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Importance of psychology as a science
Importance of psychology as a science
Psychology is the study of human
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Psychology is known as the study of the mind and behavior through researching, observing, and interpreting. There is a variety of different fields in psychology abnormal psychology, clinical psychology, counseling psychology, developmental psychology, forensic psychology, personality psychology, and social psychology. According to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Occupational Outlook Handbook psychology will continue to grow twelve percent which is seen as average in the next ten years (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014-15). It is important that the categorization of psychology be understood by individuals because of the continued trend of individuals studying, learning, and working in the psychology field over the next ten years. However, if individuals do not have an understanding of psychology’s classification being supported either as a science or not being supported as a science, it is likely to result in feelings of confusion. The definition of science, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is defined as, “knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation” also known as the state of knowing (Merriam-Webster). There is supporting evidence that suggests psychology be classified as a science and other evidence that does not show supporting evidence that psychology is classified as a science. The purpose of this Literature Review on identifying the classification of psychology is to assess the current research sources on the following categories; support that psychology is a science, support that psychology is not a science, current problems within psychology, and lastly to identify gaps in the current research.
The first category that will ...
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... Scientific Thinking as Safeguards against Human Error. Journal Of School Psychology, 50(1), 7-36. www.elsevier.com/locate/jschpsyc
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Science, The definition of. (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/science
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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’.
The birth of psychology was in December of 1879, at Germanys University of Leipzig (Myers, 2014, p.2). In 1960, Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener defines psychology as “the science of mental health” (Myers, 2014, p.4). However, two provocative American psychologists, John Watson and B.F Skinner, redefined psychology in 1920. They redefined psychology as “the scientific study of observable behavior” (Myers, 2014, p.4). The problem arose when psychologists realized people could not observe feeling or thought so they needed to come up with a new definition for psychology. We define psychology today as “the science of behavior and mental processes” (Myers, 2014, p.4). Psychology includes many subfields such as human development, social behavior,
Psychology can be broadly defined as the scientific and systematic study of people’s behavior and mental processes.
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
All things considered, as I’ve grown up several instances influenced my frame of mind and how I perceive the world around me. If I had to look back onto the starting domino of this chain of events, I’d have to say it's something my aunt told me; “You should only cry when you’re bleeding.” Granted, I don’t think she said that exactly. At 5 or 6 when she said that to me. But I took it that way, especially as I grew up in Oregon.
In 2003, Cardwell et al (and others) wrote an ‘up to date’ version, and defined Psychology as ‘Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes (the mind) and psychologists are interested in every aspect of behaviour and every type of mental process’ this also focuses on the Behavioural perspective like the definition by John B. Watson, but it also states that psychologists are interested in ‘every type of mental processes’, which covers every other approach to Psychology, and this is where the two definitions differ, but it also gives a greater understanding to what Psychology covers as a whole.
Over Reacting and Fate in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet were described as'star crossed lovers' at the beginning of the play. The term'star crossed' refers to the stars one is born under; with this crossed means not to be. So by the beginning of the play, this love was already doomed. This play also contains strong, very emotional characters that bring about giving poor advice to Romeo and Juliet and soon leads to the death of the two lovers.
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...
The term psychology has many meanings to different people, even to those who work within the psychological field. The word psychology derives from two Greek roots; 'psyche' refers to 'soul' or 'mind' and logo refers to 'the study of'. A more update definition of the word psychology can be found from Atkinson, et al (1991) “The scientific study of behaviours and mental processes.” However on Google Definitions the definition of psychology is “the mental characteristics and attitudes of a person” [accessed 16 September 2011], which gives somewhat of a contradiction. In this assignment I will be outlining and evaluating four key psychological perspectives. The psychological perspectives I have chosen are the behavioural approach, biological approach, cognitive approach and the psychodynamic approach.
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.
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior. In psychology, and all of the other sciences, relying on opinions is abandoned in order to find out which explanations best fit the evidence or data given. Science continually forces us to question our findings and conclusions. Over time, psychology has advanced greatly and a main reason for such progressiveness is because of the change in the research model used.
Psychology is the investigation of the mind and how it processes and directs our thoughts, actions and conceptions. However, in 1879 Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Nevertheless, the origins of psychology go all the way back thousands of years starting with the early Greeks. This foundation is closely connected to biology and philosophy; and especially the subfields of physiology which is the study of the roles of living things and epistemology, which is the study of comprehension and how we understand what we have learned. The connection to physiology and epistemology is often viewed as psychology, which is the hybrid offspring of those two fields of investigation.
The Open University Press Davis, S.F. and Palladino, J.J. (1995) Psychology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice Hall Website : http://www.webref.org
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.