How Psychology Is The Human Mind And Behavior

Psychology is the science of mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand behavior and mental processes by researching and establishing both general principles and specific cases. For many practitioners, one goal of applied psychology is to benefit society...

The American Psychologist Association (APA) defines psychology as ‘the study of the mind and behaviour . 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. ‘(Association, 2014). With such an extensive definition, it is not overly surprising that its scientific kudos has been used to propagate political dogma, including abominable beliefs such as the innate inferiority of black people (Howitt and Owusu-Bempah, 1994) and to facilitate the legalislation of racist laws such as the American Jim Crow laws that placed severe restrictions on the rights and privileges of African Americans in 1877 (Brown and Stentiford,

The film “Introduction to Psychology No 1. The Perspective” by Dr. Steve Taylor, explains that psychology is an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of human behavior through, Biological Psychology, Psychoanalysis Approach, and the Behaviorist Approach. With biology and the use of the advanced medical machinery to see the inside of the human body, a revolution of knowledge and the understanding in genetics and the brain, has open a new door for a correlation between the physical component of the body and brain and the human behavior. Furthermore, the use of psychodynamic approach to study the unconscious drive and motivator of people to understand and explain the behavior. And with the behaviorist approach, that uses the human behavior as a clue to the working of the mind.

Psychology is a discipline that studies the mind and behavior. We hear about psychology through self-help book, self-help mentors, and talk shows. Many students enter this field of psychology with some knowledge. In the fall and winter of 1975 students in an introductory psychology class were given a test known as the “Test of misconception” students were asked to listen to each statement and answer them by answering true or false only, statements such as “To change people’s behaviors towards members of ethnic minority groups we must first change their attitudes.” (Vaughan 1977) These practices use some mental strategies to improve ones over all well-being. “These particular misconceptions seem to have been effectively dispelled in this group of students. However 15 out of 23 items showed little change in either direction, despite the fact that most of them we dealt with materials dealt in books” (Vaughan 1977)

Although there are many belief systems, modern psychologists share similar procedures and values known as the empirical method (Vickers). Psychology is theory driven, seeks evidence, multi-leveled, and contextual, unlike philosophy which relies heavily on unproven beliefs, psychology aims to discover scientific information. Psychologists approach ideas using the scientific method based on Sir Francis Bacon’s emphasis on minimizing bias (Wiley 29). They create hypotheses which according to Karl Popper must establish observations that could be refutable (30).

There are 6 steps Scientific Method to understand or determine why people behave in certain ways. Which is making observation, defining a problem, proposing a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, theory building and lastly, publishing results. There are different aspects in psychology. For example, clinical psychology, health psychology, neuropsychology, counseling psychology or occupational psychology etc. However, clinical psychology and counseling psychology are the two main aspects which focusing on emotional problems.

To answer this question I feel it is important to understand the definitions of psychology and science. I will start with definitions of the terms psychology and science and will briefly review the methods of psychology. I will outline the behaviourist approach, the psychoanalytical approach, the cognitive approach, the humanistic approach and the biological approach. In order to confirm whether psychology can fulfil the definition of science I will outline the five approaches and use evidence from the approaches to support my findings.

By definition, Psychology is “the scientific study of the human mind and its behaviours”. However, originally, Psychology did not begin as a science. The subject of Psychology began in 1879 when the first experimental laboratory was opened by Wilhelm Wundt. Since its establishment, Psychology has progressed into a world-renowned academic discipline with the formation of the first American experimental lab in 1883 and the first doctorate in 1886 which was presented to Joseph Jastrow, who became a professor of Psychology and president of the APA. Psychology has also developed with the establishment of various psychological approaches. One of the first approaches was Structuralism, formed in 1886 by Edward B. Titchner, which focused on the mental experience formed through a combination of events. Other contrasting approaches such as Functionalism were also formed. Some of these approaches remain the most controversial topics in psychology today. Overall, these historical events have allowed Psychology to develop around the world.

Cognition Psychology is the scientific investigation of the human cognition. It deals with all our mental abilities. The major focus on the cognition psychology is on the way people acquire knowledge and apply it.

Psychology, though a young field, is a uniquely successful one, flourishing in the twentieth century through intellectual and social expansion (Darity, 2008). From its philosophical roots to its emergence as a scientific discipline, the field of psychology has been concerned with behavior and mental processes. By its very nature, the field is diverse encompassing many subdisciplines and areas. The American Psychological Association recognizes more than 50 different divisions in the field, marked either by area of study or area of practice. Because of its diverse nature, the field has become widely applicable and valuable in many other fields. Psychology has successfully been applied to fields like

Psychology is the scientific study of human brain and its characteristics, especially the functions that drives our behaviour (Colman, 1999). It is a type of study which emerged in the nineteenth century and struggled in the first period to find the appropriate issues of a human to study. To be more precise, firstly, the study was focused with determining the unconscious behaviour of human which later transformed into analysing the behaviour of humans and animals due to the influence of the environment. Later on, from 1950s onwards, the perspectives of psychology is determined in three aspects, that are, humanistic, cognitive and biological (Colman, 1999). The first one deals with the sole features of the experience of humans as they are free to think and choose their activity in their own way which are fundamentally different from animals. The cognitive approach thinks with the thoughts and mental processes of humans- how they acquire, store and receive information from the outside world. The last one is about the biological setting of humans and animals, which means to perceive physical functions of the thoughts and processes portrayed through various bodily structures and biochemical processes.

Psychology is a very fascinating field because it combines both science and practice, which fosters the fundamental things about human and nonhuman animal behavior.When it

A commonly asked question is “what is psychology?” Even though there is no set definition there are a wide range of answers to this which consist of: the study of the mind, influence of the brain, our behaviour or even a combination of all of them. Each psychological perspective is reinforced by numerous set of assumptions of what people are like, what is important to study and how to study the issue at hand. Some psychologists will look at biological studies of the brain, other may explore how we process information and others may analyse the role of evolution or the influence of society and our culture. For this reason psychology can be seen as a multifaceted discipline because it involves many different sub-fields of study such as clinical, social behaviour, human development and cognitive processes.

This paper will explore the fundamentals of research methodology in the Psychology field and discuss the importance of psychology. The answers to these questions are the basis for the theories that led to research. Research is the groundwork performed by Psychologists in order to answer questions about behavior and the mind. The outcome of the research will offer a clear picture of why an individual act the way he or she does. In the Psychology field, data is gathered to conduct the research and produce an outcome. This is a time-consuming process but without it there would be many of unanswered

Psychology is the science or study of the thought process and behavior of humans and other animals by their interactions with the environment.(The Columbia Encyclopedia,2015) Studying sense perception, thinking, learning, cognition, emotions and motivation, personality, abnormal behavior, interactions between themselves and the environment are all vital to the interpretation of Psychology.(The Columbia Encyclopedia,2015) With the formulation of the Hypothesis, based on casual observations, a systematic scientific testing procedure begins in order to obtain a resolution or determine if further test needs to be done.Psychology is considered to be a science in that it has many disciplines organized around them. Also data collection through “observation and measurement, using scientific research methods, and the researched gathered in a controlled approach by sifting through all the information to derive all the descriptive, and measurable data needed for justification of the hypothesis” realizing that results might vary due to different variable.(Feist & Rosenberg, 2015, p.6)