Object of psychology and brief history
What is supposed to be the object of psychology?
Nowadays we can define psychology as a "scientific study of behavior and mental processes".
Its aim is to systematically:
- Describe (how people behave)
- Predict (how people will behave under certain conditions)
- Understand (causes of their behavior in those particular conditions)
- Influence (behaviors through control of its causes)
- Apply (psychological knowledge in ways that enhance human wellbeing)
Basic concepts
2) behavior
- unity and structure of its subcomponents (e.g. temperament, abilities, character)
- uniqueness
- developmental continuity (certain aspects of personality remain relatively stable over the life span)
- result of the interaction of the individual and the environment
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System of psychological disciplines
1. basics of psychology - description and explanation of general psychological phenomena, their classification and description of relations between them
- General psychology - origin and development of general laws of the human psyche (perception, memory, learning, thinking)
- Developmental psychology - changes in the human psyche that take place over time (developmental stages)
- Physiological psychology - bio-physiological determination of psychic phenomena
- Social psychology - social groups, describes relations among society and individual
- Personality psychology - describes and explains similarities and differences between people
- Psychopathology - origin, development and manifestations of mental disorders
- Psychological methodology - development of methodological approaches, validization of used methods
- Zoopsychology - study of behaviour and mental phenomena in animals
- Psychometrics - measurement in psychology, test construction
- Psycholinguistics - thinking and speech, languague acquisition and comprehension
3. applied disciplines - especially applications of general psychology
- Educational psychology - application of theories of human development to understand individual learning and inform the instructional processes (in various contexts)
- Clinical psychology - integration of knowledge and skill from a broad array of disciplines within and outside of psychology; deals with mental health issues, assesment and interventions
- Forensic psychology - application of clinical psychology to the forensic setting
- Psychology of sport - studies effects of exercise and sport participation on well being; interested in psychological aspects of sport performance
Brief history of psychology
Era of introspection
ancient age, middle ages, psychology is part of philosophy
Era of experiments (á la natural sciences)
19th century, Wilhelm Wundt´s 1st laboratory - psychology is established as a separate field
Era of personality and cognition
19th/20th century Sigmund Freud proposes topographic model of personality and formulates existence of an unconscious mind and its influence on our behaviors. Carl G. Jung lays down basics of analytical psychology (in depth approach to study of personality) .
1920 onwards modern psychology diversifies into many fields
Modern psychology
Behavioral approach - scientific study of observable behavior, studies learning by reward (reinforcement) and punishment (important names: Ivan P. Pavlov, John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner)
Biological approach - neuropsychology: studies the brain as a physical basis of all thoughts and emotions. Although
recent trends in biological approach to mental health focus also on gut microbiota (microbiome), so called "second brain".
Gestalt psychology - focus on perception and learning > Cognitive psychology - focus on how people acquire, perceive, process and store information; tries to understand the interplay between cognition and emotion)
Psychoanalysis - psychodynamic approaches in psychology (importance of early childhood family experiences; formative role of child´s attachment to caregivers).
Humanistic approach - stresses out positive human qualities and seeks for individual´s potential; free will is emphasized (important theorists: Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow) > Positive psychology (concerned with creativity, flourishing, post-traumatic growth or character strenghts)
Postmodern psychology (70´)
psychology embraces philosophy again, and sociology, and linguistics...
Social constructionism - proposes that people develop knowledge of the world in a social context, and that much of what we perceive as reality depends on shared assumptions (eg. a person who hears voices in his head is likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia in western countries, but in other cultural context he may become a shaman. There are different assumptions about what hearing voices means and thus the consequences differ).
Critical psychology - attempts to transform psychology into an emancipatory, social-justice seeking, or status-quo-resisting approach that understands psychological issues as taking place in specific political-economic or cultural-historical contexts.(eg. gives voice to movement of "people hearing voices" to challenge negative stereotypes, stigma and discrimination).
Narrative psychology - a field in psychology that investigates the value of stories and storytelling in giving meaning to individuals’ experiences—shaping their memory of past events, their understanding of the present, and their projections of future events (it can be applied in narrative therapy, or narratively oriented research).