Foundation of Psychology

Many common functions such as thinking, problem-solving, learning, memory, language and more come are explained by Cognitive psychology. With these necessary functions, you may wonder, just what is cognitive Psychology? Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that covers the mental processes of how people receive, retain and grasp information and situations. The term “cognition” stems from the Latin word “ cognoscere” or "to know". Basically, cognitive psychology studies how people acquire and apply knowledge or information. It is closely related to cognitive science and influenced by computer science, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, biology, physics, and anthropology. Cognitive psychologists are interested in how people understand, diagnose, and solve problems, concerning themselves with the mental processes which mediate between stimulus and response. Recently, cultural and social factors have also become apart of cognitive psychology along with emotion and consciousness.

Psychology is a discipline that involves monitoring mental processes and behaviour scientifically. Psychologists try to delve into the basic functions of a person and animals cerebral activity. This usually involves studying relationships, emotions, personality and many more areas of a person or animals day to day life. Psychology tends to steer towards finding reasons for a person or animals actions in an attempt to resolve them.

Psychology, due to its complexity can be approached in a variety of ways. To help us understand the human mind, behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches have helped us understand the alternative outlooks in the science of mind and behaviour. Both approaches can be examined by the means of theoretical assumptions and methodology.

Psychology has six main perspectives dealing with human behavior. The first perspective, biological perspective, presumes that biological factors, such as genes, hormones, and the nervous system, all affect human behavior and their mental process. The evolutionary perspective emphasizes how behavior and mental phenomena are a result of evolution through natural selection and adaptations of organisms in order to survive in their environment. The psychodynamic perspective focuses on unconscious conflicts within a person as the main determinant of behavior and mental life. The behavior perspective focuses on observing behaviors and how they are learned. The cognitive perspective describes how people process, think, and store information. The humanistic

What is psychology? What impact does psychology have on the world? What does it mean to be a psychologist? These are three important questions that will be investigated throughout this paper. Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and behavior. Psychology influences many behaviors in the world without anyone noticing.

In other words, cognitive psychology refers to the study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling and behaving (Bernstein, 2013). According to Jones (2004), the cognitive approach was developed from the basis of Wundt and Titcher’s (1927) theory of structuralism.

Patrick A. Cabe, from the Department of Psychology and Counseling at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, makes a convincing case of why the Introduction to Psychology presents a challenge for students. One of his observations is regarding the vocabulary found in this module. Cabe attributes this challenge to the fact that this module addresses a wide range of topics that are varied in terminology and content. The student may not be familiar with the variety of sub topics and would therefore find it formidable.

Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes. The American Psychological Association defines cognitive psychology as "The study of higher mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, and thinking."[1] Much of the work derived from cognitive psychology has been integrated into various other modern disciplines of psychological study including social psychology, personality psychology, abnormal psychology, developmental psychology, and educational psychology.

The emergence of cognitive psychology is dated at 1956, when took place a meeting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to Professor Les Sdorow and Proffesor Cheryl Rickabaugh , cognitive perspective is 'the psychological viewpoint that favors the study of how the mind organizes perceptions, processes information, and interprets experiences'.

The Psychodynamic Perspective focuses on unconscious mental activity. This perspective suggests that both normal and abnormal behaviors are determined primarily by unconscious forces (Ya- Ling Wang and Yi-Cheng Wang). The Behavioral Perspective focus on observable behaviors; but does not speculate about mental processes such as thinking (Ya Ling Wang and Yi-Cheng Wang). It also focuses on learning in understanding how various behaviors occur.

Psychology is made up of many perspectives, such as, behavioural, biological, cognitive, social, humanistic and finally, psychodynamic. This essay will focus on the behavioural perspective and the biological perspective. According to J Walker (2012) the behavioural perspective is based on behaviourism and is the study of observing behaviour when in certain contexts and events. The biological perspective however, explains behaviour by focusing on the function of the nervous system, genes and the brain.

Psychology is defined by content. It is the scientific study of behavior and experience. Psychology uses scientific methodologies which include different techniques and strategies in order to collect and analyze data (Gorbel, Sept. 2nd). Psychologists conduct research in order to measure and describe behavior as a way to understand when,why, or how events occur. They apply their knowledge to the real-world (Gorbel, Sep. 28th).

Psychology is a discipline which seeks to study the thoughts and actions of men in a scientific way. Science is a marvelous development in the history of human thought. The American Heritage Dictionary defines psychology as the science dealing with the mind, mental and emotional processes, and the science of human behavior. It defines science as systemized knowledge derived from observations and study. Scientific study is a way of understanding life and developing theories based on what is observed (Simonton, 2009). Psychologists develop theories and conduct psychological research to answer questions about behavior and mental processes that impact individuals and society.

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. The discipline embraces all aspects of the human experience — from the functions of the brain to the actions of nations, from child development to care for the aged. In every conceivable setting from scientific research centers to mental healthcare services, "the understanding of behavior" is the enterprise of psychologists. (http://www.apa.org, 2014)

Psychology to me is meant to help people understand the complexity of other human beings. We have established the existence of many disorders which are mainly beyond the control of people because of chemical imbalances in the brain. Although with these reasons, we still have attached negative and positive connotations to many disorders. We have created this concept of psychology in order to help us try to find some sense of order in our lives. This can allow us to try rank ourselves next to another person by seeing if we are more normal than them.