The mind is a mysterious and a very complicated thing. Psychology is the scientific study of human mind and behavior with the purpose of understanding why human behave as they do. According to Medilexicon's medical dictionary, psychology is "The profession (clinical psychology), scholarly discipline (academic psychology), and science (research psychology) concerned with the behavior of humans and animals, and related mental and physiologic processes."(Nordqvist, 2014). In psychology the behavior of a person is used as the primary data to understand the mind. Experiments are conducted within a theoretical framework and hypothesis are tested and theories are approved or disapproved only after looking into empirical evidences.
Cognitive processes
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However, this definition have its limitation as rare or infrequent behavior does not distinguish between the desired and undesired behavior and also the rules of societies change according to the development and is not a constant thing. Abnormal behavior may lead to psychological disorders (psychopathology). Psychopathology is the study of psychological disorders based on methods and principles of science. Psychological disorders are mainly group into 5 main topics- anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders, mood disorders, dissociative disorders and schizophrenia. Studying abnormal psychology can avoid situations of misperception. And as these disorders are common it’s important to have an understanding as it can help the patients get extra care and attention that they need from family, friends and society. An understanding of abnormal psychology will help these patients feel more accepted in the …show more content…
Starting from the first laboratory by Wilhelm Wundt to theories by Freud and Watson and more specific fields of psychology which are based on the ideas in these theories and other historical theories. The contribution of historical figures play a vital role in the development of modern psychology. Even though, their theories does not happen to be the way they used to be, the fundamental idea of it is the root of psychology. Modern psychology is more diverse yet the psychologists still explore theories such as behaviorism, psychoanalysis, humanism and cognitive
Psychology is defined as the science of behavior and mental processes. The five enduring issues that draw psychologists together are person-situation, nature-nurture, stability-change, diversity-university, and mind-body. Person-situation answers the question: Are we masters of our own fate or victims of circumstances? Person-situation debates bring about recognition of how both the person and the situation determine behavior.
The presuppositions I had before taking this class concerning the history of psychology were based on the things I had learned previously about the founding fathers of psychology. The thoughts that I had were that many of the founding fathers were not very stable themselves. I also had learned that there was a lot of cocaine abuse in those early days, which added to my disrespect for some of the people who had been instrumental in launching psychology as a scientific study. In addition to the lack of faith in the character of these founding fathers, I had also come to the conclusion that they had very little solid data for their conclusions and even among their peers there was a lot of skepticism regarding their conclusions. Without measurable research based on solid data and controlled studies that the field of psychology has had to fight hard to become a reputable science.
What is different between "normal" and "abnormal”? as those words apply to the physically and emotional states and behaviors of human beings. Some people might do some terrible thing, such as murdering, sleeping next to the corpse, and other action that normal people are not generally doing in society. These people seem to like to be abnormal, this is due to the ability that most humans have distinguished right from wrong. many times, these “abnormal" people repeat their actions, not only because they might enjoy their actions, but also mental problem block them understanding how horrible and extreme their actions really are.
The similarities between biological, social and psychological approaches of abnormality are that the biological model is connected to the cognitive approach of the psychological, this is because brain injury can cause abnormality, for example, a concussion can cause the disruption of the balance of neurotransmitters causing abnormality namely high levels of dopamine may cause schizophrenia. A brain injury from an accident can cause the victim to suffer psychological and emotional trauma which can activate abnormalities such as anxiety or depression. Both the social and behavioural focuses on the context of the situation. The differences between the biological, social and psychological approaches are that the biological ignores
The human mind is one of the most intricate structures that God has ever created. Understanding that each and every individual holds their own thought pattern with varying degrees of complexity is difficult. Nothing has more influence over a person greater than the influences of the mind. It is responsible for behavior, which then turns into characteristic habits. Psychology as we know it today has only been in practice since the early 1900’s.
Both approaches experimentations generally tend to be conducted in the laboratory, for example the cognitive approach conducts memory experiments under strictly controlled conditions and the biological approach removes part of the brain to see the effect it has on a person’s behaviour. They also share certain contributions to society such as the therapy application. The biological approach would use drug treatments or electroconvulsive therapy for various mental disorders e.g. depression or schizophrenia while the cognitive approach would use Ellis’s rational emotive therapy which would change the way someone thinks and how they perceive depression. A further contribution they share is in education. The cognitive approach uses the application to improve educational techniques whilst the biological approach uses it for the genetic basis of
Psychology is from many other ideas and theories about science that were brought up and put to the world to see. An example is Nicolaus Copernicus, published the idea of the world not being the center of the universe but in fact, revolved around the sun. So overall, as the history of alternative perspectives about science evolve, so did psychology. 2) Explain the three early psychologies.
There are multiple subfields when it comes to psychology. The subfields that I will be discussing are biological psychology, developmental psychology, personality psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, cultural psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, and clinical psychology. Biological psychology, in simple terms, is when you take in account biological characteristics to understand the behavior of animals and people and how they affect one’s mentality. Biological psychology can be researched in many different ways and for many different reasons. Some ways it can be researched is by debilitating or increasing neural function, evaluating the nervous system’s activity, or by using different genetic manipulation/studying methods.
The words "psychology" and "logos," which mean the study or discourse, are derived from two ancient Greek words that mean mind, soul, or spirit, respectively. ' Studying the mind' is a term that is created when these words are put together. Additionally, ancient civilizations like the Greeks, Egyptians, and Chinese explored issues related to the mind, behaviour, and mental health, which is where psychology's roots can be found. However, modern psychology as a scientific discipline emerged in the late 19th century. Wilhelm Wundt, a renowned psychologist from Germany, is widely recognized as the pioneer of psychology.
Introduction Over the course of time, humankind has developed many methods to better themselves. One such method is the scientific method. The scientific method serves as a great tool for abnormal psychologists for a variety of reasons—probably one of the most important reasons to use the scientific method in abnormal psychology is to discuss, test, and verify findings. This gives the individual administering the treatment the ability to observe the methods of treatment. A good administer always views the patient’s case history and sees if new methods of treatment are needed to replace the old.
Psychology can be primarily defined as a type of science. It is the science that encompasses all aspects of the mind especially with regards to thought, conscious and unconscious events as well as behaviour. It is studying the various processes that occur mentally which relate these activities to the brain in terms of intelligence, perception, emotion etc. Psychology is the main field of study having subdivisions that allows individuals to focus on and specialize in an area of psychology such as clinical psychology. This science dates to the early 1870s and the word psychology is the arrangement of two Greek terminologies which are psyche meaning “the study of “and Logos implying that it is the foundation of all” ology’s” for instance biology
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)—opened the first laboratory dedicated to the study of psychology, the Institute for Experimental Psychology, in 1879. In addition to this, Wundt founded the psychological school of though called structuralism that utilized methods of introspection to study thoughts, images, and feelings. (Structuralism) 3. William James (1842-1910)— unsatisfied with examining the mind in parts, William
Abnormal development means to the person who psychologically unhealthy. The differences between the psychologically healthy and psychologically unhealthy determined by the way of both of them construe their event and validate their personal construct. For the people who psychologically healthy, they will validate the new personal construct in the following ways. They test the reasonable assumption, accept the truth without denial or distortion, and they willing to change
Set up first laboratory that conducted studies regarding behavior and genetics at Leipzig University d.) known as the father of psychology. III. In a philosophical context psychology was around thousands of years ago in ancient Greece, Egypt, India, Persia and China. Medieval Muslim psychologists and doctors had a more clinical and experimental approach to psychology - they were the
However, in this essay, I will only deal with the three prominent theories, which are, Psychoanalytic theory, Behavioral theory and Humanistic theory. The first part of this essay will evaluate the Psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalytical theory defined and evaluated the development and structure of personality. Freud believed human nature is mostly easily determinable.