Psychology is really a very new science, with most advances happening over the past 150 years or so. However, it's origins can be traced back to ancient Greece, 400 – 500 years BC. The emphasis was a philosophical one, with great thinkers such as Socrates influencing Plato, who in turn influenced Aristotle.
Psychology is a multifaceted discipline and includes many sub-fields of study such areas as:
- Human development
- Sports
- Health
- Clinical
- Social Behavior
- Cognitive Processes
Because psychology is a science it attempts to investigate the causes of behavior using systematic and objective procedures for observation, measurement and analysis,backed-up by theoretical interpretations, generalizations, explanations and predictions.
The classic contemporary perspectives in psychology to adopt these strategies were the behaviorists, who were renowned for their reliance on controlled laboratory experiment and rejection of any unseen or subconscious forces as causes of behavior. And later,cognitive psychology adopted this rigorous, scientific, lab based scientific approach too.
With its broad scope, psychology investigates an enormous range of phenomena:
- learning and memory
- sensation and perception
- motivation and emotion
- thinking and language
- personality and social behavior
- intelligence
- child development
- mental illness
Furthermore, psychologists examine these topics from a variety of complementary psychological perspectives.
Each psychological perspective is underpinned by a shared set of assumptions of what people are like, what is important to study and how to study it. Some conduct detailed biological studies of the brain, others explore how we process information; others analyze the role of evolution, and still others study the influence of culture and society.
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