Psychology
is the study of the mind. It studies
thoughts
,
feelings
, and
behaviors
in humans and animals. Psychology aims to explain how the mind works. It also looks at how our actions relate to how we think.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
A lot of the research in psychology is done on
humans
. However,
animals
are also used in research. Examples of this are
classical conditioning
and
operant conditioning.
[6]
[7]
Psychology is a vast subject area. It covers many topics. It is divided into branches. Psychology has a lot in common with other fields of research. Ideas in psychology overlap with ideas in the sciences of
anatomy
,
biology
,
neuroscience
and
physiology
.
A person who works in the field of psychology is called a
psychologist
. A psychologist tries to understand how the mind works so that they can help people and animals. They must go through
higher education
for many years in order to become a professional. These
practitioners
attempt to explain how the mind functions by itself (individual) and with others (social). They also see how the mind affects the body. They work with
social
,
behavioral
, and
cognitive sciences
.
Psychology has been split up into smaller parts called branches. These are subjects in psychology that try to answer a particular group of questions about how people think. The branches of psychology that are often studied are:
- Abnormal psychology
, the study of differences in the mind of people who are healthy and people who have a
mental illness
.
[8]
- Clinical psychology
, which finds the best way to help people to recover from mental illness.
[9]
- Cognitive psychology
, the study of how people think, use language, remember and forget, and solve problems.
[10]
[11]
- Cross-cultural psychology
, the study of how
culture
influences human behavior.
[12]
- Developmental psychology
, the study of how people develop and change from
childhood
to adulthood.
[13]
This includes what used to be called "child psychology".
[14]
- Educational or school psychology
, the study of how people learn.
[15]
- Evolutionary psychology
, the study of how
evolution
shaped how people think. It often focus on how brain injury affects behavior.
[16]
[17]
[18]
- Gestalt psychology
, a theory of mind formed in Berlin.
- Neuropsychology
, the study of how human behavior relates to the brain and nervous system.
[19]
- Motivation
, which studies the root causes of actions
- Perceptual psychology
, the study of how the mind sees the world.
- Personality psychology
, the study of personality (the characteristics that describe a person's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors).
[20]
- Political psychology
, which studies the behavior of politicians and explains politics from a psychological standpoint.
- Social psychology
, the study how groups of people work together and how
society
works.
[21]
- Rehabilitation Psychology
, which studies the behaviour of people with chronic physical, psychological and neurological illnesses and rehabilitates them.
Psychology is a type of
science
, so research psychologists use many of the same types of methods that researchers from other
natural
and
social sciences
use.
Psychologists make
theories
to try to explain a behavior or pattern they see. Based on their theory, they make
predictions
. Then, they carry out
experiments
or collect
data
to see if their prediction is right or wrong.
Some types of experiments cannot be done on people because it would take too long, cost too much money, risk people's health, or would be
unethical
. There are also other ways psychologists study the mind and behavior scientifically, and test their theories. Psychologists might wait for some events to happen on their own; they might look at
patterns
among existing groups of people in
natural
environments; or they might do experiments on animals (which can be simpler and more ethical to study).
Just like in other fields of science, a good psychological theory can be proven wrong as new information about a subject is learned. Just like in any natural science, psychologists can never be completely sure that their theory is correct. If a theory can be proved wrong, but experiments do not prove it wrong, it is more likely that the theory is accurate. This is called
falsifiability
.
Psychologists use many tools as part of their daily work. Psychologists use surveys to ask people how they feel and what they think. They may use special devices to look at the
brain
and to see what it is doing. Psychologists use
computers
to collect
data
as they measure how people behave in response to pictures, words,
symbols
, or other
stimuli
. Psychologists also use
statistics
to help them analyze the data that they get from their experiments.
[22]
[23]
Symbolic and subjective approaches
[
change
|
change source
]
Not all psychology is scientific psychology.
Psychodynamic psychology
and
depth psychology
try to interpret
dreams
to understand the
unconscious
mind.
[24]
[25]
They are older approaches to psychology begun by
Carl Jung.
He was interested in finding methods to measure personality traits.
[26]
Humanistic psychology
and
existential psychology
believe that it is more important to understand personal meaning than to find causes and effects of mental processes and behaviors.
[27]
[28]
Psychologists are people who work in the field of psychology. A psychologist may work in either basic research or applied research. Basic research is the study of people or animals to learn more about them. Applied research uses what is learned from basic research to solve real-world problems. A qualified
clinical psychologist
can become a
therapist
or
counsellor
.
To become a psychologist, a person must first get a basic degree at a university and go to
graduate school
. A Master's degree, either MSc (Master of Science) or MA (Master of Arts), allows for work such as a
school psychologist
. A doctorate degree takes a longer time to earn because it includes doing research and writing a detailed report. A doctoral graduate uses the initials
PhD
or DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy). Some clinical psychologists earn a Doctor of Psychology degree and use the initials PsyD after their name. The
American Psychological Association
say that people need a PhD (or PsyD) and a current state license in the U.S. to call themselves a psychologist.
The words
psychologist
and
psychiatrist
may be confused with each other. A
psychiatrist
has graduated from medical school and uses the initials
MD
or its equivalent (MB ChB in
London University
, for example). A psychiatrist or doctor may work with a psychologist by prescribing and checking the effects of
medications
.
- ↑
"How does the APA defin"psychology"?"
. Retrieved
15 November
2011
.
- ↑
"Definition of "psychology (APA's Index Page)"
"
. Retrieved
20 December
2011
.
- ↑
Fernald L.D. 2008.
Psychology: six perspectives
(pp. 12?15). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- ↑
Hockenbury & Hockenbury. 2010.
Psychology
. Worth Publishers.
- ↑
O'Neil, H.F.; cited in Coon D. & Mitterer J.O. 2008.
Introduction to psychology: gateways to mind and behavior
12th ed, Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, pp. 15?16.
- ↑
Hamm M. & Mitchell R.W. (1997). The interpretation of animal psychology: anthropomorphism or behavior reading?. Behaviour, 134(3-4), 173-204.
- ↑
Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. (1989). Adaption versus phylogeny: The role of animal psychology in the study of human behavior. International Journal of Comparative Psychology,
2
(3).
- ↑
Rosenhan D.L. & Seligman M.E. (1995). Abnormal psychology. WW Norton & Co.
- ↑
Barker C; Pistrang N. & Elliott R. (2015). Research methods in clinical psychology: An introduction for students and practitioners. John Wiley & Sons.
- ↑
Eysenck M.W. & Keane M.T. 2005.
Cognitive psychology: a student's handbook
. Taylor & Francis.
- ↑
Bruning R.H., Schraw G.J. & Ronning R.R. 1999.
Cognitive psychology and instruction
. Prentice-Hall, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458.
- ↑
Berry J.W; Poortinga Y.H; Segall M.H. & Dasen P.R. 2002. Cross-cultural psychology: research and applications.
Cambridge University Press
.
- ↑
Shaffer D.R. & Kipp K. 2010. Developmental psychology: childhood and adolescence. Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
- ↑
Hetherington E.M., Parke R. D. & Locke V.O. 1999. Child psychology: a contemporary viewpoint. McGraw-Hill.
- ↑
Good, T. L., & Brophy, J. E. (1990). Educational psychology: A realistic approach. Longman/Addison Wesley Longman.
- ↑
Buss, D. M. (Ed.). (2005). The handbook of evolutionary psychology. John Wiley & Sons.
- ↑
Barrett, L., Dunbar, R., & Lycett, J. (2002). Human evolutionary psychology. Princeton University Press.
- ↑
Buss, D. (2015). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind. Psychology Press.
- ↑
Walsh, K. W. (1978). Neuropsychology: A clinical approach. Churchill Livingstone.
- ↑
Reis, H. T., Reis, H. T., & Judd, C. M. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology. Cambridge University Press.
- ↑
McDougall, W. (2015). An introduction to social psychology. Psychology Press.
- ↑
Aron, A., & Aron, E. N. (1999). Statistics for psychology. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
- ↑
Coolican, H. (2018). Research methods and statistics in psychology. Routledge.
- ↑
Rulla, L. M. (1971). Depth psychology and vocation: A psycho-social perspective. Gregorian Biblical BookShop.
- ↑
McNeely, D. A. (1987). Touching: Body therapy and depth psychology. Inner City Books.
- ↑
Hopcke, R. H. (2013). A guided tour of the collected works of CG Jung. Shambhala Publications.
- ↑
Schneider, K. J., Pierson, J. F., & Bugental, J. F. (Eds.). (2014). The handbook of humanistic psychology: Theory, research, and practice. Sage Publications.
- ↑
Jacobsen, B. (2007). Invitation to existential psychology. Wiley.
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|