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Psychology

ClearlyExplained.Com

25th April 2006

updated: 14 March 2010

by Richard Conan-Davies BSc Dip Ed

A straightforward and introductory
guide to psychology from ClearlyExplained.Com

What is psychology?

Psychology is basically the science and study of the human or non human mind. It deals with individual behaviours either by themselves or within groups.

Psychology can also be considered a body of knowledge that can be applied to everyday life. For example methods for dealing with trauma or strategies for managing other people's behaviours.

What
Why
News
How
History
Future

Why is psychology important?

psychology is important for a number of reasons:

Culturally it is significant from an artistic perspective, from , as many of the arts from music to plays deal with psychological concepts and motivations for behaviours.

Technologically, psychology can have a perspective on our relationship with technology. For example how we relate to computers and even MP3 players, shifts from broadcast to listening to our own music. Or perhaps the concepts of "computer rage" .

Natural- Scientific perspectives of psychology perhaps looks more at fundamental links between specific brain function and behaviours . It may also consider the role of psychology in the natural world, eg from an evolutionary dimension.

Medical

Psychology can be important from a medical perspective in terms of dealing with phobias, manias, or behaviours that disrupt the normal ability to interact with others.

The medical study of psychology is referred to as psychiatry looks at the more of the medical biochemical causes of mental and/or psychological conditions.

Economics

Psychology also has a economic perspective in terms of both psychological conditions ( for example lost productivity in the work place) to monetary costs of psychological service providers. There is also a monetary consideration of pharmaceuticals associated with either real or perceived psychological conditions.

News about psychology

Psychology is is regularly reported in the news

• Google News Search - psychology
• Yahoo! News Search - psychology

Often stories are related to the latest research in psychology but also can provide information about psychological reasons for behaviours.

How is psychology studied?

psychology is mostly studied different fields, for example:

• developmental psychology
• personality psychology
• language ( psycholinguistics)

Psychology can be associated with just about all specific areas of human activity. For example

The psychology of A, B, C etc. Where A could be an object or a behaviour.

eg Sports psychology, the psychology of consumers, the psychology of music and so on.

Psychology is also considered from various theoretical perspectives such as:

• behaviorism,
• evolutionary psychology and
• psychoanalysis

Psychology also relies on other scientific fields such as genetics, biology, biochemistry.

History of psychology

Psychology, the word itself implies an association with the Greek world.

Indeed the first attempts at making psychology a systematic study was by the Greeks.

The first philosopher to formally consider issues of the soul was Plato(427BC-347BC ). For example in his work, the Republic, he considered a person to have 3 souls:

• rational soul
• spirited soul
• appetitive soul

reference: Philosophy Pages

Hippocrates (460 BC–c. 380 BC), one of the first well known physicians, (doctor) developed the concept of 4 humors. These 4 humours also relate to 4 personality types and include:

• blood - sanguine - generally optimistic, cheerful, even-tempered, confident,
• black bile - choleric - easily angered or bad tempered.
• yellow bile - melancholic - depressed
• phlegm - phlegmatic - calm and unemotional.

The more modern form of psychology has been attributed to a German scholastic philosopher called Rudolph Goclenius who, in about 1590AD coined the term psychology. (image: Wikipedia)

In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt, who helped in the forming of intelligence theory and testing, set up the first dedicated psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany and dedicated it to the study of experimental psychology.

In 1890 American psychologist, William James, published his book 'the Principles of Psychology' which later proved to be a useful resource in further developing the fundamental questions raised in his work.

Hermann Ebbinghaus and Ivan Pavlov were other contributors to the field of psychology. Hermann Ebbinghaus published the work Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology. Ivan Pavlov is well-known for his work in and the development of classical conditioning.

With no formal education in the area of experimental psychology, Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud(1856-1939) developed and applied a technique known as psychoanalysis. This method of psychotherapy is mainly based on Freud’s interpretation and understanding of the human mind and self-observation. In particular it concentrated on psychopathology and being able to resolve mental distress and illness.

reference: Wikipedia-psychology

Future of psychology