What Is Pschology

What is psychology?

Psychology is the scientific study of people, the mind and behavior, it seeks and researches through scientific methods to understand and explain a range of subjects that include thoughts, emotions and behaviors. As psychology is a science it aims to discover the cause of behaviors through objective and systematic procedures for measurement and analysis sustained by explanations and predictions.

Methods of research will be scientific based including hypothesis and variables. Method include the following:

* Qualitative and quantitative research

* Controlled experiments

* Survey questionnaires

* Longitudinal studies

* Observation in natural settings

* Qualitative and descriptive research

* Neuropsychological methods

* Computational modeling

* Animal studies

Psychology derives back many centuries to ancient Greek figures such as Aristotle and Socrates who were prominent Greek philosophers. Psychology originates from the Greek word Psyche meaning soul or mind; there are also links to other countries such as Egypt, China and India. However over the centuries and through key figures such as Wilhelm Wundt, Sigmund Freud, Albert Bandura and Elizabeth Loftus psychology has developed and been explored immensely.

There are many common misconceptions about psychology, a widely held one being that it is in fact not a science when it is indeed based on and studies are carried out via scientific methods. Another misconception being that psychology is based only around issues regarding mental health rather than the entirely of people as a whole. There is another very common misconception between particular careers branching from psychology, the main being the difference between psychologist's and psychiatrist's, the most prominent difference being a psychiatrist is at doctoral degree level and prescribes medicine whereas a psychologist cannot prescribe medicine and deals with non-medicated treatments ie through counseling or other therapies, sometimes a long side medication prescribed by a psychiatrist.

Over the centuries many different theories in psychology have been explored and experimented in, these include:

* Structuralism

* Functionalism

* Psychoanalysis

* Humanism

* Cognitivism

* Critical