WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY
DEFINITION.
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior.
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and metal processes:
• Behavior - Outward or overt actions and reactions.
• Mental processes- Internal, covert activity of our minds.
ETYMOLOGY:
The word psychology literally means, "study of the soul" (psukhē, meaning "breath", "spirit", or "soul"; and logos, translated as "study of" or "research"). The Latin word psychologia was first used by the Croatian humanist and Latinist Marko Marulić in his book, Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae in the late 15th century or early 16th century.
Modern, scientific psychology began in 1879 when the German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory specifically devoted to experimental psychology. The first experimental psychology laboratory in the United States opened at Johns Hopkins University in 1883.
DEFINING MODERN PSYCHOLOGY:
Originally, the focus was on the mind, including thoughts, feelings, sensations, all things inside
• psychology is the study of the mind, or cognitive content (structures) and processes (functions)
• people like Wundt, Titchener, and James searched for the ways to understand how the mind works
In the 1920s the behavioral revolution swept the field: Pavlov, Watson, and later Skinner argued that psychology is the study of behavior
Today, both these elements are combined, yielding the current definition: Psychology is the study of mind (cognitive processes) and behavior.
DEFINITION OF PSYCHOLOGY INDIFFERENT TIMES:
According to earlier psychologists, the function of psychology was to study the nature, origin and destiny of the human soul. But soul is something metaphysical. It cannot be seen, observed and touched and we cannot make scientific experiments on soul.
In the 18th century, psychology was understood as the ‘Science of Mind’. William James (1892) defined psychology as the science of mental processes. But the word ‘mind ‘ is also quite ambiguous as there was confusion regarding the nature and functions of mind.
Modern psychologists defined psychology as the “Science of Consciousness”. James Sully (1884) defined psychology as the “Science of the Inner World”. Wilhelm Wundt (1892) defined psychology as the science which studies the “internal experiences’. But there are three levels of consciousness – conscious, subconscious and the unconscious and so this definition also was not accepted by some. (Thus psychology first lost its soul, then its mind and then its consciousness).
At present only its behaviour exists. William McDugall (1905) defined psychology as the “Science of Behaviour”, W.B. Pillsbury (1911) and J.B. Watson (1912) also defined psychology as the science of behavior.
Behaviour generally means overt activities which can observed and measured scientifically. But one’s behaviour is always influenced by his experiences. So when we study one’s behaviour we must also study his experiences.
Psychology should, therefore, be defined as a “science of behaviour and experiences on human beings” (B.F. Skinner)
According to Crow and Crow, “Psychology is the study of human behaviour and human relationship’”.