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, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist, and can be classified as a social scientist, behavioral scientist, or cognitive scientist. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also exploring the physiological and neurobiological processes that underlie certain functions and behaviors. Psychologists explore such concepts as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Some, especially depth psychologists, also consider the unconscious mind.a Psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlational relationships between psychosocial variables. In addition, or in opposition, to employing empirical and deductive methods, some—especially clinical and counseling psychologists—at times rely upon symbolic interpretation and other inductive techniques. Psychology incorporates research from the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities, such as philosophy.
While psychological knowledge is often applied to the assessment and treatment of mental health problems, it is also applied to understanding and solving problems in many different spheres of human activity. Although the majority of psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role (clinical, counseling, and school positions), many do scientific research on a wide range of topics related to mental processes and behavior (typically in university psychology departments) or teach such knowledge in academic settings; and some are employed in industrial and organizational settings, and in other areas such as human development and aging, sports, health, the media, law, and forensics.
What is Psychology?
Psychology is derived from the Greek words Psyche and logos, meaning soul and study. To Greeks, Psychology is simply a study of the soul.
Different authors define Psychology in different ways but in 1990, Feldman defines Psychology as the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. Scientific because it uses the steps in a scientific method in its quest to understand why a person behaves in a certain manner. It is systematic and empirical and it is dependent upon measurements. A scientific method generally follows the ff. steps: 1.) Identification of the Problem
2.) Formulation of Hypothesis
3.) Gathering of Data
4.) Interpretation and Analysis of Data
5: Generalization of Conclusion Behavior includes everything that we do – thinking, feeling, writing, reading, imagining, etc.
Kinds of Behavior a. Overt -> behavior that is observable by others and can be seen readily (ex. Laughing, shouting, talking, etc.) b. Covert -> behavior that is internal therefore not observable and cannot be seen. This comes in the forms of feelings, thoughts, and motives (ex. Happy, angry, imaginations, etc.)
Sigmund Freud, a Psychoanalyst classified behavior according to a person’s awareness of his behavior, to wit: a. Conscious Behavior -> any behavior that the person is aware of (ex. walking, eating, etc.) b. Unconscious Behavior -> any behavior that the person is not aware of (ex. mannerisms, shaking of the legs while sitting, biting your fingers, playing, with your pen while listening to your teacher’s discussion, etc.)
According to Freud, our unconscious is bigger than the conscious. Dreams and “slip of the tongue” phenomenon are some ways of releasing the unconscious.
Kinds of Motives or Drives When a goal is achieved, the individual rarely stops ther. Often, the accomplished goal leads to other drives. A person never gets contented. One goal leads to other motives or drives.
Abraham Maslow expressed increasing needs of human beings in a heirarchical order. He viewed man’s needs in a ladder-like sequence where one need leads to another until the goal is attained.
Physiological needs, the strongest of the needs occupy the first rung of the ladder. They must be met for survival – food, water, medicines, oxygen clothing. As soon as the physiological needs are met, the individual must seek to satisfy the safety needs, and so on until he reaches the topmost rung of the ladder – self-actualization. Even if Maslow’s theory is in hierarchical order, it does not follow that one need must be met first, before the next need emergers. Some of the needs overlap one another and not one need can be satisfied quite fully.
The study of psychology in a philosophical context dates back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, India, and Persia. Historians point to the writings of ancient Greek philosophers, such as Thales, Plato, and Aristotle (especially in his De Anima treatise), as the first significant body of work in the West to be rich in psychological thought.
German physician Wilhelm Wundt is credited with introducing psychological discovery into a laboratory setting. Known as the "father of experimental psychology," he founded the first psychological laboratory, at Leipzig University, in 1879. Wundt focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components. Edward Titchener was another major structuralist thinker. Functionalism formed as a reaction to the theories of the structuralist school of thought and was heavily influenced by the work of the American philosopher, scientist and psychologist William James. James felt that psychology should have practical value, and that psychologists should find out how the mind can function to a person's benefit. In his book, Principles of Psychology, published in 1890, he laid the foundations for many of the questions that psychologists would explore for years to come. Other major functionalist thinkers included John Dewey and Harvey Carr.
Other 19th-century contributors to the field include the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, a pioneer in the experimental study of memory, who developed quantitative models of learning and forgetting at the University of Berlin; and the Russian-Soviet physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who discovered in dogs a learning process that was later termed "classical conditioning" and applied to human beings.
Starting in the 1950s, the experimental techniques set forth by Wundt, James, Ebbinghaus, and others would be reiterated as experimental psychology became increasingly cognitive—concerned with information and its processing—and, eventually, constituted a part of the wider cognitive science. In its early years, this development had been seen as a "revolution," as it both responded to and reacted against strains of thought—including psychodynamics and behaviorism—that had developed in the meantime.
