Psychology Observational Study

Psychology is “a scientific study of the mind and behaviour” as described by Gross 1982. Its origins go back to ancient Greece and Psychology has changed dramatically from then (McLeod, 2017).

Psychology has now become a science and has been separated from the occult. It now involves the studying of the mind and observing behaviour and collecting empirical data. This is done in a controlled environment by a researcher that has a clear hypothesis before they undergo an experiment and they have methods that make their observations replicable (Eysenck, 1994).

At the start of any investigation or experiment, the researcher will have a hypothesis and this will be a prediction of the outcome. Psychoanalysis has a very good understanding of behaviour

To be objective the researcher must also have an unbiased view and keep subjective ideas minimal. However, some psychologists believe that a subjective viewpoint is more important than an objective one and when analysing behaviour, it is difficult to remain objective. Moreover, this was the reason introspection did not continue past the 1920’s and psychology today is more objective with advances in technology to use machines to diagnose mental issues (Eysenck, 1994).

In addition, researchers must keep control on variables as the independent variable can affect the dependent variable. A researcher will also look at cause and effect, this is how the independent variable effects the dependent variable. Experiments are they only way to establish cause and effect they can also be replicated. The more an experiment is replicated the more valid it

Free association can be used where a psychoanalytic would say words and the patient would say the first thing that would come to their mind. The aim would be to probe for repressed memories, eventually the patient will experience an abreaction. The abreaction is sometimes very painful for the patient as they suddenly remember a sometimes a traumatic memory. This provides an insight of the patient’s problem. Once this happens they can start catharsis. Catharsis is when the patient feels relief, then it is believed the mental abnormality will disappear, but this therapy needs to be used over several years (Eysenck, 1994).

Freud also founded dream analysis and he believed when people are asleep their unconscious thoughts surface. He believed that dreams had a sexual content and his theory of psychosexual stages played a part in this.

Psychosexual stages involved Freud theorizing that children are born with a sexual urge and that children seek sexual pleasure in stages from objects during their life (McLeod,