Psychology

Class 11th Chapter1- What Is Psychology?

Contents:-

 IntroductionWhat is Psychology?
 Psychology as a Discipline
 Psychology as a Natural Science
 Psychology as a Social Science
 Understanding Mind and Behaviour
 Evolution of Psychology
 Development of Psychology in India
 Branches of Psychology
 Psychology and Other Disciplines
 Psychology in Everyday Life

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
According to Greek thinkers psychology is the science of soul, but this idea was rejected soon
because of the fact that most of the scholars felt that the soul is an entity which can neither be
touched or neither be handled. So according to them, it is something invisible and not
observable entity so it was soon rejected.

Before Psychology was considered as the science, it was a part of philosophy. So the roots
psychology lies in the field of philosophy. When psychology evolved as a separate entity
many psychologists tried to define psychology. The most influential work was done by
Wiiliam Wundt in 1879 by establishing the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig in
Germany. He took the first step in making Psychology as a science.

After this only, Psychology evolved as a subject or part of science and it changed its focus
from soul to behavior. So now the field of Psychology is concerned with the behavior of an
organism. The most acceptable definition of Psychology was given:

Psychology is defined formally as a science which studies mental processes, experiences,

and behavior in different contexts.
This definition has three important aspects:

1. Mental Processes: they the experiences that are internal to the experiencing person or
it’s the conscious awareness of an individual. All the processes involved in thinking,
perception, remembering, recalling, and other brain activities includes the mental
processes.
2. Experiences: they are subjective in nature and includes the embedded consciousness
or the awareness. This basically includes what a person has gone through.
3. Behaviour: Behaviour are the responses or the manifestations or the activities we
engage into.
a) Overt: Any response that can be outwardly seen or sensed by an observer is called
as an Overt Response. For example: crying, smiling, expression of any emotion.
b) Covert: Any behavior that is covered is called a covert. They cannot be seen by
other people. For example: thinking, recalling etc.

PSYCHOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE

Psychology as a discipline has two parallel themes. The moment psychology was made a
separate field that from philosophy it evolved out as a scientific study. Before that it was a
part of social science. But now psychology is considered both as a subject matter of Social
Science as well as that subject matter of Science. This can be concluded from the fact that the
subject psychology is offered to both the science stream as well as the arts theme.

Psychology As A Science:

In Psychology as a field of study, all the methods of enquiry is done through the applications
of Scientific methods in order to study the Psychological Attributes, Phenomena or
Characteristics. The study and applications of Science makes the subject matter of
psychology more Scientific and objective.

The most effective application is the application of model called as hypothetico-deductive

model which states that any scientific advancement can take place if one has a theory to
explain it. Theory is a set of statements about how certain complex phenomenon can be
explained with the help of prepositions which are interrelated.

On the basis of the theory Hypothesis is formed, which is focused on offering a tentative
statement or explanation of how certain phenomenon takes place.

Additional to these psychologists also tries to find out the Influence of Biology as a field in
Psychology, they have explained the effect of Biological Principles that are governing the
psychological principles of an individual.

Psychology As Social Science

Psychology as a Social Science attempts to study the human behavior which is
done in a Social setting. Humans are not only influenced by their socio-cultural
contexts but also they are the creator of it. Psychology as Social Science focuses
on human s as Social beings. This discipline of psychology deals that how
people change themselves according to the situation and how a particular
situation changes the characteristics and traits of an individual.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MIND AND BRAIN

MIND BRAIN
 Mind does not have a definite shape.  Brain has a definite shape.
 The mind refers to a person’s  The brain, which is the centre of the
understanding of things and also his nervous system, coordinates the
conscience. Mind also refers to a movements, thoughts and feelings.
person’s thought process.
 Â the mind is considered to be  While brain is considered to be a
mental. physical thing

EVOLUTION OF PSYCHOLOGY

 Functionalism:- William James is one of the first member of this school of

psychology. Instead of focusing on the mental processes themselves, functionalist
thinkers were instead interested in the role that these processes play.

 Gestallt Psychology:- The gestalt psychologists believed that you must look at the
whole of experience. According to the Gestalt thinkers, the whole is greater than the
sum of its parts. It is a school of psychology based upon the idea that we experience
things as unified wholes.
 Structuralism: The focus of structuralism was on reducing mental processes down
into their most basic elements. The structuralists used techniques such
as introspection to analyze the inner processes of the human mind. This outlook
focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components.
 Behaviourism:- Behaviorism suggests that all behavior can be explained by
environmental causes rather than by internal forces. Behaviorism is focused
on observable behavior. The behavioral school of psychology had a significant
influence on the course of psychology
 Psycho-analysis:- This School of Psychology was developed by Sigmund Freud and
was established in order to deal with psychological disorders.
  Humanistic Perspective:- Humanistic psychology instead focused on individual free
will, personal growth and the concept of self-actualization. humanistic psychology
differed considerably in its emphasis on helping people achieve and fulfill their
potential.
 Cognitive Perspective:- Cognitive psychology is the school of psychology that studies
mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn. As part
of the larger field of cognitive science, this branch of psychology is related to other
disciplines including neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics.

BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY

 Cognitive Psychology:- Cognitive Psychology presents a system’s viepoint in

explaining the behavior mechanism. The message coveyed through stimuli work as
Input The cognitive functioning of the human mind as process and the result of the
cognitive functioning as the [Link] studies all about an individual’s thinking,
memory, language, development, perception, imagery and other mental processes.
 Biological Psychology: The Biological Psychology attempts to study the Relation of
Biological principles with that of Psychological principles. It studies how genetics,
Immune system etc., can be a base of human behavior. Neuropsychology is a recent
branch of Psychology that focuses on the communication between different neural
system in the functioning of the brain. In this area or field of psychology the
psychologists and neurologists work together.
 Developmental Psychology: as the name suggest developmental Psychology is
focused on how the development of an individual takes place. It undertakes the
researches in the area of Human Development. It studies all the changes that occur at
different ages and stages.
 Social Psychology: Social Psychology deals with the behavior and experience of an
individual in a group situation, in a community and in a society. It also deals with how
groups are formed, how they influenced by each other, and how the behavior is
changed under the process social influence.
 Cross-Cultural and CCultural Psychology: It is a new study in which the
psychologists aim at studying the role of culture in understanding the behavior,
thought, and emotions. They assume that behavior is a result of the culture in which
an individual lives in.
 Environmental Psychology:- The Human behavior is affected by the people around
them as well as the Physical Environment. Environmental Psychology attempts to
study the effects of the Physical environment on the human beings and their behavior.
It attempts to study the effect of heat, humidity, disaster etc on the human beings.
 Health Psychology: Health Psychology is another new branch of Psychology that is
evolving. In this filed the Psychologists main job is to promote mental health and
wellbeing. They make people aware about the role of stress and anxiety on the health
of the peple and how it will degrade the mental as well as physical health.
  Industrial/Organizational Psychology: The objective of the Industrial or Organizational
Psychology is to give the employees greatest satisfaction job, to improve employee-
employer relationship, to reduce frustration and conflicts among workers , to raise their
level of aspiration level etc., It deals with the selection of the workers, production, efficiency
as well as industrial relations.
 Educational Psychology: Educational Psychology refers to the understanding of the
behavior of children at home and in the classroom with the purpose to examine and
evaluate their learning, emotional and motivational problems. It is more focused on
the application of psychological principles in the field of education and and problems
of education in order to enhance the standard of education.
 Sports Psychology: The sports Psychology is focused on applying the Psychological
principles to improve sports performance by enhancing their motivation, team effort,
group work, cohesiveness etc.
cultures. Also, females critics says that Psychology is a male dominant study and
offers more of male perspective.

PSYCHOLOGY AND OTHER DISCIPLINES

 Philosophy: Today psychology is considered as a science, but it greatly draws from

philosophy, particularly with respect to methods of knowing, and various domains of
human nature. The philosophers were interested in defining and explaining how the
nature of the mind or how do humans come to know their motivations and emotions
 Medicine: The relationship between physiology and psychology is same as mind-
body relationship. Here the main task of doctors is to make that awareness for the
mental well-being. Many hospitals have psychologists to make sure that have a good
counseling sessions for the patients who are coming for the treatment.
 Economics, Political Science, and Sociology:- Psychology as a field has done a
great work in micro-level economic behavior in understanding consumer behavior,
savings behavior etc. In political science issues related to exercise of powers and
authority, nature of political conflicts etc are all part and study matter of psychology.
Psychology is a field that has been drawn out from Sociology. Understanding Socio-
cultural contexts. Group influence, social interaction etc all are the parts of sociology
and psychology.
 Computer Science:- The scientific advancements in mimicking human mind is the
most recent effort which is being done in order to spread out psychology as a subject.
Computer scientists are seeking to make computers not only intelligent but also
machines which can sense and feel.
 Law and Criminology:- This is one of the field in which human understanding is required
the most. The lawyers ask a lot of questions to the criminals they should be having a good
knowledge about psychology in order to ask question and understand the falsehood if there
is any.
 Music and Fine Arts:- these creative fields asks for the applications of a lot of
psychological principles. For example: Music therapy is used in the treatment of
many psychological disorders.
 Mass Communication:- This discipline deals with how one can influence the mass or
gets affected. Here the major influence is on the individual’s thinking pattern, attitude
and emotions.
 Architecture and Engineering:- An architecture needs to satisfy the demands and
requirements of an individual through their designs. In the similar manner engineers
must look after the needs of the clients in order to satisfy them.
 Write an Essay on Psychology in Everyday Life.