Sie sind auf Seite 1von 5

1. WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?

Definition
Psychology as a modern scientific discipline originated in Western Europe and North America in the
second half of the nineteenth century. The new discipline emerged out of Western philosophy and based
itself on the experimental method and modern scientific concepts of the turn of The century.
The definition of`psycho1ogy has changed over time. At the start of the twentieth century most
psychologists considered their discipline to be the study of mental life, mind or consciousness.
Within a few years, however, such definitions were criticized for being vague and unscientific.
Between the 1920s and the 1950s many psychologists preferred to define their discipline as the study of
behavior, because what people do--unlike what they think or feel--can be directly observed or
measured. But this definition also came under attack, or criticism. To those who still wanted to study
thinking, dreaming, feeling and all other mental processes, reducing psychology to the study of behavior
made not much sense.
Today, most psychologists are willing to include both behavior and mind in the formal definition of
psychology. We can therefore define psychology as the scientific study of behavior and mental
processes and how they are affected by the organism’s physical state, mental state and external
environment.

Key Terms:
• Behavior is any action performed by an organism.
• Mental processes are activities involved in thinking: remembering, imagining, dreaming, forming
Opinions, etc.

Questions:
 What are the two aspects of the human being that psychology focuses on?
 Define each one of these aspects.
 Define psychology as a scientific discipline
2.PSYCHOLOGY AS A HUMAN (OR SOCIAL) SCIENCE
In very broad terms, psychology is one of the disciplines which are concerned, in a fundamental way,
with the study of man. More specifically, it belongs to a family of disciplines known as the human (or
social sciences, such as sociology, anthropology, as well as economics, political science, etc.
All of these sciences attempt to analyze human problems objectively and to search for reliable patterns
in behavior and mental activity. All of them teach us to understand both the similarities and the
differences among individuals and groups. But there are some important differences in emphasis
between them.
 Sociology studies groups and institutions within society in order to understand their
organization and development.
 Anthropology deals with the physical; social and cultural origins and development of the human
race.
 Economics is the study of how people produce, distribute, and consume goods and services.
 Political science is the study of political behavior and the establishment and conduct of
government.

Psychology shares with these other social sciences the fundamental concern with the understanding of
the similarities and differences among individuals and groups. However, psychologists tend to pay more
attention than sociologists to personality and individual difference. Nonetheless, one of these specialties,
social psychology, falls on the border between psychology and sociology; it focuses on how social groups
and situations affect an individual's behavior.
Of all the social sciences, psychology relies more heavily on laboratory experiments and observations.
At the same time, it is the most personal of all the social sciences, focusing more than the others on the
individual and his or her well-being.
Psychology also makes more use of biological information than the other disciplines do. When
psychologists do biological research, however, it is only for the light their finding may shed on behavior
and mental activities.
Psychology has one other sister science: psychiatry. Psychiatry is the medical specialty concerned with
mental disorders, maladjustment and abnormal behavior. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who have
had general medical training, internship in general medicine and residency in psychiatry.
Clinical psychologists also treat patients, but they have an advanced degree in psychology rather than a
medical degree. Psychiatrists are more likely than psychologists to treat severe mental disorders.
They tend to be more medically oriented because they have been trained to diagnose physical problems
that can cause mental ones. Most important, psychiatrists can write prescriptions and thus far,
psychologists cannot.
Question: What is the main difference between psychology and all the other human sciences?
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY: MAJOR SUBIIELDS
Psychology today has numerous areas of specialization, or subfields. Psychology's subfields are defined in
part by the phenomena studied and in part by which aspects of the phenomena are emphasized. `
1. Biological psychology analyzes how biology shapes behavior and mental processes. Biological
psychologists study, for example, where and how alcohol acts on the brain to impair the drinker's
ability to think or talk or walk; or, how nerve cells communicate with each other.
2. Developmental psychology studies how people change and grow over time, physically, mentally,
and socially. Developmental psychologists describe these changes and try to understand their
causes and effects throughout the individual's life span.
3. Personality psychology. Whereas some psychologists seek laws that govern the behavior of
people in general, personality psychologists focus on the characteristics that make each person
unique. They also try to identify the specific ways in which people differ in their thinking, acting
and feeling.
4. Social psychology studies how groups, institutions and the social context influence individuals
and vice versa. Among their interests are conformity, obedience, competition, cooperation,
leadership styles, etc.
5. Educational psychology studies psychological principles that explain learning, and searches for
ways to improve human learning in educational systems. Their interests range from the
application of` findings on memory and thinking to the use of rewards to encourage
achievement.
6. Clinical psychology. Most psychologists explore normal behavior and mental processes, but
clinical psychologists try to understand and correct abnormal functioning. Clinical psychology is
closely related to counselling psychology. Psychologists in both areas study and seek to alleviate
human problems. Clinical psychologists, however, tend to deal with a wider range of disorders,
and they often focus on more severe problems than in the case of counselling psychologists.

7. PSYCHOLOGY : Major areas of study


The purpose of psychology is to find an answer to the age-old-question of why people think, feel and
act the way they do. For that purpose, psychologists have attempted to investigate various aspects of
human nature. The scope of psychological research ranges from the study of nerve cells
(neurophysiology) to investigations of the interaction in families and other groups (social psychology). It
covers such areas as: sensation and perception; memory and Learning; emotion and motivation; thinking
and language; intelligence; childhood and personality development; normal and abnormal behavior;
mental disorders and much more. Psychology studies all these topics from a variety of perspectives
ranging from the biological or physiological to the psychodynamic, through the behavioral, the cognitive
and the humanistic.
This is because psychologists seek to answer a wide range of important questions about the nature of
the human being;
 Are individuals genetically predisposed at birth to develop certain traits or abilities?
 How accurate are people at remembering faces, places, or conversations from the past?
 Do intelligence tests predict future success in school or in a job?
 What motivates us to seek out friends or mates?
 Why do so many people become depressed and behave in ways that seem self-destructive as seen in
the case of alcoholics or drug addicts?
 Can the mind be used to heal the body?

The answers to these questions which can be reached through psychological research can help people
understand themselves, have better relationships with others, and solve some of the many problems
that they may face in their lives.
Psychology shows us how the human being is a complex creature who can do various things in various
ways. These include acting and reacting, feeling and thinking, planning and imagining, learning and
remembering or forgetting, and above all, the individual can be consciously aware of the world and
communicate and interact with it in various ways.
These aspects of behavior and mental processes form the manor components of the discipline of
general psychology which may be examined in detail to show how they ultimately come together in the
human being as a whole.
The process of understanding this complex whole, made up of various aspects of behaviour and mental
processes, may conveniently begin with the study of biological aspects, showing how nerve cells
communicate with one another to create behavior and mental activity. Next, the study of the
phenomenon of sensation will show how special groups of cells can detect sound, light, and other forms
of energy and how they are able to convert this energy into the sensations of hearing, vision, taste,
smell, and touch. Examination of the phenomenon of perception will show us how the individual
organizes, interprets and attends to these sensations. Focus on consciousness will teach us more about
how we experience the world and how this process can be affected by sleep, hypnosis, meditation, and
alcohol or drugs.
Being aware of the complexities of consciousness can help us better understand the processes of
learning, memory, thinking, and the use of language. We already know that some people are better at
these processes than others will allow us to look at differences in mental abilities, including intelligence.
Psychology involves not only the study of what people do, but also investigation into why they do it,
which makes it necessary to look at the phenomenon of motivation. And to better understand motivated
behaviors, we need to understand the phenomenon of emotion which often accompanies motivated
behavior: anger, joy, fear, hope, desperation, or any number of other emotions.
Psychology shows us that all these processes are integrated in functioning individuals and are part of
how those individuals relate to their environments. Study of personality will show how different
respond differently to environmental influences or stimuli.
Differences between individuals are the main focus in the study of personality, which is a central topic in
psychology. It is important to know what personality is and how it relates to behavior and mental
processes.
Examination of psychological disorders shows the many ways in which behavior and mental processes
can become abnormal Study of abnormal or clinical psychology will introduce the major approaches and
methods used in treating psychological problems.
Finally, study of social psychology allows one to discover the ways in which an individual’s actions,
thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and other processes influence or are influenced by other people.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen