Concept, areas and applications of psychology
What is psychology?
Psychology is an interesting science by itself, it is a discipline that studies human behavior, as well as mental processes, it covers not only what people do, but also their thoughts, emotions, perceptions, reasoning processes, memories and evenbiological activities that maintain body functioning. It also explores concepts such as motivation, personality, intelligence, relationships between people, etc. In general, related to human experience. It has been defined as the study of soul, consciousness and mind. It is responsible for helping to find the root of the problems, help to understand and face them in various ways. It focuses on describing, predicting and explaining the behavior and processes of problems, also changing and improving the lives of people and the world in which they live. They are also based on scientific methods to find answers that are much more valid and legitimate than those derived from intuition and speculation. Experimental psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the processes of sensation, perception, learning and thinking about the world. One of these is cognitive psychology, which is concentrated in higher mental processes, including thinking, memory, reasoning, problem solving, judgment, decision making and language.
Evolutionary psychology is derived from the arguments that Charles Darwin raised, about the origin of species. Darwin pointed out that there is a natural selection process that leads to the survival of the most suitable and the development of features that allow a species to adapt to its environment. Evolutionary psychologists carry arguments a step further. They argue that our genetic heritage determines not only physical features such as skin and eyes, but also certain personality and social behavior features.
We can overcome the roots of psychology to the ancient Greeks, who considered that the mind was a suitable issue for scholarly reflection. The philosophers discussed for hundreds of years about some of the questions with which psychologists currently deal. The theme of psychology remains from the ancient civilizations and their behaviors, as well as some philosophers had interest in finding logical explanations to all the events that occurred.
To learn more about psychology and its origin we will see the principles of psychology from ancient Greece. However, it is generally considered that the formal beginning of psychology as a scientific discipline is located in the nineteenth century, when, in Leipzig, Germany, Wilhelm Wundt Fundo the first experimental laboratory dedicated to psychological phenomena. Approximately in the same period, William James established his laboratory.
He tells us that the first philosophers tried to replace ideas with logical responses. For example: Pythagoras explains existence from the relationship with numbers, and the first law of psychophysics of psychology where he explains his attempt to find the relationships between the psychological world and the physical world (the nervous system). Hippocrates, he said that disorders, both physical and mental were caused by lesions or imbalances in the body’s fluids or moods. He was the first to discover a series of mental illnesses with his cure. This means that the origin of emotional problems lies in the brain. Established four temperaments in individuals: melancholic, choleric, optimistic and phlegmatic. Thus the personality theory was born. The sophists were the first to raise the relativity of the truth.
Socrates thinks that knowledge is a virtue, and that there is an accessible and necessary class of knowledge for man;Introspection, that is, the observation and discovery of the person’s internal world. It is said that Socrates’s approach precedes, in terms of interest in human existence, to the currents called "existentialists" of psychology. Plato is the one who first divides man in "spirit" and "matter". The imperfect material body opposes the soul that contains pure knowledge.
Aristotle is the first philosoph. Aristotle explains memory and memory as a result of past experiences, whose process consists of a mental search that responds to certain association laws. We remember more easily those events that have been experienced together.
At the beginning of the Middle Ages psychology revolves around the characteristics and attributes to the soul. One of the characteristics of the scholastic method is the criterion of authority, according to which everything said by an authority;The Church, the Bible, Aristotle, for the fact of having been affirmed by them. Descartes argues that there are true axioms in consciousness that are inherent to human nature, such as the idea of God, circle, infinity, etc. These ideas are innate, since they are perfect ideas that someone placed in the mind of man.
David Hume and Locke, retaking the associationist ideas establishes the existence of at least three association laws: similarity, contiguity and cause-effect. Psychology is no longer a Rome of philosophy. It is a science with its own study, consciousness, which begins to use scientifically respectable methods.
The men and women who laid the basis of psychology had a common goal: explain and understand behavior with the help of scientific methods. Seeking to reach the same goal.
Areas of Psychology
- Behavioral genetics, study the inheritance of behavior related features.
- Behavioral neuroscience, examines the biological foundations of behavior.
- Clinical psychology. Diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders.
- Clinical Neuropsychology, is concentrated in the relationship between biological factors and psychological disorders.
- Cognitive Psychology. Focuses on higher mental processes.
- Psychological orientation. It focuses on educational, social and adaptation problems.
- Intercultural psychology. Investigate the similarities and differences between cultures.
- Development Psychology. Examine the growth of people.
- Educational psychology. Teaching and learning processes, school performance.
- Environmental Psychology. Relationship between people and physical environment.
- Experimental psychology. Sensation, perception, learning and thinking processes.
- Forensic psychology. Legal matters, memories of those who have witnessed a crime.
- Industrial psychology. Psychological processes that occur at work.
- PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY. Focuses on the behavior of people and features.
- Women’s Psychology. Aspects such as discrimination, violence, etc.
- School psychology. Is dedicated to guiding children and academic problems.
- Social psychology. Study the influence of people’s thoughts, feelings and actions.
- Sports psychology. Psychology applies to athletic activity and exercise.
Applied psychology groups the different aspects of psychology that have direct application in problem solving and optimization of human processes for professional purposes. The best known slopes in the field of applied psychology are the clinic (it deals with the mental functions and orientation disorders of the development of human potentialities), educational (is dedicated to the study of human teaching within educational centers), Child-Under Psychology (studies the behavior of children from birth to adolescence, which includes their physical, cognitive, motor, linguistic, etc.), The organizational (studies the optimization of the behavior of the human being in organizations) and the community (works with the residents of an urban or rural community for the study of their human and material resources).
These make up psychology and each one specializes in something different in order to help people and improve their quality of life.
conclusion
This research allowed us to observe beyond what we know about the origin of psychology and how it has evolved over time. It tells us that psychology is the study of human behavior, which covers thoughts, perceptions, reasoning, memories, etc. It also explains how the edges managed to explain their theories about human behavior and performed their experiments to verify what they believed. It is important to note that the methods they used were very varied.
On the other hand, we have seen the areas of psychology and as each of them explains and focuses on different processes in order to help find the root of problems, understand them and face them so that people manage to obtain a solution.
Throughout this research we complement the information with the help of different sources such as books and articles.
In my opinion, psychology is a process which helps us a lot to better understand what psychology really is and the importance of people in people. Carry out your procedures to find solutions and everything that must be known to better understand why it arose.
References
- Bur. Richard. (2003). Psychology for beginners. Buenos Aires, Argentina.: It was nascent.
- Feldman s. Robert. (2000). Psychology with Spanish -speaking applications. Buenos Aires: Mexican Editorial, Reg. No. 736
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