Before 300 B.C., the Greek naturalist and philosopher Aristotle theorized about learning and memory, motivation and emotion, perception and personality. Philosophers’ thinking about thinking continued until the birth of psychology as we know it.

It was not until the late 1800s that psychology became accepted as its own academic discipline. Before this time, the workings of the mind were considered under the auspices of philosophy. Given that any behavior is, at its roots, biological, some areas of psychology take on aspects of a natural science like biology. No biological organism exists in isolation, and our behavior is influenced by our interactions with others. Therefore, psychology is also a social science.

On a December day in 1879, in a small, third-floor room at Germany’s University of Leipzig. Thus began what many consider psychology’s first experiment, launching the first psychological laboratory, staffed by Wundt and psychology’s first graduate students.

Before long, this new science of psychology became organized into different branches, or schools of thought, each promoted by pioneering thinkers. These early schools included Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviourism, Gestaltism, Psychoanalysis and Humanistic Psychology.

1. Structuralism:

Wilhelm Wundt was responsible for the evolution of this school of Psychology. Wundt and his followers like Edward Titchener, known as structuralists, tried to provide a systematic study of the mind through the study of its structure by adopting introspection as the main technique.

2. Functionalism:

William James is regarded as one of the pioneers of the functional school of Psychology. It laid emphasis on functionability of the contents or functions of the mind advocating that only those things should be taught to the children which they could apply in everyday life.

3. Behaviourism:

John B. Watson put forward an entirely new doctrine, named behaviourism which was contrary to structuralism and functionalism. He advocated that if we intend to make Psychology a scientific study of behaviour, we should concentrate only on the observable and measurable behaviour. From the 1920s into the 1960s, American psychologists, initially led by flamboyant and provocative John B. Watson and later by the equally provocative B. F. Skinner, dismissed introspection and redefined psychology as “the scientific study of observable behavior.” After all, said these behaviorists, science is rooted in observation.

4. Gestalt Psychology:

In Germany a new school of Psychology was born called Gestalt Psychology. ‘Gestalt’ is a German word, meaning configuration or organized whole. The most prominent members of this school were Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler. Gestalt psychology opposed to the atomistic and molecular approach to behaviour. According to it, an individual perceives the thing as a whole and not as a mere collection of its constituents or elements.

5. Psychoanalysis:

Psychoanalysis was the brain child of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), a Viennese physician. The influence of Psychoanalysis in terms of the totality of human behaviour included the conscious, subconscious and unconscious levels of consciousness, the structure of the mind such as, Id, Ego and Super Ego and the Psychosexual Stages of Development.

6. Humanistic Psychology:

Humanistic Psychology gives more value to the human being; it considers him as a purposeful being capable of adapting himself to his environment and choosing his own course of action to achieve the goals which he has selected for himself. rebelled against Freudian psychology and behaviorism. Pioneers Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow found behaviorism’s focus on learnedbehaviors too mechanistic. Rather than focusing on the meaning of early childhood memories, as a psychoanalyst might, the humanistic psychologists emphasized the importance of current environmental influences on our growth potential, and the importance of having our needs for love and acceptance satisfied.

The young science of psychology developed from the more established fields of philosophy and biology. Wundt was both a philosopher and a physiologist. James was an American philosopher. Ivan Pavlov, who pioneered the study of learning, was a Russian physiologist. Sigmund Freud, who developed an influential theory of personality, was an Austrian physician. Jean Piaget, the last century’s most influential observer of children, was a Swiss biologist. This list of pioneering psychologists—“Magellans of the mind,” as Morton Hunt (1993) has called them— illustrates psychology’s origins in many disciplines and countries.

In the 1960s, another movement emerged as psychology began to recapture its initial interest in mental processes. This cognitive revolution supported ideas developed by earlier psychologists, such as the importance of how our mind processes and retains information. But cognitive psychology and more recently cognitive neuroscience (the study of brain activity linked with mental activity) have expanded upon those ideas to explore scientifically the ways we perceive, process, and remember information.

To encompass psychology’s concern with observable behavior and with inner thoughts and feelings, today we define psychology as the science of behavior and mental processes.

Behavior is anything an organism does-any action we can observe and record. Yelling, smiling, blinking, sweating, talking, and questionnaire marking are all observable behaviors. Mental processes are the internal, subjective experiences we infer from behavior-sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings

The key word in psychology’s definition is science. Psychology is an applied discipline that involves the scientific study of mental functions and behaviour. It is considered as the science of behaviour. It was in the year 1590 that Rudolf Goeckle used the word psychology for the first time. The word is derived from the combination of Greek words ‘psyche’ and ‘logos’, the former meaning soul and the latter, knowledge. Hence literally psychology means ‘the science of the soul’. Some ancient Greek philosophers defined Psychology as ‘the science of mind’. Psychology has also been defined as the science of consciousness (William James). Modern psychology has been defined as’ the science of behaviour’. Psychology is a science because it uses only scientific methods.

In short, Psychology is the study of mind and behavior. It encompasses the biological influences, social pressures, and environmental factors that affect how people think, act, and feel. As a science psychology functions as both a thriving academic discipline and a vital professional practice, one dedicated to the study of human behaviour - and the thoughts, feelings, and motivations behind it - through observation, measurement, and testing, in order to form conclusions that are based on sound scientific methodology.

Branches of psychology:

The domain of Psychology is very wide. For the sake of convenience it has been divided in to different branches.

1. General Psychology:

This branch of Psychology deals with the fundamental principals of Psychology related to normal persons.

2. Social Psychology:

This branch of Psychology deals with social behaviour of people. It studies attitudes, customs, prejudices, behaviour of crowd and mob.

3. Abnormal Psychology:

This branch of Psychology deals with various mental disorders, their causes, symptoms and treatment.

4. Physiological Psychology:

This branch of Psychology deals with physiological systems such as brain, nervous system and sense organs which are intimately connected with the mental processes and behaviour.

5. Clinical Psychology:

This branch of Psychology deals with the causes and treatment of mental disorders of patients especially in a hospital setting.

6. Experimental Psychology:

This branch of Psychology deals with various kinds of Psychological testing and experimentation under controlled laboratory situations. It takes the help of scientific instruments for investigating both animal and human behaviour.

7. Industrial Psychology:

This branch of Psychology applies psychological principals to investigate behaviour of individuals in industrial setting. Advertising, selection and placements of personnel, labour problems etc are some of the topics which comprise the subject matter of Industrial Psychology.

8. Educational Psychology:

In this branch of Psychology, Psychological principals and techniques are applied to study the teaching-learning process, evaluation of learning performance, guidance for exceptional children and various educational problems.

9. Para Psychology:

This branch of Psychology studies super-normal mental phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, extra-sensory perception etc.

Psychology’s biggest and most enduring issue concerns the relative contributions and interplay between the influences of nature (genes) and nurture (all other influences, from conception to death). Today’s science emphasizes the interaction of genes and experiences in specific environments.

Psychology students come to understand the complex factors that shape one’s behavior. They appreciate the interaction of our biology, our environment, and our experiences in determining who we are and how we will behave. They learn about basic principles that guide how we think and behave, and they come to recognize the tremendous diversity that exists across individuals and across cultural boundaries.