Inside the Eye of Your Mind: What is Psychology?
Psychology is the scientific study of mental function and behavior. This field concerns itself with analyzing how and why people act the way they do, and the mental processes underlying these behaviors.
It helps us answer questions like: What happens to human memory as we age? How do children learn language? Why does mental illness run in families? How does the media portray deviant behavior, and why does it portray particular psychological states in certain ways?
Psychologists study issues such as emotion, illness, cognition, perception, personality, and behavior with respect to a variety of settings. These can include the family, school, work, health, gender, aging, social interaction, criminology, sports, and media, among many others.
How is Psychology Studied?
Psychologists seek to answer mental and behavioral questions in a number of different ways. They use the foundational theories and ideas of psychology to inform research projects that are conducted scientifically and objectively, so that reliable generalizations can be made. The main types of research are qualitative studies, quantitative studies, longitudinal studies, observation, experimental studies, and surveys or questionnaires.
Who Are the Important Figures in the Field of Psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt founded the first experimental psychology laboratory in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany, and is commonly referred to as the “father of psychology” for this reason. Several years later, in 1890, William James authored “Principles of Psychology,” which laid out the foundations of the field that still guide the field of psychology today.
Sigmund Freud is perhaps the most well-known psychologist of all time, whose work on taboo topics like sex and the unconscious mind in the early 1900's made him famous. Carl Jung was very influenced by Freud's work, and is heavily influential for his studies of the unconscious mind, as well as development, personality, and dreams.
B.F. Skinner is another very important psychologist for his finding that human behavior is impacted by the foreseen consequences of that behavior (coined “operant behavior”), which led to the practice of behavior modification.
What Are the Primary Schools of Thought in Psychology?
- Behaviorism – examines only the observable, measurable behaviors of humans as influenced by the environment around them.
- Cognitivism – studies the higher mental (or cognitive) processes of humans. Examples include problem solving, critical thinking, language formation, memory, and perception.
- Gestalt psychology – a holistic area of psychology that believes that psychological issues are understandable only when examined as structured/organized wholes, not as small, individualized pieces.
- Humanistic psychology – stresses the importance of humans' natural ability to develop to their full potential and make rational choices for themselves.
- Psychoanalysis – a Freudian form of therapy that explores the unconscious mind, specifically people's unconscious motivations and internal conflicts.
- Functionalism – emphasizes how mind and behavior operate in a person's interactions with the environment around them.
What Are the Key Areas in Psychology?
- Abnormal psychology – explores pathologies of people's minds, moods, and behaviors. This area focuses on abnormal mental processes and how and why these arise for individuals.
- Biological psychology – studies psychology with an emphasis on how physiological and molecular processes impact the mind.
- Cognitive psychology – examines people's mental processes.
- Comparative psychology – studies the behavior of animals other than humans.
- Developmental psychology – studies the processes of maturation and development with an eye toward their impact on individuals' behavior.
- Evolutionary psychology – emphasizes the importance of the adaptation of mental and behavioral processes through the millennia as a result of evolution.
- Experimental psychology – examines psychological principles through the use of laboratory research to test experiments that measure certain variables and outcomes.
- Neuropsychology – studies the connections between the activities of the brain and a person's behavior.
- Personality psychology – explores how people's personalities are shaped, defined, and changed, with an emphasis on the characteristics and behaviors that make humans unique.
- Social psychology – studies how the social world impacts the individual.
Article Resources:
American Psychological Association
Arizona State University
B.F. Skinner Foundation
Encyclopedia of World Biography
Lewis and Clark College
Sigmund Freud Archives
Stanford University