Psychology refers to the scientific study of human and animal behavior. The word “psychology” derived from two Greek words psyche and logia. Psyche means breath, spirit and soul while logia means study of something. Medilexicon medical dictionary defines psychology as science and scholarly discipline concerned with the behavior of humans and animals, and related to physiological and mental processes. The complexity of the mind puts into question how psychologists study the mind and brain. Psychology, like other scientific disciplines experiments, to confirm or negate theories and expectations. The raw data for a psychologist is human or animal behavior. Psychologists use human behavior as proof of how the mind functions. Mind cannot be observed directly, however, human thoughts, feelings and actions are influenced by actions of the mind.
Psychology has close relationship with other disciplines such as sociology, medicine, biology and history. Different branches of psychology combine with science to understand and predict human behavior. Clinical psychology incorporates theory, practice and science to understand, predict and relieve disability and discomfort. A clinical psychologist closely monitors the emotional, biological, intellectual, behavioral, and social spheres of human life across varying economic, cultural, and social environments. Cognitive psychology seeks to understand human mental processes such as memory and problem solving. It deals mainly with how human beings acquire, process and store information. Cognitive psychology helps improve decision-making and set up of proper educational processes. On the other hand, developmental psychology refers to the scientific study of psychological changes in different growth stages of a person. It includes psychological factors acquired during a person’s life such as acquiring language, moral understanding and problem solving.
Developmental psychology seeks to determine how human’s characters relate towards given environment and the general effects on development. Forensic psychology involves the application of psychology in criminal investigation. A forensic psychologist uses psychology in criminal justice processes and courts. Neuropsychology focuses on the human brain with respect to psychological processes and behaviors. Occupational psychology studies behaviors of human beings in work places in terms of performance and understanding of the organization. It aims to improve satisfaction at work, efficiency and effectiveness.
Psychology came to existence thousands of years ago in ancient Persia, China, Egypt, India and Greece. Medieval Muslim doctors and psychologists were the first to have more experimental and clinical approach to psychology. In 1802, Pierre Cabanis developed a biological psychology. He applied previous studies in biology and believed that soul and sensibility were part of the nervous system. A German, Wilhelm Wundt found psychology as an independent field of study in 1879. Wundt is commonly referred to as the father of psychology. Herman Abbingaus was the first psychologist to study memory deeply. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)) researched the learning process also known as “classical conditioning”. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) developed psychoanalysis, a method of psychotherapy. Sigmund mainly based his understanding of mind on introspection, interpretive methods and clinical observations. His studies focused on resolving mental stress, unconscious conflict and psychopathology. The most significant principle of his theory was that the unconscious mind is responsible for most thought and behavior in everybody and disorders of the mentally ill. E.B Titchener strongly believed in structuralism that is interested in what is consciousness? John Dewey and William James were believers of functionalism that is interested in what is consciousness for?
An American psychologist, John B. Watson found a new thought that altered the course of psychology in 1913. He believed that functionalists and structuralisms deviated too much from the objective of psychology. He said that psychology should focus mainly on the study of behavior and that behavior was not a result of internal mental process. According to Watson, behavior results from how human beings respond to stimuli from the surrounding. Behaviorism focused on how environment affect the behaviors of people. Some psychologists viewed psychoanalytic theory and behaviorism as too dehumanizing. Humanists believed that humans are innately good and their own mental processes play an active role in ones` behavior. The most recent school of thought in psychology is cognitive theory that started in 1970s. Unlike behaviorism, cognitive theory focuses mainly on mental processes. According to cognitive theory, human beings take information from their environment through senses and process data mentally. Processing data mentally involves organizing, manipulating, remembering data and relating to information previously stores. Movements or psychological groups have reduced today compared to olden days. The different psychological fields including humanism, psychoanalytic theory, behaviorism and cognitive theory are still studied today by psychologists.
Psychologists and other scientists propose explanations for human behavior. To avoid subjective judgments of human behaviors, psychologists use scientific methods to analyze psychology in systematic and an objective way. Psychologists use scientific methods to conduct psychological research in order to explain, predict and influence processes and behaviors. The scientific method consists of rules and procedures applied by researchers used to formulate questions, collect data and give conclusions. Scientific research methods assist psychological researchers to describe and explain behaviors. One selects an area interest before embarking on research by conducting a review of existing subject and literature. The review of the area of interest provides useful information and what has already been learned about the topic and the questions that have not been answered. Literature review involves looking at already written materials from academic journals and books. The essential information collected by the researcher form the introduction part of the final study results. Background material form the first step needed to conduct a psychological study. Scientific research involves four stages; forming the hypothesis, selecting devices for study and data collection, data examination, conclusion making, and writing a report of the study.
A researcher can manipulate or control the independent variable. The dependent variable is the response measured after making changes to independent variable. When researchers cannot control the independent variable, it is referred to static variable. A hypothesis refers to tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables. It is a prediction of what the researcher expects to happen in a study. Except in cases of an exploratory study, hypothesis should explain what the researcher expects during the course or the study. Hypotheses need not to be correct and the significant objective of research is to determine whether the hypothesis is wrong or right. A good hypothesis should be related to the research topic, can be tested and has independent and dependent variables. The following checklist keeps one in the track to developing good hypothesis;
- Does the hypothesis focus on the element to be tested?
- Does the hypothesis have both independent and dependent variables?
- Can the one manipulate the variables?
- Can one test the hypothesis without violating ethical standards?
References
Jeffrey, N. J. (2011). Psychology: Concepts and applications. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
