Psychology is definitely not what I thought it was. It is not just a therapist wanting to take your money and not do anything for it. Psychology is an exact science that uses the scientific method to figure out problems. Things like astrology and graphology are not a real science, they do not use true science to deduct things and find a true answer.
There are a lot of different ideas within the history of psychology. There was Structuralism, which focused on the structure of the mind. Fuctionalism believed in adapting to ones environment, Gesalt Psychology, focusing on the whole rather than the parts, Behaviorism, no studying of the mental processes, only behaviors, and Psychoanalysis, which only focused on the unconscious mind.
There is also the biological view, where they look for the causes of your behavior in genes, brain, nervous system, and hormone system. The developmental view believes in everything changing during your lifespan as you are growing and learning. The cognitive view which sees our thoughts and actions arising from the way we interpret our experiences.
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As Fodor states in his 1997 papers conclusion one must not only attack the generalizations but also the evidence, predictions and then the generalizations don’t actually yield true results. As he simply states, “You have to actually do the science,” (Fodor, 1997. p.162). Once you do this you can clearly see that mental states can be multiply realized in so far that results are logically confirmed. Through examples and explicating why Kim’s conclusion is a fallacy I have shown that Fodor’s conclusion that psychology is a science is valid.
My choice of research was in the play behaviors of children as well as aggression. Breaking the topic down more, behavior relates to the psychology and the psyche of each individual. The definition of psychology is “science of mind and behavior” (Clavijo, 2013). After reading the article by Clavijo, I have realized that psychology can be defined in three ways such as the study of the mind, the study of behavior, and the study of the mind and behavior. In the text “The Developing Person” by Berger, behavior is learned through social learning. Children learn different behaviors through the observation of others, others being children and adults. Different people have affects on a child’s life that can affect their behavior. A child’s behavior is heavily influenced by their parents. A son may speak aggressively and without respect towards his mother because this is the way that his father speaks to her therefore he feels that is how to communicate with his mother (Berger, 200, 2012). Moving into play behaviors, children learn from other children in how to play. Most believe cognitive growth relies on child’s play time. Vygotsky and Piaget both believe that when children play it is beneficial, but according to Vygotsky, playing enables a child to think outside the box and create their own meaning from objects, using their imagination. Piaget believes that child benefit from playing together because children and sharing their knowledge and making it more concrete ideas and thoughts. There are four stages of plays, with the fourth stage being the highest most complicated play which consists of rules and guidelines for the game. The lowest level or play would be functional play being infants shaking rattles, clapping their hands, or blow...
Psychology comprises of two words originally used by the ‘Greeks’, ‘psyche’, defining the mind, soul or spirit and lastly ‘logos’ being study. Both words define together the ‘study of the mind’. Psychology perspectives evaluate the normal and abnormal behaviour and how persons’ deal with different concepts of issues and problems. Psychology theories’ are based on ‘common sense’, but its scientific structure, everything needs to be evaluated and tested, therefore, promoting different psychological theories’.
Psychology has long existed in society; with records dating all the way back to the time of the early Greeks (Daniels, 1997). Throughout the years it has been modified, shaped and prodded by various inquisitive individuals striving for the utmost understanding of humanity, all the while impacting countless lives. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, psychology can be defined as “the science or study of the mind and behavior” and “the way a person or group thinks” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). It deals with an individual’s actions and thoughts, and provides an understanding as to why people might behave the way they do. As the world today deals with many challenges, both natural and man-made, people are exposed to a lot of physical and
There are many different subfields in psychology and people talk most about is the study of crazy people. That can be put into a couple of subfields like personality and social are some of the main areas. There are five big issues that will show up in the general study of psychology the first one is the person and the situation that can affect the outcome of what is happening. Then there is nature over nurture this show how a person grow up and how genetics pushed the person. Stability and change is how some one’s personality can change over time or stay the same. The next issues are diversity and universality this is the defenses/similarities that are between people. The last of the five big issues is the mind and body connection this just
Psychology is a multifaceted science that embraces both conscious and unconscious parts of the human mind that includes a lot of sub-fields, such as human development, sports, health, clinical, social behavior and cognitive processes. Throughout the years, there have developed many theoretical approaches in order to categorise these fields, and create a structured field of research for psychology. Some of these approaches include behaviourism, psychoanalysis, cognitive and humanism. Although these approaches are the dominant viewpoints in psychology and have been praised for their main concepts and ideas, they have been met with various criticisms over the years.
My paper is based on an article from the text’s web site (chapter 9) entitled “Lack of sleep ages body’s systems.” The basic claim of the article is that sleep deprivation has various harmful effects on the body. The reported effects include decreased ability to metabolize glucose (similar to what occurs in diabetes) and increased levels of cortisol (a stress hormone involved in memory and regulation of blood sugar levels). The article also briefly alludes (in the quote at the bottom of page 1) to unspecified changes in brain and immune functioning with sleep deprivation.
Historically psychology was derived from philosophy. From the works of Aristotle to Plato and the others that followed, has played a part in the inception of this behavioral science. The concepts that were developed during that time has been built on and explained in greater volume. Today, many theories that was identified before has been improved into better understanding for readers, students and the wider public. Some are known under a new name while others hold their authentic name and rooted meaning. Such a theory is psychoanalysis, which is the unconscious processing as causes of mental illness (Hergenhahn 2013). There were many theorists who made contributions towards the development of this theory,
Often when asked to compare, will confuse the Psychiatry and Psychology professions. Even more often people will go so far as to say they are interchangeable. While these two professions can overlap and do have many similarities, they are not the same. In this paper, I will focus on three main points of comparison between both practices. These points will be Education and Licensure requirements, Objective of Practitioners, and various approaches utilized.
Psychology formerly integrated with the subject philosophy; these two formerly considered as one. Philosophy was the center of all learning but many academicians focus more on mathematics, physics, and biology. By the late 1800s, many philosophers created their own disciplines and the era of modern psychology slowly emerged. They soon began calling themselves psychologist. Authors have varying opinion about the founding fathers of the said science; some traces its roots as far as Aristotle and Plato (Benjafield 1996). Other authors believe that modern psychology started at the introduction of experimental psychology and for this reason, several experimental psychologist were also named the father of psychology including, Wilhelm Wundt and Gustav Fechner (Matson, 2009). However, one thing is for sure about psychology – it originated in Europe and introduced in the United States sometime in the late 1880s. Prior to this period, psychology crosses the realms of the paranormal because many practitioners at that time engaged themselves in psychic healing and spiritual quest. They were known as pseudo-psychologists and they were particularly popular in Germany. At the onset of modern psychology in the United State, the discipline focused more on the academics. American psychologists at that time put more emphasis on teaching rather than engaging themselves in research. It was at this period when several schools of thoughts emerged to explain behavior, cognition, and consciousness. In this paper, two of the earliest school of thoughts will be discussed. These are Structuralism and Functionalism. These two will be compared and contrasted.
In order to be considered a science, Psychology must consequently adhere to using a scientific method. If this were, as usual, taken to mean the accumulation of knowledge through systematic observation or experimentation, Psychology would likely not have an issue in being recognised, however traditional views of a science mean most areas, with the exception of Behaviourism, would not be considered a science in their own right.
Psychology started, and had a long history, as a topic within the fields of philosophy and physiology. It then became an independent field of its own through the work of the German Wilhelm Wundt, the founder of experimental psychology and structuralism. Wundt stressed the use of scientific methods in psychology, particularly through the use of introspection. In 1875, a room was set-aside for Wundt for demonstrations in what we now call sensation and perception. This is the same year that William James set up a similar lab at Harvard. Wilhelm Wundt and William James are usually thought of as the fathers of psychology, as well as the founders of psychology?s first two great ?schools? Structuralism and Functionalism. Psychologist Edward B Titchner said; ?to study the brain and the unconscious we should break it into its structural elements, after that we can construct it into a whole and understand what it does.? (psicafe.com)
The Science of Psychology “Psychology is the scientific study of mind, brain and behaviour. Some of what you do learn may seem like ‘common sense’, or at least familiar to you because you are learning about topics in which you can relate to. However some things you may believe is true, but is incorrect. The way we know this is through the application of scientific methods.” Mark Leary suggests that the subject matter of psychology is much more familiar to most people than is the subject matter of physics or biology; we see behaviour all around us.
The earliest theories of Psychology documented are from a French soldier René Descartes. Descartes woke one night from a dream to find himself interpreting them as meaning his life was going to improve (Fancher, 2006). Although modern psychologists would laugh at the idea, this marked an important turning point in the way in which people of the time thought. Descartes would come to propose a mind-body dualism – a physical and mental realm. This separated the physical and mental states. This theory has been much disputed and rejected, however, it began a style of thinking which inspired others to further research these ideas.
Psychology is the scientific study and practical application of observable behavior and mental processes of organisms. Psychology differs from other social sciences such as: Sociology, History, or Economics, because psychology specifically deals with the study of an individual. The other social sciences will study groups, or history. Psychology is less a science of reported findings, it attempts asks and answers questions using observable behavior and what can be determined as mental processes of the subject. The symbol for psychology is the Greek letter “psi” (Ø). The subject matter of psychology is, affect, behavior, and cognition. The affect for psychology is the actual mental processes that make up: moods, feeling, and emotional state. An example for affect would be feeling sad about something happening. Behavior includes the actually actions and responses of organisms. Behavior can include the way we act in any given situation, for example when we get up in the morning. The order in the way we prepare ourselves for going out into public can be categorized as our behavior. Cognition is the actual mental events and the processes that result from them. Memories of an event are a great example of an organism’s cognition. The components and corresponding faces of psychology include the body of knowledge which is considered the teaching face, set of investigative methods or research face, and array of techniques the therapy face. The goals of psychology are: to explain behaviors, to describe behaviors, to predict behavior, and to modify inappropriate behaviors. Explaining behaviors would be a question similar to “Why does this happen?”, and example of how describing behavior could be accomplished would be asking “What causes this behavior, where does it come from?”. Predictions can be elaborated on by asking “When will the behavior occur?”. An example of a behavioral modification question is “What can be changed in the environment to alter this behavior?”. A specialized subfield of psychology that most interests me is, Forensic Psychology, because it would be appealing to me to understand a potential criminal mind and to make the determination if the criminal was sane at the time the crime was committed or if he/she was operating with full judgment. In studying the 9/11 attack on America, a Forensic Psyc...