Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. In order to understand psychology as it today, we have to know something about its history. Additionally, we are going to see that the field of psychology is conceivable to adopt several different approaches, including the biological, behaviorist, cognitive, psychodynamic, and humanistic perspectives.
What psychology is?
The term psychology derives from the Greek word ''psyche'' that it means ''soul'' or ''mind'' and ''logos'' which it means ''word''. Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Most psychologists would not aknowledge ''the study of the mind'' an issue of psychology today (Meg Barker, 2003). They accept the
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At about the same time, William James was setting up his laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusets. The aim, when Wundt set up his laboratory in 1879, was to study the building blocks of the mind. He considered psychology to be the study of conscious experience. His view point, which came to be known as structuralism, concentrated on uncovering the fundamental mental parts of perception, consciousness, thinking, emotions and other kinds of mental states and activities. Wundt and other structuralists used a procedure called introspection, in which they presented people with a stimulus and asked them to describe, in their own words and in as much detail as they could, what they were experiencing, to decide how the basic sensory processes shape our understanding of the world. Wundt argued that by analyzing their answers, psychologists could come to a better understanding of the structure of the mind. Over time, Wundt's approach was challenged by psychologists. They became increasingly dissatisfied with the assumption that introspection could reveal the structure of the mind. They argued, because there were few ways an outside observer could confirm the accuracy of others’ introspections, introspection was not a truly scientific technique. Moreover, people had difficulty describing some kinds of inner experiences, such as emotional responses. Those drawbacks led to the development of new methodologies that largely replaced
Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, psychology is useful in many ways.
What is psychology? Scientifically psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes. More in depth thinking of it, psychology is the study of the psyche, or soul. As Carl Jung stated “Every psychology problem needs a spiritual solution”. By this he means the only way to solve problems psychologically, people must understand themselves in “breathe, spirit, and soul”. Psychology does not only study the overt actions of humans such as smiling or talking, but also studies the covert activities in each other 's minds.
Structuralism, founded by Wilhelm Wundt, was the beginning of psychology branching away from philosophy featuring human behavior by dividing mental processes into basic components (Ettinger, 2014). Edward Titchener brought this practice to the United States in 1892 and even though structuralism was short-lived, it was a stepping stone making psychology a better science (Ettinger, 2014). During the same period as Titchener’s vision of structuralism, Sigmund Freud came up with a theory called psychoanalysis. (Ettinger, 2014) His idea included catharsis, also known as the talking cure, with his patient Anna O. helping with her symptoms of previous childhood trauma to go away. He believed that your unconscious mind had urges and even when you’re not thinking about them you are in that part of your mind (Ettinger, 2014). Lots of people did criticize Freuds for his work, but he did help those with issues using his “talking cure” and nowadays clinical psychologist still treats emotionally distressed people even though psychoanalysis is no longer used. In 1913 a psychologist by the name John Watson begin the ideology of behaviorism in psychology. Overall behaviorism is seeing how people learn (Ettinger, 2014). His approach to psychology was heavily shaped by Ivan Pavlov by trying new things to figure out behavior. B. F. Skinner is another behaviorist that contributed his work exploring the effects on behavior. He believed that behavior has no ideology of the mind or free will
Psychology is defined by Merriam-Webster, as the science of mind and behavior. It is a study of how an individual's psyche can be created, developed, altered or destroyed. Carol Gilligan, a Harvard Graduate School professor, for many years has analyzed the psychological theory and development, specifically in a book entitled In A Different Voice.
_____ Psychology and "common sense" lead to the same conclusions about behavior and mental processes.
At the end of the nineteenth century, Titchener brought Wundt’s basic ideas of psychology to America. He was responsible for translating many of Wundt’s works into English as they were all in German. Many did not now that Titchener only translated what he agreed with and choose not to translate anything he disagreed with. Titchener called Wundt's ideas structuralism, and tried to study the structure of mental life or consciousness. His structural psychology had three aims:
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 is an applied as well as an academic field that studies both the human mind and behavior. The research in psychology attempts to explain and understand behavior, emotion and thought. The subject of psychology was created when Wilhelm Wundt opened up the very first psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany. Wilhelm Wundt believed that individuals who are appropriately trained would most likely be able to recognize the mental processes that are accompanied with feelings, thoughts and sensations (Wagner , 2009).
In this laboratory, Wundt and his followers undertook the study of psychology, which to them consisted of the study of experience. (Read more about it at) http://www.wiley.com/college/psyc/huffman249327/ch_01.pdf
Firstly, Wundt was the founder of psychology because he wanted to develop it as a new science, whereas Fechner had no intention of doing so. Wundt published articles, founded the first laboratory and began experimental psychology as a science. Secondly, He conducted experiments and produced 54,000 pages of output between the years of 1853 and 1920. Despite the fact that Fechner was the first to introduce the relationship between mind and body (which aided in the development of experimental psychology), he wanted to understand the concept for himself with no intention of making it public. Lastly, founding an entire science requires the integration of prior and current knowledge on the field. Wundt used Fechner’s findings and integrated newly developed material in psychology. Fechner came up with his concepts based on his personal findings.
* Refers to the private thoughts, emotions, feelings, and motives that other people can not directly observe.
Psychology is the study of the human mind and any of its functions. It also includes the behavior resulting from any changes in our environment. Psychology is very important to mankind in that it is important in understanding the world we live in. Psychology helps us and allows us to better understand the emotional and behavioral effects of our surroundings. According to Taylor (1988), many prominent researchers believe a healthy mental outlook on the world and what we perceive it to be is very important. Psychology is a mandatory course for so many programs of study because it is so widely used in occupations across the world. Using any number of research methods, a psychologist can apply research to the
Psychology is the study of the science of the mind and the resulting behaviour. Looking to understand and explain to an extent how we think, act and feel. There are many branches of psychology looking at treatments of mental health issues, studying a variety of issues that may impact our health and daily life’s.
Psychology is a study of mind and behavior. Psychological research is mostly focused on the relationship between thought, behavior and emotion; how one influences the other and what are the consequences of such interaction. Put simply, psychology is a field associated with the drive to understand the way human mind works. The topic is slightly enigmatic, but at the same time very challenging and complicated. Where representatives of the exact sciences depend on data, facts and figures, psychologists tend to rely on behavior. Seeing that the majority of work done by psychologists is
What exactly the meaning of psychology? Psychology; he scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behaviour in a given context; "Definition of Psychological in English:." Psychological. N.p.,