What is Psychology? By Aqsa Z.

Psychology is considered as a boring subject or something which would definitely make one a "psycho-case"...One of my freind gave a comment,"Psychology is the science of madness and it does not contribute any positive effort towards the society!" I think she was not wrong, just because she did not know what Psychology is..Let's read this article and we all will get to know about this boring subject. Definition of PSYCHOLOGY: Science is a complete body of knowledge arranged in a systematic order. Psychology is a biological science which deals with the behaviour and minds of animals and human beings, both. It was derived from two Greek words; psyche: 'soul' and logos which means to talk. So the literal meaning of Psychology is: to talk about soul. Historical background of PSYCHOLOGY: Earlier psychology was a part of Philosophy. It was never considered to be a science. Four hundred years ago, a Greek Philosopher PLATO, studied life. In his theories, life and soul are said to be the beginning of Psychology. Morgan, a Philosopher said, "Psychology is the scientific study of activites of an individual." Boring, another Philosopher said: "Psychology is the study of human nature." Then, Robbinson said: "Psychology is the science of human and animal behaviour." According to Aristotle: "Psychology is the science of soul." Titchner, rejecting this view said: "Psychology is the science of mind." Welhelm, then said: "Psychology is the science of consciousness. "J.B.Watson, did not accept this view and said: "Psychology is the science of behaviour." At last, some of them agreed on the view that Psychology is the science of Bio-Social Behaviour. Scope of PSYCHOLOGY: Psychology is the youngest of all sciences. It is still in the process of development. It's scope is very wide. The ultimate aim of Psychology as a science is, to discover the laws of human nature. It's aim is to develop a better understanding of human behaviour and its experiences. It has extended its scope to include all kinds of behaviour, whether normal

or abnormal, whether in children or adults, animal or human-beings, individual or in groups. So, the aim of Psychology is to understand, predict, control and change the behaviour, whenever required. The use of Psychology becomes more interesting and useful in our lives, when we divide it, into its branches. It has two main branches: 1.Pure Psychology, which deals with the psychological research and data which helps to formulate the principles of acvtivity and 2.Applied Psychology, which applies the information given by Pure Psychology, to the problems of actual life. Pure Psychology is further divided into: a)Experimental Psychology: It aims to understand the basic psychological processes including percieving, memorizing, learning, thinking, etc. The research is done in the experimental laboratories. It does not limit it's studies to human beings. Several Psychologists have conducted their experiments on animals. b)Social Psychology: This field of Psychology is my favourite one. Do you know why? Let me tell you! This branch studies the activities of an individual in relation to his fellow men. It studies all the topics which has an impact on social life; i.e: the leadership, attitudes, group, mind, national character, crowd behaviour, fashion, propoganda, rumours, public opinions, communications. It also plays an important role in mental development of an individual forming a group, following fashion, customs, manners, morals, aticates and religion. c)Abnormal Psychology: It studies the activities which do not conform with the standard of maturity, i.e: ineffective ways of adjustment to life. By studing abnormal minds, Psychologists have been able to cure mental and nervous abnormalities and they are able to understand the normal mind in a better manner. d)Developmental Psychology: It studies the overall psychological or biological development of an individual at various levels. So, it usually deals with the physical as well as mental development. It is concerned with the development of an individual with reference to social behaviour, emotions and feelings, language and ideas, intelligence and personality. e)Comparitive Psychology: This branch compares the mind or behaviour of different animal species or different races of man or different stages of an individual. f)Physiologial Psychology: It studies the functions of organs in order to understand the activities of an individual. For example: his function of the sense, organs, muscles, neurons, spinal cord. Applied Psychology is also sub-divided into:

a)Clinical Psychology: It collects psychological data for diagnosis and treatment of mental and behavioural disorders. b)Industrial Psychology: It deals with the psychology of work and worker, vocational, guidence, salesmanship, advertising, employee relationship, etc. c)Educational Psychology: It applies psychological discoveries to the techniques of teaching as well as problems of children. Kindergarden method, montessori method and delton method of education suggests that education should be the matter of joy and not a burden on the child. For this purpose, Educational Psychology is a very useful tool to assist. d)Application of Psychology in Medicine: Psychology is quite helpful in the field of medicine, espacially in mental and nervous disorders. Our 60% to 70% illness is due to our mind, as someone has said: "use your minds,rather being used by your minds!" Psychology can cure all such illnesses because it also deal with minds.. e)Application of Psychology in Law: The principles of Psychology can be applied in many legal problems. It helps in the diagnosis of mentaly ill criminals, so that any punishment could be avoided. So, in this way Psychology helps one to change his/her life in a good manner. Most of us have passed Matrics and now are planning to go in the colleges... Believe me, Psychology as a subject, is really very interesting..It does not only make us to change ourselves, but to others too.Sometimes we do not understand others. And we give our judgements. Psychology will definitely help all of us to explain our views and understand others's views.