Denote scientific branches of psychology according to various reasons. Psychology is the science of the mind and behavior. The word "psychology" comes from the Greek word psyche meaning "breath, spirit, soul", and the Greek word logia meaning the study of something.
There are a number of unique and distinctive branches of psychology. Each branch looks at questions and problems from a different perspective. While each branch has its own focus on psychological problems or concerns, all areas share a common goal of studying and explaining human thought and behavior. The some of the major branches of psychology within the field today:
Different Branches of Psychology are as follows:
Psychology studies and explains the behaviour of entire living organisms. The term behaviour includes the cognitive, Conative and affective, conscious, subconscious or unconscious, implicit or explicit. It also includes the behaviour of people from infancy to old age, the normal as well as abnormal.
It is very difficult to understand all these aspects of behaviour in one sphere. Hence, in order to make it convenient to study, understand and access the behaviour at different fields of life, psychology is divided into different branches. These branches are broadly divided into two categories viz., pure and applied.
1. Pure Branches:
Pure branches provide the theoretical frame work of the subject. These branches deal with formulation of principles, theories and suggest different methods for the assessment of behaviour. The pure branches also suggest certain techniques for the modification of problematic behaviour.
The important pure branches are:
a. General psychology:
This branch deals with the fundamental rules, principles and theories of psychology in relation to the study of behaviour of normal adult human beings. It explains various psychological processes like sensations, perceptions, emotions, learning, intelligence, personality, etc.
b. Physiological psychology:
This branch describes the biological basis of behaviour. There is a close relationship between body and mind; the functions of each other are mutually influenced. The functioning of the brain, nervous system, endocrine glands and their relation to cognitive, Conative and affective behaviour is explained in this branch of psychology.
c. Developmental psychology:
Human life passes through various stages of development from conception to old age. This branch explains the growth and development of various processes in relation to behaviour.
d. Child psychology:
Childhood extends from 2 to 12 years. This is a crucial period in the life. Future life depends upon development during childhood. Growth and development will be rapid during this stage. Child psychology deals with these aspects.
e. Animal psychology:
This branch deals with behaviour of animals. Many psychological experiments are conducted to know the functioning of mind in animals. Animals like rats, dogs, chimpanzees, pigeons, guinea pigs, cats are some of the animals used for experimentation.
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Findings of these experiments are many times generalized to human behaviour also.
f. Abnormal psychology:
Today the life is complex. The individual is facing a lot of competition and experiencing frustrations and conflicts. Constant pressures in life are leading to psychological abnormalities. Abnormal psychology deals with various kinds of mental disorders, their symptoms and causes.
g. Social psychology:
Human being is a social animal. Naturally the behaviour of an individual is influenced by society and in turn influences the society. Social psychology deals with interrelationships of people among themselves, likes and dislikes of people, attitudes and interests, the prejudices and social distances people have, group behaviour, group cohesiveness, group conflicts, etc.
h. Parapsychology:
Some of the psychological experiences are beyond the reach of 5 sense organs. That is why they are called extra sensory perceptions (ESP) or sixth sense. Some of the phenomena studied in ESP are as follows:
i. Clairvoyance:
This is referred to as television, which is seeing the distant things mentally. We perceive at times some situations or things without the help of our eyes. In total seeing things which happen beyond our visual field through mind is called clairvoyance.
ii. Telepathy:
Transformations of emotions from one person to another person who is in a far of place. For example, a person who is in death bed remembering his close relative may be experienced by the concerned person who is far away from him.
iii. Psychokinesis:
Moving the objects without direct contact through power of mind is called Psychokinesis. For example, in Mahabharata, Shakuni could move dice with his power of mind.
iv. Precognition:
Knowing the future happenings well in advance. At times people will gain the knowledge of future called precognition. For example, some accident or disaster that may take place after sometime will be known before time.
v. Reincarnation:
This is otherwise called rebirth. There are some instances reported where people remember their previous life details.
vi. Contacting souls:
There are some reports that the souls of dead people are contacted through people called Mediums. These Mediums use a plate called Planchette or Ouija board and establish contact with souls.
2. Applied Branches:
Applied branches deal with the application of psychological principles and techniques for approaching the problems in different fields of life.
a. Educational psychology:
This is the most important field where psychological principles are applied. In the field of education learner is the focal point. Other aspects like management, teachers, teaching and learning aids are all meant for learners.
Learners differ in their abilities, hence they need different approaches of teaching, learning material, etc. This branch addresses to the problems and improvement in teaching and learning processes.
b. Clinical psychology:
This branch deals with the therapeutic aspect of mental disorders. There are many types of mental illness requiring varied types of therapies like chemotherapy, psychotherapy, recreational and occupational therapies, behaviour therapy, etc.
c. Industrial psychology:
Human beings are different from machines. They will have many problems in their work place like adjustment, safety, security, health, financial and such other problems. Both the management and workers need to cooperate in dealing with such problems. Industrial psychology seeks application of psychological principles, theories and techniques for the study of all these problems and the industrial environment.
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d. Counselling psychology:
Mental disorders may not be completely and easily cured just by drugs and other physical therapies.
5. Signify research subject of psychology. Psychology is the academic and applied study of mental functions and behaviors. The word "psychology" comes from two specific Greek wordspsyche, which means "soul," "life," or "mind," and logia, which means "the study of." Simply put, psychology is the study of the mind. The overarching goal of psychology is to understand the behavior, mental functions, and emotional processes of human beings. This field ultimately aims to benefit society, partly through its focus on better understanding of mental health and mental illness. The subject of psychology is understood differently throughout history and from the perspective of different areas of psychology.
Soul (all researchers until the early eighteenth century)
The phenomena of consciousness (English empirical socialistiska psychology: D. Hartley, John Stuart mill, Alexander Bain, Herbert Spencer)
Direct experience of the subject (structuralism Wilhelm Wundt)
Adaptability (functionalism William James)
The origin of mental operations (psychophysiology Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov)
Behavior (behaviorism John Watson)
The unconscious (of depth psychology: psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, individual psychology Alfred Adler, analytical psychology Carl Gustav Jung)
The processing of images and the results of these processes (Gestalt psychology Max Wertheimer)
The problem of being human (humanistic psychology Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Victor Frankl, Rollo may)
The processes of information processing information system "brain", cognitive abilities (cognitive psychology George Miller, Herbert Simon, Allen Newell, Noam Chomsky, David green, John sweets and others)
The object of psychology
The object of psychology is a collection of different media mental phenomena, including behavior, activities, relationships of people in big and small social groups.
Tasks of psychology
learn to understand the nature of psychic phenomena;
learn how to manage them;
to use this knowledge to improve the effectiveness of the various sectors of practice;
to be a theoretical basis for the practice of psychological services.
Methods of psychology methods of data collection (introspection, observation, study of performance, examination of documents, method of survey, method of tests, experiment, biographical method);
methods of data processing (statistical analysis, other mathematical methods);
the methods of psychological influence (discussion, training, formative experiment, persuasion, suggestion, relaxation, etc.).
Distinguish research object and subject sphere of modern psychology
Psychology is the academic and applied study of mental functions and behaviors. The word "psychology" comes from two specific Greek wordspsyche, which means "soul," "life," or "mind," and logia, which means "the study of." Simply put, psychology is the study of the mind. The overarching goal of psychology is to understand the behavior, mental functions, and emotional processes of human beings. This field ultimately aims to benefit society, partly through its focus on better understanding of mental health and mental illness.
The subject of psychology is understood differently throughout history and from the perspective of different areas of psychology.
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Soul (all researchers until the early eighteenth century)
The phenomena of consciousness (English empirical socialistiska psychology: D. Hartley, John Stuart mill, Alexander Bain, Herbert Spencer)
Direct experience of the subject (structuralism Wilhelm Wundt)
Adaptability (functionalism William James)
The origin of mental operations (psychophysiology Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov)
Behavior (behaviorism John Watson)
The unconscious (of depth psychology: psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, individual psychology Alfred Adler, analytical psychology Carl Gustav Jung)
The processing of images and the results of these processes (Gestalt psychology Max Wertheimer)
The problem of being human (humanistic psychology Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Victor Frankl, Rollo may)
The processes of information processing information system "brain", cognitive abilities (cognitive psychology George Miller, Herbert Simon, Allen Newell, Noam Chomsky, David green, John sweets and others)
The object of psychology
The object of psychology is a collection of different media mental phenomena, including behavior, activities, relationships of people in big and small social groups.
Tasks of psychology
learn to understand the nature of psychic phenomena;
learn how to manage them;
to use this knowledge to improve the effectiveness of the various sectors of practice;
to be a theoretical basis for the practice of psychological services.
Methods of psychology
methods of data collection (introspection, observation, study of performance, examination of documents, method of survey, method of tests, experiment, biographical method);
methods of data processing (statistical analysis, other mathematical methods);
the methods of psychological influence (discussion, training, formative experiment, persuasion, suggestion, relaxation, etc.).
7. Define methodological connections between psychology and other sciences. The word psychology comes from two Greek words: "Psyche" meaning "mind" or "soul" and "Logos" meaning "study of. Therefore, psychology means "study of the mind" and the primary goal of psychology is to describe, explain and predict why humans think and behave the way that they do.
Psychology and Physical Sciences:
Psychology is a science of experience of an individual. But experience presupposes the duality of subject and object, both of which are real. Psychology deals with mental processes such as knowing, feeling and willing, and in order to account for them adequately it must study the nature of physical stimuli in relation to knowing and willing.
But there is a difference between psychology and physical sciences in the treatment of physical objects. Physical sciences investigate the nature of physical stimuli apart from their relation to an individual. But psychology studies the nature of the interaction between an individual with physical stimuli.
Psychological science is not concerned with the nature of physical stimuli in themselves apart from their relation to an individual. It is primarily concerned with behaviour of an individual, and indirectly concerned with external stimuli.
Physical sciences investigate the nature of physical phenomena, and so they help psychology to explain the experience and behaviour of the individual, which are reactions to the physical and social stimuli.
(ii) Psychology and Biology:
Psychology is a science of the experience and behaviour. However experience cannot be adequately explained without the concomitant physiological processes. The environment acts on the mind through the sense-organs; and the mind reacts to the environment through the muscles. The sense-organs and muscles are organs of the body. So mental processes are closely related to bodily processes.
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(iii) Psychology and Physiology:
Psychology is a science of experience. Experiences of an individual are intimately connected with physiological processes, especially of the nervous system. Hence, psychology studies these physiological processes in order to adequately account for mental processes.
(iv) Psychology and Logic:
Psychology is wider in scope than Logic, because it deals with all kinds of mental processes, viz., knowing, feeling and willing. But Logic deals with thinking only, which is a kind of knowing. It does not deal with feeling and willing.
Psychology deals with the process of reasoning or mental exploration of data whereas Logic deals with the result of mental exploration or finding a new relationship among the data.
Psychology deals with concrete mental processes, viz., conception, judgement and reasoning as attended with feeling and willing, while Logic deals with the abstract mental products, viz., concepts, judgements and inferences divorced from feeling and willing.
Logic, as a normative science, is based on Psychology which is a positive science. In order to know how we ought to reason, we should know how we do reason. We should know the nature of reasoning before we can investigate the conditions of its validity.
Psychology deals with the actual process of reasoning. Logic deals with the validity of reasoning and the conditions of its validity. Nevertheless, the laws of logic are conditioned by the laws according to which the human personality thinks. All types of logical thinking are limited by the limitations of the human mind.
(v) Psychology and Philosophy:
Philosophy has two parts epistemology and ontology. Psychology is related to epistemology. Psychology enquires into the nature of knowing, feeling, and willing. It deals with knowing as a fact, and the nature and development of knowledge of an individual mind.
It is concerned with the validity of knowledge. Psychology assumes the possibility of knowledge and merely traces its growth and development in an individual mind.
But Epistemology enquires into the conditions under which knowledge is possible, and deals with the validity of knowledge.
(vi) Psychology and Sociology:
Psychology deals with the behaviour pattern of an individual in relation to the environment which is physical as well as social. The external world or light, sound, taste, smell, heat, cold, etc., constitute the physical environment. Parents, relatives, friends, enemies, playmates, companions and all the people with whom an individual comes into contact and interacts constitute his social environment.
(vii) Psychology and Education:
Psychology is the science of the behaviour of the individual in relation to the environment. Education is the science of unfolding the powers, of the pupil and moulding his character and behaviour in such a manner that he becomes a useful and well-adjusted member of the community.
8. Explain historical stages of psychology (pre-scientific, medieval-philosophical and contemporary). It is always a difficult question to ask, where to begin to tell the story of the history of psychology. Some would start with ancient Greece; others would look to a demarcation in the late 19th century when the science of psychology was formally proposed and instituted. Many cultures throughout history have speculated on the nature of the mind, heart, soul, spirit, and brain. Philosophical interest in behavior and the mind dates back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, and India. Psychology was largely a branch of philosophy until the mid-1800s, when it developed as an independent and scientific discipline in Germany and the United States. These philosophical roots played a large role in the development of the field.
17th Century
René Descartes, a French mathematician and philosopher from the 1600s, theorized that the body and mind are separate entities, a concept that came to be known as dualism. According to dualism, the body is a physical entity with scientifically measurable behavior, while the mind is a spiritual entity that cannot be measured because it transcends the material world. Descartes believed that the two interacted only through a tiny structure at the base of the brain called the pineal gland.
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were English philosophers from the 17th century who disagreed with the concept of dualism. They argued that all human experiences are physical processes occurring within the brain and nervous system. Thus, their argument was that sensations, images, thoughts, and feelings are all valid subjects of study. As this view holds that the mind and body are one and the same, it later became known as monism. Today, most psychologists reject a rigid dualist position: many years of research indicate that the physical and mental aspects of human experience are deeply intertwined. The fields of psychoneuroimmunology and behavioral medicine explicitly focus on this interconnection.
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The late 19th century marked the start of psychology as a scientific enterprise. Psychology as a self-conscious field of experimental study began in 1879, when German scientist Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research in Leipzig. Often considered the father of psychology, Wundt was the first person to refer to himself as a psychologist and wrote the first textbook on psychology, entitled Principles of Physiological Psychology.
Wundt believed that the study of conscious thoughts would be the key to understanding the mind.
Structuralism
Edward B. Titchener, an English professor and a student under Wundt, expanded upon Wundt's ideas and used them to found the theory of structuralism. This theory attempted to understand the mind as the sum of different underlying parts, and focused on three things: (1) the individual elements of consciousness; (2) how these elements are organized into more complex experiences; and (3) how these mental phenomena correlate with physical events.
9. Reveal a concept of sole as initial psychological phenomenon in ancient science: The beginning of the history of psychology is hard to pinpoint, mainly because it is difficult to establish exactly what psychology is.
Since the dawn of civilization and the establishment of the earliest religions and spiritual beliefs, various priests, shamans and spiritual leaders were responsible for the mental wellbeing of their people. From shamen to Jewish Qabbalists, curing the mind was a huge part of the spiritual path, even if treatment was couched in magic and mystery, using rituals to drive out demons.
If we define psychology as a formal study of the mind and a more systematic approach to understanding and curing mental conditions, then the Ancient Greeks were certainly leading proponents. As with many scientific studies, Aristotle was at the forefront of developing the foundations of the history of psychology. Aristotle's psychology, as would be expected, was intertwined with his philosophy of the mind, reasoning and Nicomachean ethics, but the psychological method started with his brilliant mind and empirical approach.
Of course, it would be unfair to concentrate fully on Aristotle's psychology without studying some of the other great thinkers who contributed to the history of psychology, but his work certainly is the basis of modern methods. Any modern psychologist of note fully understands the basics of Aristotelian thought and recognizes his contribution to the history of psychology.
