Before getting to know what Psychology is we should understand first what psychology is not.
- Psychology is a science and not based on common sense and age hold wisdom.
- Psychology is not about to predict what others are thinking.
- After reading psychology we are not only dealing with differently abled person, it is a vast concept
- Psychology is not bifurcating into normal and abnormal it shows how & why we behave in a particular situation.
- Psychologists are not palmists and can’t predict the future or read somebody through their faces only.
DEFINITION
“Psychology is derived from two Greek words- Psyche and logo, Psyche means soul and logos study of a subject. So we can say psychology is a study of the soul.
- STUDY OF SOUL
- During ancient times, people believed that the behavior of someone depends on his/her soul. Someone’s soul is good and someone’s soul is bad.
- STUDY OF MIND
- With the advancement of study, scientists removed the word soul from the definition of psychology because the soul is not scientific.
- Scientists replaced the word soul with the mind because the mind is scientific as compared to the soul.
- Then they termed Psychology as a study of the mind.
- The mind is related to consciousness. Consciousness or thinking is called the Cognitive Process in psychology.
- Our actions are always based on our thinking process which is termed as Behavior.
- Cognitive process and Behavior is connected with our Experiences or emotions or affections.
- Later on, they have given their definition that Psychology is a scientific discipline which deals with the mental processes underlying the human experiences and behavior at various levels
- Individual,
- Dyadic (Within two persons),
- Groups, and
- Organization.
According to Baron (1995) “Psychology studies behavior and cognitive processes from five perspectives; Behavioral, Cognitive, Physiological, Sociocultural and psychodynamic.
Psychology is defined formally as a science that studies mental processes, experiences, and behavior in different contexts.
- There are 3 main factors in this definition.
- These are
- Mental Processes
- Human Experiences and
- Behavior.
- These are
- Explanation as follows-
- Mental Processes: – We are talking about two aspects of Mental Processes that are mind and brain. We can’t see our Mind, it is based on our experiences and Brain is an entity that we can see and touch. Mental Processes are those processes that are processing in our minds.
- The brain is a physical entity and the processes are happening in mind which we can’t see but can capture through our brain.
- Mental Processes include consciousness, awareness, solving problems, remembering things. Brain activities are observed through brain imaging techniques.
- Our mind evolves with our experiences and interactions like remembering, knowing, learning, feeling, etc.
We use our mental processes when we are thinking about something or trying to solve any problem or remember something. There are various mental processes such as remembering, learning, knowing, perceiving, etc.
- Human Experiences: –
- Experiences are subjective. We are experiencing so many things in our daily life. Experiences are like feelings. We cannot observe it directly.
- Experience is influenced by the external and internal condition of a person. We cannot directly know or observe someone’s experience.
- Only the experiencing person can be aware of his or her experiences. Experiences are our feelings or emotions like in case of the death of somebody in someone’s home. We can’t feel what exactly someone else feels. We can only assume his or her feeling.
- Our Experiences are based on our feelings and affection.
- Behavior: – Behaviors are responses or reactions.
- Behaviors are responses of activities, our mental processes, and based on our experiences.
- It is of two types overt and covert.
- Overt is easily seen by others like walking, talking, fighting, laughing, etc.
- Covert is not observed by others like thinking.
