What is Psychology?

Ever wonder what psychology is? This article discusses what this science is and the major psychological perspectives.

What is psychology? In simple terms, psychology is “the science of mind and behavior.”

It is the study of how the mind works and how it develops, and how this affects a person’s behavior.

Additionally, there are two main branches of psychology – experimental and applied. In the experimental field, psychologists do research to find answers to the questions “why” and “what.”

For instance, they want to answer “why is this person acting like he is?” And “what is going on in his mind during this act?”

Psychologists in the applied field seek to apply the research that’s done by the experimenters.

These types of psychologists are usually clinical psychologists, therapists, and counsellors. Also, they search for answers to the question “how.” For example, “how can I improve this community?”

“Okay, so you just told me what psychology is. But what will I learn if I took a course in psychology?” you may be asking.

Well, there are many topics that could be discussed. There’s the psychology of violence, psychological disorders and mental health, the psychology of personality, and cognitive psychology, to name a few.

However, there are 5 major theoretical perspectives that you will definitely go over. These are a ‘must-know’ if you want to get a deep understanding of this subject.

The 5 perspectives (or main theories) are:

• Biological
• Psychodynamic
• Behavioural
• Cognitive
• Humanistic

Biological Perspective

Under the biological perspective (behavioural neuroscience), you and all of your body parts are one. Your mental state (psychology) is affected by your body (physiology) and vice versa.

Practitioners from this perspective will look at the connections between a person’s mental state and their nervous system, hormones, and DNA.

Essentially, biological psychologists study how a person’s body affects their feelings, thoughts, and behavior.

Psychodynamic Perspective

This school of thought, which was developed by Sigmund Freud, believes that our current personality and behaviour are stemmed from our experiences as kids.

Additionally, this perspective believes that when there is a societal restriction on our behaviours, we tend to experience conflict.

Behavioural Perspective

Behaviourists believe that a person’s behaviour is influenced by the environment.

They also believe that it can be conditioned to behave in certain ways. There are also some behavioural psychologists, such as B.F. Skinner, who believe there is no free will.

A person, according to Skinner and many others like him, only learns through reinforcement and punishment.

Additionally, behavioural psychologists were the first to view psychology as a science, not a philosophical study of how the mind works.

They used empirical data and reproducibility in their experiments and were concerned with the observation of behaviours.

Cognitive Perspective

Cognitive psychologists, unlike behaviourists, believe that there is free will.

They believe that a person’s behaviour is based on their past experiences.

According to Jean Piaget, you learn new information and solve problems based on your past knowledge.

This school of thought was created because of their dissatisfaction with the behavioural perspective. They didn’t agree that behaviours were solely created from external elements.

As a result, cognitive psychologists returned to studying the roots of the behaviour (thoughts and feelings), not just the act itself.

They went back to observing people’s internal processes.

Humanistic Perspective

Humanists, who returned to an individualistic form of psychology, believe that people are essentially good –they want to be the best that they can be.

Humanists also believe that people are motivated to realize (and become) their full potential.

Psychologists from the humanistic approach help their “clients” (a term psychologist Carl Rogers used to call his patients) by working on individual empowerment.

Rather than being objective, humanistic psychologists are subjective.

For instance, instead of asking “what is this person like?” they will ask “what is it like to be this person?”

This way of analyzing helps to create more precise therapies for the individual.

Conclusion

Psychology is a fascinating science that can teach us a lot about our behaviours and the behaviours of those around us.

Also, by having a good grasp of the schools of thought, we can have a better understanding of these behaviours and how they were developed.

Which school of thought do you agree with most? Why do you do so?