What is Psychology?

Definition of Psychology:

The term“psychology” is derived from two Greek words, ‘psycho’ and 'logy', which means soul and study respectively.

A few decades ago, psychology was defined as: study of mind, study of consciousness. In the present times psychology is defined as the scientific study of both overt, covert behavior.

Wood worth and Marquis defined psychology as “the scientific study of the activities of the individual in relation to its environment.” The term behavior explains the entire life of the living organism.

Crow n Crow briefly defined psychology as the study of human behavior and human relationships.

According to Titchener- “the subject matter of physics is experience, independent of the experiencing person, the subject matter of psychology is experience dependent on an experiencing person.”

Branches of Psychology:

The major branches of basic psychology are:

• General psychology
• Physiological psychology
• Abnormal psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Social psychology
• Comparative psychology
• Differential psychology
• Para psychology
• Psychology of law and crime
• Military and community psychology

Applied branches of psychology include:

• Clinical and counseling psychology
• Organizational psychology
• Educational psychology
• Environmental psychology
• Health psychology
• Sports psychology

Goals of psychology:

The major goals of psychology are

• To observe, investigate and identify the various factors which influence behavior and also asses their relative influences.
• To develop methods and techniques of predicting behavior.
• To investigate the role of each factor separately and together in producing similarities and differences in behavior.
• And based on these investigations, psychology should arrive at generalizations in the form of theories, laws, and principles explaining the similarities as well as differences among people. The use of psychological knowledge to solve practical problems in other fields is ‘exploration of psychology’.

To achieve these goals psychology must follow scientific method which involves accuracy, objectivity, skepticism, and open-mindedness.