WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY

SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY

LEARNING OUCOMES

STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO

• Define psychology
• Explain the transition of psychology and it’s terms
• Analyse psychology as a discipline, natural science and social science

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PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology derived from Greek words

• Psyche means soul
• Logo means science or study of a subject

It was a study of the soul or mind

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• Psychology has moved away considerably and established itself as a scientific discipline which deals with processes underlying human experience and behavior.

Range of Phenomena

BASES

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• BIOLOGICAL
• SOCIAL

LEVELS

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• INDIVIDUAL
• DYADIC GROUP
• ORGANISATIONAL

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• Discipline defined as
• What it studies :Mental Processes, Experience and Behaviours
• How it studies : Methods in different contexts

PSYCHOLOGY

• It is defined as a science which studies
• Mental processes
• Experiences
• Behaviour in different contexts.

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• It uses methods of biological and social sciences to obtain the data systematically.

Mental processes

1. They are activities of mind and brain related to cognition.
2. We use mental processes when we think or remember something or solve a problem.
3. However, the mental processes are different from neural activities, though they are mutually overlapping .
4. Mental processes include reasoning, learning, problem solving perception etc.,

�Experiences �

• It can be acquired everyday life situation.
• They are subjective in nature and different for every individual.
• They are influenced by internal and external conditions of the experiences.
• It is embedded in our awareness or consciousness.
• Most of our learning through experience so they are important.

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EXPERIENCES

Behaviours

• Behaviours are responses or reactions we make or activities we engage in.
• Some behaviours such as thinking may be simple or complex, short or enduring.
• Behaviours which can be seen or sensed are called overt (laughing, crying etc.,)
• Some are internal called covert.
• All behaviours can be explained on the basis of S_R (Stimulus Response Relations)

• Any behaviour, overt or covert is associated with or triggered by a stimulus.
• Both stimulus and responses can be internal or external.
• The same stimulus can have different responses, due to the organism variable.
• It emphasis upon an individual’s uniqueness and variation that makes him/her different another.

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BEHAVIOUR

Psychology as a discipline

• It studies behaviour, experience and mental processes.
• It seeks to understand and explain how the mind works of understanding the world influence our interpretations of their behaviour and experiences.
• Psychologists try to minimize such biases in their explanations of behaviours and experiences in various ways.
• Some do so making their analysis scientific and objective.

• In the Indian tradition , self reflection and analysis of our conscious experiences,are held to be the major source of the psychological understanding.
• Psychology is a very old knowledge discipline but is a young science.
• Neuroscience and computer science borrow principles from psychology
• There are fast developing brain imaging techniques MRI,ECG which help us to study the brain processes.

PSYCHOLOGY AS A NATURAL SCIENCE

• Modern psychology has developed because , of the application of the scientific method to study psychological phenomenon.
• As a physical science, it emphasizes on data that is systematic and can be studied under control conditions.
• It is quantitative and requires analysis.
• It takes influence from both physics and biology and believes in the Hypothetic Deductive Model.

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• Every or any hypothesis can be accepted or rejected on the basis of the factor available.
• A hypothesis is a tentative solution to a problem that helps in guiding a research or a theory.
• Hypothesis has been successfully used for determining many theories related to learning and memory. For example the way a child has been brought up on his family will shape his personality.

PSYCHOLOGY AS A SOCIAL SCIENCE

• It’s Social science because its studies the behaviour of human beings in their Socio-cultural Contexts.
• Humans are not influenced by the society but he /she also created the society
• It’s a social science discipline focuses on humans as social beings,
• It’s a social science with focus on the individuals and communities in relation to their socio cultural and physical environment.

CONSCIOUS

• It means to be alert and aware of something.
• We are aware of all the outside environment as well as the process taking place in ourselves.
• Thus we are aware of diverse sensations, perceptions, memories and feelings that take place in ourselves.
• In waking consciousness, we perceive time, place and events as real meaningful and familiar.