Understanding The Field Of Psychology

Psychology follows human beings like a shadow cast by an evening sun; it reflects human behaviors, offers insight on how individuals act, and if the sunlight hits from the right angle, it can even predict behavior. Likewise, psychology is involved in our lives in every single step we take as a society. Thus, many people have different interpretations of this comprehensive field of science. Some assume that psychology is all about exploring mental illnesses, whereas others draw an elaborate map to define what psychology is, which goals it should be concerned with, and how it should be studied (run-on sentence). Although, no definition is a bad definition for such a subjective field, I do not agree that psychology is all about exploring mental

It inspires basic research, as well as constituting a basis for applied research. Thus, one can claim that “to understand” is the main goal of psychology. The consensus on the importance of this goal became clearer when I was interviewing several faculty members from different areas of expertise. Dr. Jennifer Brielmaier Sontag, PhD. in Biopsychology, stated, “psychology is a scientific field that aims to understand all behavior and mental processes, such as learning, memory, decision making, how we form judgements of others, and how groups work together.” In addition, she drew attention to the significance of understanding the underlying mechanisms: “I think it expands to a lot of different questions, but at the core, the main goal of psychology is understanding why we do what we do, and how we think the way we do.” Likewise, Dr. Eva Wiese, PhD. in Neuroscience, indicated that the main goal of psychology is “to understand the brain, and how the mind works, how humans interact with the environment, and also how humans interact socially with each other”, when approached with the same question. Dr. June Tangney, PhD. in Clinical Psychology, built on this idea by pointing out the significance of improving people’s conditions through psychology. She stated that “the main goal of psychology is to understand the human behavior with the goal of making the world a better place.” Despite the fact that all three faculty members have different research interests, their perception of what lies within the core of psychology was strikingly