The Nature Of Psychology

Psychology

  • for the early pioneers, "the science of mental health”

  • In the 1920s, “the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

  • PSYCHE (greek) means soul, spirit, or mind

    LOGOS (greek) knowledge or “the study of”

    PSI - international symbol for psychology

Psychologist

  • counseling

  • therapy

Psychiatrist

  • medical doctors

  • can prescribe medications

Specializations in Psychology:

Clinical Psychology

  • studies and applies therapeutic methods to the treatment of individuals experiencing problems in life

School and Education Psychology

  • studies teaching methods to improve learning in the classroom

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

  • studies work and working environments and applies findings to improve job satisfaction and productivity.

Counseling Psychology

  • deals with academic, work or social personal problems.

    • they deal with less serious psychological problems unlike clinical psychologists.

Developmental Psychology

  • studies the stability and change of characteristics, such as intelligence or social skills over the life span.

Personality Psychology

  • studies individual differences across a number of different personal attributes.

Physiological Psychology

  • studies biological bases of behavior focusing on the nervous system

Health Psychology

  • investigates thepsychological, biological, and behavioral factors that promote or impair our health.

Social Psychology

  • studies behaviors of individuals in groups and how people affect one another’s behavior

Engineering Psychology

  • deals with man and machine relationship and how to improve such relationship.

    this field of psychology is also known as human factor psychology

  • physical and psychological characteristics to the design of devices and systems for human use.

Forensic Psychology

  • t is defined as an intersection between psychology and the legal proceedings.

    • It is applied to the criminal justice system to evaluate the psychology of the defendants.

Sports Psychology

  • this field analyzes the people’s behavior in sports.

    • It studies the factors that affect an individual’s performance in sports or

    any physical activity.

Cognitive Neuroscience

  • this relies on theory and evidence of neuroscience and computational modeling.

    • It addresses the questions of how cognitive function are produced by the brain using new techniques like brain scanning or neuroimaging.

Positive Psychology

  • it is an emerging perspective devoted to the study of subjective feelings of happiness, well being, and good life.