Definition of Psychology as a Behavioral science

Definition and meaning of psychology: The science which studies behavior and mental processes.

As psychology has grown and changed throughout its history, it has been defined in numerous ways. As
early as 400 B.C., the ancient Greeks philosophized about the relationship of personality characteristics
to physiological traits. Since then, philosophers have proposed theories to explain human behavior. In the
late 1800s the emergence of scientific method gave the study of psychology a new focus. In 1879, the
first psychological laboratory was opened in Leipzig, Germany, by Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), and
soon afterwards the first experimental studies of memory were published.
Wundt was instrumental in establishing psychology as the study of conscious experience, which he
viewed as made up of elemental sensations. In addition to the type of psychology practiced by Wundt—
which became known as structuralism—other early schools of psychology were functionalism, which led
to the development of behaviorism, and Gestalt psychology. The American Psychological Association
was founded in 1892 with the goals of encouraging research, enhancing professional competence, and
disseminating knowledge about the field.
With the ascendance of the Viennese psychologist Sigmund Freud and his method of psychoanalysis
early in the twentieth century, emphasis shifted from conscious experience to unconscious processes
investigated by means of free association and other techniques. According to Freud, behavior and mental
processes were the result of mostly unconscious struggles within each person between the drive to satisfy
basic instincts, such as sex or aggression, and the limits imposed by society. At the same time that
Freud’s views were gaining popularity in Europe, an American psychology professor, John B. Watson,
was pioneering the behavioral approach, which focuses on observing and measuring external behaviors
rather than the internal workings of the mind. B.F. Skinner, who spent decades studying the effects of
reward and punishment on behavior, helped maintain the predominance of behaviorism in the United
States through the 1950s and 1960s. Since the 1970s, many psychologists have been influenced by the
cognitive approach, which is concerned with the relationship of mental processes to behavior. Cognitive
psychology focuses on how people take in, perceive, and store information, and how they process and act
on that information.
Additional psychological perspectives include the neurobiological approach, focusing on relating
behavior to internal processes within the brain and nervous system, and the phenomenological approach,
which is most concerned with the individual’s subjective experience of the world rather than the
application of psychological theory to behavior. While all these approaches differ in their explanations of
individual behavior, each contributes an important perspective to the psychological image of the total
human being. Most psychologists apply the principles of various approaches in studying and
understanding human nature.
Along with several approaches to psychology there are also numerous subfields in which these
approaches may be applied. Most subfields can be categorized under one of two major areas of
psychology referred to as basic and applied psychology. Individual psychologists may specialize in one
of the subfields in either of these areas.
The subfields are often overlapping areas of interest rather than isolated domains. Basic psychology
encompasses the subfields concerned with the advancement of psychological theory and research.
Experimental psychology employs laboratory experiments to study basic behavioral processes shared by
different species, including sensation, perception, learning, memory, communication, and motivation.
Physiological psychology is concerned with the ways in which biology shapes behavior and mental
processes, and developmental psychology is concerned with behavioral development over the entire life
span. Other subfields include social psychology, quantitative psychology, and the psychology of
personality.
Applied psychology is the area of psychology concerned with applying psychological research and theory
to problems posed by everyday life. It includes clinical psychology, the largest single field in
psychology. Clinical psychologists—accounting for 40 percent of all psychologists— are involved in
psychotherapy and psychological testing. Like clinical psychologists, counseling psychologists apply
psychological principles to diagnose and treat individual emotional and behavioral problems. Other
subfields of applied psychology include school psychology, which involves the evaluation and placement
of students; educational psychology, which investigates the psychological aspects of the learning
process; and industrial psychology and organizational psychology, which study the relationship between
people and their jobs. Community psychologists investigate environmental factors that contribute to
mental and emotional disorders; health psychologists deal with the psychological aspects of physical
illness, investigating the connections between the mind and a person’s physical condition; and consumer
psychologists study the preferences and buying habits of consumers as well as their reactions to certain
advertising. In response to society’s changing needs, new fields of psychology are constantly emerging.
One new type of specialization, called environmental psychology, focuses on the relationship between
people and their physical surroundings. Its areas of inquiry include such issues as the effects of
overcrowding and noise on urban dwellers and the effects of building design. Another relatively new
specialty is forensic psychology, involving the application of psychology to law enforcement and the
judicial system. Forensic psychologists may help create personality profiles of criminals, formulate
principles for jury selection, or study the problems involved in eyewitness testimony. Yet another
emerging area is program evaluation, whose practitioner evaluate the effectiveness and cost efficiency of
government programs.
Depending on the nature of their work, psychologists may practice in a variety of settings, including
colleges and universities, hospitals and community mental health centers, schools, and businesses. A
growing number of psychologists work in private practice and may also specialize in multiple subfields.
Most psychologists earn a Ph.D. degree in the field, which requires completion of a four- to six-year
program offered by a university psychology department. The course of study includes a broad overview
of the field, as well as specialization in a particular subfield, and completion of a dissertation and an
internship. Students who intend to practice only applied psychology rather than conduct research have the
option of obtaining a Psy.D. degree, which does not entail writing a dissertation.
Meaning of Behavior

S-R and S-O-R Paradigms

Overt vs. Covert Behavior

Psychology as Empirical Science

Methods of studying psychology

Research methodology: The wide variety of strategies employed by psychologists to answer research
questions. Psychologists use a wide variety of techniques to answer research questions. The most
commonly used techniques include experiments, correlational studies, observational studies, case studies,
and archival research. Each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses. Psychologists have
developed a diversity of research strategies because a single approach cannot answer all types of
questions that psychologists ask. Psychologists prefer to use experiments whenever possible because this
approach allows them to determine whether a stimulus or an event actually causes something to happen.
In an experimental approach, researchers randomly assign participants to different conditions. These
conditions should be identical except for one variable that the researcher is interested in. For example,
psychologists have asked whether people learn more if they study for one long period or several short
periods. To study this experimentally, the psychologist would assign people into one of two groups—one
group that studies for an extended period of time or to another group that studies for the same total
amount of time, but in short segments.
The researcher would make sure that all the participants studied the same material, for the same total
time, and were in the same study environment; the only thing that would differentiate the two groups is
whether the learners studied for short or long segments. Thus, any difference in the amount of learning
should be due only to the length of the study periods. (This kind of research has revealed that people learn
better with several shorter study periods.) The experimental approach is useful when the research can
establish control over the environment; this work is often done in a simple laboratory setting.
A second approach involves the correlational technique. This approach does not include control of the
environment by the researcher. Instead, measurements are made as they naturally occur. For example, a
group of high school students took two tests that required them to solve analogies and to recognize
antonyms. The researchers discovered a correlation between students’ abilities to complete analogies
correctly and to identify antonyms. In general, students who were good at one task were also good at the
other; students weak in one task were weak in the other. In correlational research, no attempt is made to
state that one thing causes another, only that one thing is predictable from the other. Correlational
approaches are most useful when the researchers cannot control the environment or when the phenomena
they want to study are complex.
Instead of trying to simplify the situation, the researchers observe the complex behaviors as they naturally
occur. A third approach is called naturalistic observation. This kind of research often is not highly
quantitative; that is, observations are likely to be descriptive. The researcher decides on some class of
behavior to observe and records the situations in which that behavior occurs and how it develops. A
classic example of observational research was done by Jane Goodall in her work with chimpanzees in the
wild. She spent years observing their social interactions and how the chimp “society” changed over time.
The previous techniques all involve observing a group of individuals. Sometimes, psychologists are
interested in studying a single person in depth. This is called a case study. This approach is common
when clinical psychologists work with a person over a long period of time. The final product in a case
study is an in-depth description of a great number of different aspects of the individual’s life and
development. The strength of this approach is that detail is abundant; the weakness is that the
psychologist cannot generalize to other people from the single individual being analyzed because that
person may differ in important ways from the average person.
Finally, psychologists can use archival information to answer questions. Archival research differs
considerably from the other approaches because it does not rely on direct observation or interaction with
the people being studied. Rather, psychologists use records or other already existing information. For
example, some psychologists were interested in whether the percentage of left-handed people in the
population has remained constant throughout history. They obviously could not observe people who have
died, so they decided to use existing information about the past. They recorded the percentage of left-
handed people in paintings and other such renderings. After poring over paintings, they concluded that the
percentage of left-handed people has not changed over the last few centuries. More commonly, archival
information comes from birth and death records and other official statistics.