psy·chol·o·gy
sīˈkäləjē/
noun
the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.
‘Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Psychology is a multifaceted discipline and includes many sub-fields of study such areas as human development, sports, health, clinical, social behavior and cognitive processes.’ -Saul Mcleod psychology can be dated all the way back to ancient greece, names like Plato and Aristotle can be linked to the start of psychology. Wilhelm Wundt was the first person to open a laboratory dedicated to psychology. This is referred to as the start of modern psychology and research. This was also one of the first times that psychology was separated from philosophy, this allowed the idea of psychology to advance past a very basic idea. To find out why we behave the way we do, psychologists have been using the scientific method to research that very question.
The most commonly wondered question about psychology would definitely be where did it come from. As the idea of psychology is so broad and seems like something that could’ve been around from the dawn of time, I’d like to answer that question here. Even though psychology didn’t emerge as an independent study until the late 1800’s it can be traced all the way back to ancient greece.
The idea of psychiatry and psychology was most likely earliest used by the greeks and romans. They were the first society to recognize mental illness such as anxiety as a real medical condition. Many people believe that the reason they recognized things like this was because of the common staple in both the societies “mens sana in corpore sano’ which translates to ‘healthy mind healthy body” this also marks the earliest recognition of the link between mind and body. One of the many things that I will touch on is the strong link between mental health with physical health, which makes this seem like a perfect introduction.
The recognition of mental illness being a serious mental condition also entailed treatment. The ancient greek and roman civilizations are known for their bizarre treatments, and this did not exclude psychological illnesses either. Many believed that depression could be cured by bathing, which maybe isn’t the most outlandish. A popular method of treating psychosis was blood letting. However they did have one ‘treatment’ that is still the prominent ‘treatment’ today, which was the sensible realization that positive words and hope had exponential value in ‘healing the soul’.
As you’d expect some crazy superstition and ignorance halted the advance of real, effective treatment. With the many harmful and ignorant practices happening, the Greeks are credited with being at the forefront of the scientific study of psychology, and many psychosomatic conditions such as depression or loss of desire. This was groundbreaking, because before no one had really thought of things like loss of desire being a real problem, rather than just something some people have.
Aristotle is given the credit of building most of the foundation of psychology as he and his colleagues were the first to study how human character and personality were expressed as either, a part of a rational deductive process, or an impaired irrational process. Aristotle’s idea of mixing scientific psychology with a philosophy of the mind, put him far ahead of other psychology researchers.
One of the most interesting and critical approaches to assessing anxiety was put to the test by the greeks. The assessment was dream interpretation, this was used when someone had an underlying stress that would be given a meaning by assessing the meaning of ones dreams. Greek thinker Artemidorus wrote the first book on dream interpretation in which he said there to be two types of dreams. Figurative dreams are when a dream is conveying a physical thing or meaning which is represented by something other than itself. Whereas a direct dream are those that correspond directly to what the patient is dreaming, for example if you are dreaming that a boat is sinking and a man is trying to escape, the boat having sunk would be you waking up (losing your sleep) and the man that narrowly escaped would be you waking up and finding yourself okay.
The birth of modern psychology starts all with this guy, Wilhelm Wundt. Wilhelm Wundt opened the first experimental psychological research lab. This is important because before this psychology was not considered a seperate science from philosophy. With the newly opened dedicated psychology lab, it was finally considered it’s own science.
Wilhelm Wundt apart from opening the first experimental psychology lab, had a very large impact in his teaching. Many of his students went on to become very influential in the world of science. Some of his students that have made a large impact are, Edward B Titchener most well known for establishing the school of thought known as Structuralism. James Mckeen Cattell became the first professor of psychology in the U.S.. A third influential student of his is G Stanley Hall who established the first experimental psychology lab in the U.S..
Wilhelm Wundt is the father of modern psychology. He transformed what we knew into an entirely new science. He allowed us to take a step forward in society. We were able to explore new ideas and broad spectrums completely unknown before Wilhelm Wundt came along. Even before him with aristotle and artemidorus completely reshaping what we know. Before them psychology didn’t exist and the closest thing we had were a few quotes about the mind and body being connected. Together with the advances of psychology they have been able to help countless people with mental illnesses.
There are many branches of psychology; I will define them and then go into greater detail for five of them. The first major branch of psychology is abnormal psychology, this is an area that looks at abnormal behavior. This is the field in which psychological professionals diagnose disorders of the brain. Such as anxiety and depression. The people that work in this area are known as counselors, clinical psychologists and psychotherapists.
There is also behavioral psychology, this is a branch of psychology that dominated the field of psychology up until the 1950s when it became less prominent. Behavioral psychology is based on the theory that all behaviors develop through conditioning. Even though this field of psychology died out a while ago, many of the techniques are still a mainstay in therapy, and education. Such as when a student is disobeying in class, a teacher could use conditioning, they could give out gold stars that get exchanged for special privileges, this encourages the student to change his behavior through operant conditioning.
Biopsychology is the third major branch of psychology. This branch is focused more on neuroscience, and the assessment/treatment of mental health. In this branch, they focus on how the brain can interact with, and influence the motions that we feel. This field includes many different disciplines including basic psychology, experimental psychology, biology, physiology, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience.
Cognitive psychology is centered around the way we think, learn, and remember. Psychologists in this field generally study perception, emotion, language, memory, and learning. Doing so allows them to understand how info is stored and how we process, and perceive it differently as people. They often use a model to show information processing. This demonstrates how many of the psychologists think we learn and store info much like a computer.
Comparative psychology is much like it sounds, psychologists study the brains and decisions of other animals and compare it to us humans to allow a better understanding of a more broad spectrum of ideas. Much of this work is deeply rooted in some of the hands such as Charles Darwin, and Georges Romanes. As psychologists contribute to this field, so do biologists, anthropologists, ecologists, and geneticists.
Counseling psychology is one of the most well known and largest fields of psychology. Counseling psychology is based around counseling people with mental distress and a wide spectrum of other psychological difficulties. One of the things that it can contribute to our society is ‘that can improve interpersonal functioning throughout life by improving social and emotional health as well as addressing concerns about health, work, family, marriage, and more.’ -Kendra Cherry.
Cross cultural psychology explores how different cultures and customs can affect behavior. Things like the economy in different countries or the access to food can drastically change people’s behaviors. When it was officially established in 1972 it just kept growing and is now very prominent in psychology. It is very fascinating that we all share the same genetic makeup (sort of) but our behaviors and decisions can completely change just based on our cultural differences.
Developmental psychology is a very interesting topic for me, as I am experiencing many of the things this field studies. Developmental psychology focuses on how people change and grow mentally throughout their lifespan. This field seeks to understand how and why our bodies change. Scientists in this field will often study physical growth, intellectual development, emotional changes, and social growth. Many times a scientist in this field will specialize in a certain age group such as infant, adolescent, adult, or geriatric. This field covers everything from Prenatal development, to alzheimers.
Experimental psychology is a branch of psychology that utilizes scientific methods, that are also used in many other fields of psychology, to help recognize child development issues and social deficiencies. Experimental psychologist work in a variety of environments like universities and research centers. Some people view this branch of psychology a subfield separate from psychology, but despite contrary belief most methods used in experimental psychology are also applied in every other field of psychology.
Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with schools teaching children psychology, educational issues, and student concerns correctly. These psychologists often study how students act with other students, parents and teachers. This helps them understand what the child might need to support his educational career, and outcomes as a student. These are also the people that identify learning disabilities, and giftedness.
Forensic psychology is a special field in psychology that cooperates with the law, to apply psychological principles to a legal side of things. This can include studying criminal behavior and treatments, or just working straight in the court system. Forensic psychologists perform a variety of duties, such as giving a testimony in a trail, dealing with children in certain child abuse cases. Lots of people can be considered forensic psychologists if they lend their expertise to a testimony, no matter whether they’re a educational psychologist, or a cross cultural psychologist.
Health psychology is a special area that focuses on biology, psychology, and decision making, and how that affects health and illness. Health psychology AKA medical psychology focuses on promoting mental health as well as the prevention of illness and disease treatment. These professionals focus on promoting health but also work on the prevention of disease. They often deal with health related issues like stress, weight management, nutrition, etc.. some professionals help by researching how others cope with illness and use that to develop a more effective coping strategy.
Industrial-Organizational psychology is a form of psychology used to improve efficiency and maximise mental health in the workplace. Commonly it is referred to as I/O psychology it is one of the most commonly used forms of psychology. The research in I/O psychology is called applied research, because it is used to solve real world problems, in the workplace.
Personality psychology is the area of psychology that focuses on the thought patterns, feelings, and behaviors that make us who we are. Many psychologists in this field will research how things like genetics, culture, and parenting can affect the following subjects.
School psychology is very similar to educational psychology but more applied in the real world. School psychology is used to help children with learning disorders, and social or emotional issues. Most often the psychologists in this field work in elementary or secondary schools, but sometimes they work with people in private clinics or some universities
Sports psychology is in place to understand how psychology affects us in sports and athletic performance. A few sports psychologists work with professional athletes to improve their performance, and motivation in their sport. Some sports psychologists implement sports into people’s lives to help with bad mental health, as physical and mental health are heavily related and reliant upon each other.
Social psychology is in place to help understand and explain social behavior, and looks into a multitude of other area like, group behavior, leadership, and nonverbal communication. This field also seeks to know how social aspects affect decision making. That could be of the most seeked knowledge in all of social psychology. Social psychologists are also interested in how people behave and perceive other people.
This concludes my explanation of the main types of psychology. There is a broad spectrum of ideals and methods used in the world of psychology. I would like to dive deeper into the details of just a few sub-fields of psychology, these fields will be: Cross cultural psychology, developmental psychology, and experimental psychology.
Cross Cultural psychology: as a recap, cross cultural psychology is the study of how cultural differences can affect behavior and decision making, as well as how people treat each other. As an example if one country values individualism and perseverance through one’s own struggle, whereas another country values cooperation more. This could lead to a difference on how people would feel about said situation.
Cross cultural psychology is important because as psychology began popularity and recognition in europe and north america, people started to question if the ideals which seemed universal to us actually applied in other cultures, and this is the study of just that. Psychologists also need to know if their findings in other subfields could be biased based on their european or north american field studies. For a behavioral psychologist they could make a hypothesis on how people behave with social cues and carry out that test in north america, come to a conclusion and therefore judge all of the world based on that study. However people in china or uganda could pick up on those social cues completely differently or not at all. So cross cultural psychologists strive to not allow those false conclusions to be made.
Now to fully understand Cross Cultural Psychology you have to first know exactly what culture is. Culture refers to characteristics or behaviors that apply to a group of people such as, values, customs, and attitudes that are passed down from generation to the next. Cultures around the world can be similar in some ways but are for the most part very significantly unique even from one town to another. For example every culture experiences certain emotions, but would express them in very different ways.
Most cross cultural psychologists choose to focus on one of the main areas which are: The Etic Approach, which studies how different cultures are similar or The Emic Approach, which is the study of how cultures differ. Some cross cultural psychologists decide to research around what is called Ethnocentrism, this is the idea of people always comparing differences in other people’s cultures to their own, or viewing it as a bad thing or weakness because it is different to theirs. It also touches on the point that if you view your own culture as the “normal” culture, it would be impossible to understand how your culture affects your behaviors.
Developmental psychology is a scientific approach to how a persons behaviors and perception changes over maturation. This field seeks to explain how and why peoples behaviors change throughout their lives from infant, to adolescent, to adult. This subfield focuses on an immense range of things such as physical development, cognitive development, and social/emotional development.
Developmental psychology looks into the influences of nature and nurturing on the process of human development, and processes of change in context. Over time, Many researchers have become interested in the interaction between personal characteristics, the individual’s behavior and environmental factors, including social context and the built environment. Current debates include stages of development versus dynamic systems of development. So they are debating if a stage of development or dynamic systems of development affect a person’s mental health etc..
Developmental psychology is widely accredited to have been given it’s foundation by John B. Watson, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. In his early life Jean Jacques Rousseau had described the three stages of life and development being infancy, peur, and adolescence.
Mental health. The state of your mental health can affect your physical health as well. Some associations between physical and mental health are; Poor mental health is a risk factor for chronic physical conditions, people with chronic physical conditions are at large risk at developing poor mental health. A factor in health that can affect physical and mental is the social aspect of life. Many people don’t realize how important socializing is for health.
Without any social activity in your life you are extremely at risk of developing a chronic physical and mental disability/injury. If you find yourself in the state of a chronic mental or physical condition. Here are some things you can do to combat these ailments, You should makes sure you have access to a surplus of nutritional food, make sure you get lots of physical activity. Ensuring adequate income, social inclusion and social support. Being able to get out and get your mind off of what is bothering you. Many studies have shown that sunlight can reduce stress and depression. Many people suffer from seasonal depression. Which peaks in the winter when their is the least amount of sunlight.
Mental health treatment like therapy, or medication can exponentially help most people. Therapy doesn’t work for everyone but the people that are helped by it, according to the rhode island psychological association, persons in mental health treatment medical visits decreased by 90% and their overall treatment costs dropped by 35%. Even if you try mental health treatment and it doesn’t help you, just acknowledging it is a big step in making your mental health get better.
Keeping a good mental state can be hard, but here are many things that can help. One very important thing is to find a group of people who understand you and you can talk to without having to hold back anything. This could be a therapist or a friend or parent. It does not matter who you are talking to, but it is very important that there is a strong 2 way trust between you. Another important thing is to make sure that other person isnt also suffering from a a similar problem as you. Having two people suffering from the same thing can only make things worse.
A large factor is mental well being is also sleep and nutrition. Not getting a doctors recommended 8 hours of sleep is completely understandable, but you should make sure your time asleep is at least ¼ out of your day. Getting enough sleep allows your body to regenerate physically which directly affects your mental health, as the mind and body are connected directly. Sleeping allows you to regenerate blood cells and repair your heart.
Expert Interview: Edward Schultz.
What field/s of psychology do you focus your studies in?
I have specialized in developmental psychology and education psychology, but i believe i have passions in many types of psychology.
What made you want to get into psychology?
The Psychology of the human being is just so immensely interesting and I have always wanted to know why people think or feel certain things and how it defines their personality.
What have you gained in life that came from psychology?
I have hadsome really nice experiences, and have been able to help out some old friends with issues that they had struggled with. I have also been able to get a better understanding of the world and a better sense of empathy which has helped me grow as a person.
Have you struggled with some issues brought up in psychology (anxiety, social ineptibability, depression)? Feel free not to answer if its uncomfortable.
Personally, i have struggled with schizophrenia and anxiety. It had been a blessing just as much a curse to my work.
What education did you complete to become a psychologist?
I attended The University of Central California for my bachelors degree, and transfered to John Hopkins University for my Doctorates.
Who are your role models or inspirations in psychology?
Some of the people I draw inspiration from are Sherlock holmes and Sigmund Freud.
Why is this your career rather than another profession?
I have always loved the idea of being able to help people for a job, and with psychology you are also able to get a philosophical and inquisitive outlook that is impossible with other careers.
What are your thoughts on Cross Cultural psychology?
I very much enjoy the idea of cross cultural psychology, but currently I’m not sure that it is being applied as effectively as it could be.
What are your thoughts on Developmental psychology?
As it is one of the areas that i specialize in I believe that it is one of the most important areas to be applied in the real world, as it is hard to grow up. It is a very important topic for me as I suffered from lots of childhood trauma, I want to be the person that I needed most growing up.
How do you think psychology helps us as a society advance?
I think it helps us to understand each other in so different ways to understand the feelings from an another person to empathize into other people.
Higher Level: For my higher level project I will be designing a plan for elementary schools to teach the importance of mental and physical health, as well as their connection. The plan will also entail how to maintain a healthy state.
Step 1: Intervention style information
The first step is informing the children will be to lay out the consequences. Small children will not see any point in following a plan or structure if they are not able to see what could happen if they chose not to. The counselor would tell the students about mental health conditions, and as that could be hard to understand make the connection to physical drawbacks, such as lack of motivation, increased risk of heart disease, etc.
Step 2: Teach them a plan
The second step in helping children keep a healthy state is to make a strict plan. The counselor will lay out a loose guide on nutrition and sleep, with the focus being physical and social interaction. Setting up a child to be physically active and socially apt, is automatically a large head start. Send children home with ‘contract’ to ensure healthy lifestyle to show to their parents.
Step 3: Add on new layers
As the children start to get used to their simple plan of eating well getting good sleep and being active, the counselor then starts to make more strict rules. Eating 1,000-1,300 calories a day, 30 minutes of talking or playing per day.
Step 4: Have students do check ins
No matter what you do to prevent it, there will always be people with mental illnesses such as depression, ADHD, and anxiety. We can not stop people from being genetically predisposed to having a mental illness. So, to ensure the well being of everyone the guidance counselor would take students individually into their office, and have a sort of mini therapy session. During those sessions devise a personalised plan to help each person’s own life.
Step 5: Ensure a healthy adolescence
After the children get out of elementary school they can not be monitored. So before the children leave, have the counselor cement the information into their brain, so that throughout their life they will be able to keep a stable and healthy mental state. Hopefully by cementing this ideal into their brains since day one will help them to stay with a healthy lifestyle. This plan should set up yevery child with a personalised plan to help them succeed.
What is the concept of life purpose.
Life purpose can be defined by so many people as infinitely different things. But for me as a mere depressed and anxious 13 year old teen it’s hard to tell. Sometimes it feels like the only thing that could fill this gap of purpose, there are also times when it feels like helping others is the only thing that could possibly help. But most of the time it feels like nothing can fill this seemingly impossible gap to fill. Many times i’ve contemplated leaving and not coming back and hoping life finds me. In retrospect i doubt that could happen considering the current state of the economy. Looking around me in this self proclaimed “gifted and talented” class it seems to be as if everyone has it figured out. ‘I want to be a nurse practitioner’ ‘I want to be a special education coordinator’ ‘I want to be a comic book writer’. But the common thing i find myself thinking is how the hell could anyone fill that hole of purpose, just with a career or life path. As I don’t know what i would ever want to as a career much as a purpose in life. There are days where i don’t leave my bed because it’s much easier to stay in bed when it feels as if you have the weight of the world on your shoulders. That weight is just expectation, not from one person not from a family or friend. I’m not sure where that need to fulfill some purpose or worth actually comes from considering I don’t seem to care much about what happens. That need seems to come from some unknown place that i can not just tuck away. Many people seem to be able to shrug off that need by putting on a real person’s expectations. For me I couldn’t care less about what other people think about what I do about my life yet I am unable to shrug off this underlying feeling of worthlessness and failure. I’m not sure how i can fail if i don’t know what i am trying to succeed at, yet it still proceeds to haunt me each and every day. Nothing is able to fix or help this, just distract. Even being with the people i love cant help me because i am constantly reminded of how much i hate myself outside of being with them. Nothing can fill this gap that i keep going back to because when i talk about it it helps me to process how much i don’t understand it, yet i am talking about my own emotions as if i understand myself and why i feel them when in reality i am completely clueless and don’t know why i of anyone have to be like this. I haven’t always been like this either, as a small child i was one of the most cheery and loveable people you could meet. But growing up that went down at the same rate as Toys-R-Us business.