INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

MEANING:    

The word psychology is made of two Greek words – Psyche and Logos. Psyche means soul, mind, and behaviour and logos means science. Thus the literal meaning of psychology is the ‘science of soul’. In the ancient time psychology was considered to be a science of soul. The scholars faced many problems in taking psychology as the science of soul. To avoid the difficulties the scholars altered the definition of Psychology. They called Psychology as the ‘science of mind’. But recently, psychology is defined as ‘science of consciousness.’

DEFINITION:

1. Psychology is the scientific study of the activities of the individual in relation to his environment – Woods Worth.

2. Psychology is the study of human behaviour and human relationships -Crow and Crow.

3. Psychology gives scientific analysis of the working of human mind –Russell.

METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology is considered as a science. Scientific methods are now used in Educational Psychology. The most important methods are following:

1. Introspection:

In the ancient times, introspection was used for studying educational psychology. Introspection means ‘looking inside oneself’. According to Titchener “seeing inside oneself is introspection”. In this method, we attempt to see our own mental processes. We use this method often in our daily life.

Merits:

1. In this method, the psychologist does not need any laboratory.

2. The second advantage is that no economic means is required for it.

3. The mental processes cannot be studied by any other method; their study is possible by only this method.

4. We can use this method anywhere; it doesn’t require any special arrangements.

Demerits:

1. Some psychologist stated that introspection is an impossible mental activity.

2. In this method, the observer and observed material are one and the same.

3. Introspection is an unnatural mental process.

2. Observation:

The second important method of educational psychology is observation. In introspection man studies his own mental process, in observation he studies the behaviour of another person to find out his mental condition.

Careful study of a manner, activity or behaviour using ones sense organs is called observation. It can be used to study several mental activities and these studies are quite standardized too. Observation has important role in educational psychology. Observation helps much in studying the external behaviour of a person or group.

Merits:

1. It is a simple method, it does not have the complexity of other method.

2. It is an authentic (reliable) method of receiving knowledge.

3. It is the most helpful in studying the behaviors of children, animals and abnormal people.

4. It can be used to study several people together.

5. This method is extremely reliable and the conclusions derived from this method are more real than other method.

Demerits:

1. The person or child observed by it becomes conscious of it and he does not allow surfacing his common behaviour and natural form.

2. It is doubtful, if the behaviors of an abnormal or faulty person are possible or not.

3. Some times we can not observe the innate character.

3. Interview:

It is one of the oldest and most widely used and is also very popular due to its simplicity and flexibility. There are two types of interviews namely, Formal and Informal Interviews.

4. Experimental method:

The most reliable and scientific method of educational psychology can be termed as the experimental method. According to Jahoda, “Experiment is a method of testing of imagination”. According to Eysenck, “Experiment is in which variables are increased or decreased as per plan to observe them. The method based on the planned experiments of this kind is called the experimental method”.

In this experimental method there are two groups are involved.

1. Control group

2. Experimental group

Merits:

1. This is most scientific and objective method.

2. The result will be more accurate.

3. We can conduct in physical sciences which or generally conducted on inorganic or dead subjects.

4. We can prove at anywhere. So that it has more reliability.

Demerits:

1. It is a costly and time-consuming method.

2. We cannot perform experiments for all the problems that are raised in the subject matter of psychology.

3. Behaviour under laboratory controlled conditions may be or is different from spontaneous or natural behaviour. So it becomes artificial when produced in laboratory.

5. Differential method:

It is based on individual differences. It is also called as normative survey method or the field survey method. The statistical techniques become the major devices for studying individual differences, so that it is also called Statistical method. There are two types of main approaches or designs, which are made into use in differential method. They are,

1.                           I.    Correlation method

2.                         II.    The Longitudinal and Cross-sectional method

6. Clinical method:

It is used primarily for diagnosing and treating a problem case and is used extensively in abnormal psychology and educational psychology. The concept of this method is contained in the concept of clinical psychology. It is the art and technology of dealing with the adjustments problem of the individual.

Merits:

1. Clinical method is applicable to an individual case.

2. It is an art as well as science and a technology.

7. Case Study:

A case study is an In-depth intensive investigation of an individual or a small group of people. Case studies often include psychological testing, a procedure in which a carefully designed set of questions is used to gain some insight into the personality of the individual or group being studied.

BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY:

The various branches of psychology are,

1. Cognitive Psychology:

Cognitive Psychology is a framework in which to understand the mind more than a subject area although it has traditionally focused on certain aspects of psychology. Perception, learning, problem solving, memory, attention, language and emotions are all well researched areas. Cognitive Psychology is based on a school of thought known as cognitive.

2. Clinical and Counseling Psychology:

Clinical Psychology is the application of psychology to the understanding, treatment and assessment of psychopathology, behavioral or mental health issues. Clinical psychologists may focus on the clinical management of patients with brain injury. This is known as clinical neuropsychology and typically involves additional training in brain function.

3. Developmental Psychology:

It seeks to understand how people come to perceive, understand and act within the world and how these perceptions change as we age. This may focus on intellectual, cognitive, neural, social, or moral development. Developmental psychologist also study other times of rapid change such as adolescence and old age.

4. Educational Psychology:

Educational psychology largely seeks to apply much of this knowledge and understand how learning can best take place in educational situations.

5. Health Psychology:

Health psychology is concerned with the psychology of a much wider range of health related behaviour including healthy eating, the doctor patient relationship, a patients understanding of health information and beliefs about illness. Health psychologists may be involved in public health campaigns, examine the impact of illness or health policy on quality of life or in research into the psychological impact of health and social care.

6. Industrial and Organization Psychology:

Involved with the application of psychology to the world of business, commerce and the function of organizations, industrial and organizational psychology focuses to varying degrees on the psychology of the workforce, customer and consumer.

7. Neuro Psychology:

Neuro psychology is a branch of psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relates to specific psychological processes. Often neuropsychologists are employed as scientists to advance scientific or medical knowledge. It is the application of neuropsychology for the clinical management of patients with neurocognitive deficits.

8. Social Psychology:

Social psychology aims to understand how we make sense of social situations. Social cognition is a common approach and involves a mostly cognitive and scientific approach to understanding social behaviour. Social psychology is also called Group psychology.

9. Experimental Psychology:

In this branch of psychology, scientific experiments are carried on in controlled or laboratory situations to study mental processes and behaviour.

10. Environment Psychology:

It considers the relationship between people and their physical environment including how our physical environment affects our emotions and the amount of stress we experience in a particular setting.

11. Para psychology:

It is one of the recent developments of psychology and concerned with extra sensory perception, telepathy and allied problems.