People who are in restaurant management often discribe their job, or position as being one that wears many hats. In psychology this is a good analogy. When trying to explain the foundations of psychology the field so deverse using the hat example can help explain the vast areas of psychology.
The word psychology covers many topics, the most literal meaning being “study of the mind” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008). Psychology is an emotional behavior characteristic of a group of people or an individual, dealing with the mental and behavioral processes. To use psychology is to manipulate the emotions, or actions of a person or people.
Paradigm or the standard academic assumption within the study of psychology is to make sense of the sphere of human experiences (Complexity of Humans). This involves many aspects of a person or person’s everyday life. A few that are acknowledged are the influences that culture, behavior, human experiences are perceived, how the human mind deals with their environment and how people use their problem solving skills.
Biology in Psychology
Biopsychology and psychobiology uses the laws of biology to study of how people mentally process behavior. This is an attempt use quantity and quality when searching for psychological or behavioral aspects to prove why people act and react in different situations. Biological psychologists study biological variables, or an anatomical, physiological, or genetic variable, in an attempt to show evidence to prove findings related to the study of psychology. However, little of this practice is considered scientific.
Sigmund Freud
The first person who comes to mind as soon as the word psychology is mentioned is Sigmund Freud, (Kowalski, and Westen, 2005) because he influenced much of the psychoanalytic theory people are most familiar. Freud’s theory of mental life and behavior along with his approach to treating psychological disorders are known as “psychoanalysis.” Although Freud is probably the best-known person to ever practice and develop psychology, many others were to follow, and many other types of psychology would be explored and practiced.
Psychology and the two major sections.
Psychology has so many areas of study to keep track all that is encompassed into one word. Without getting into deep explanations of every type of psychology, (Hunter College Department of Psychology, 2002) it can be broken into two parts to begin. One side of psychology is the research. The more research that is put into psychology, the more is learned about how people interact, and react with their environment, other people, on the job, with family members and why the respond in the manner they do. Research plays a huge part in the science of psychology.
The other major section of psychology that has many areas to cover, and is why psychology is researched in such detail and has so many various branches. This area is the practicing of psychology. Applying the knowledge learned from the research and using the research to help people to understand their problems, work situations, help them deal with loss, and any other situation one could dream up that a person could be having a hard time handling.
Since people have such diverse lives, need help at times during their lives for many, various situations, it would be next to impossible to list all the studies and job types that are all bundled into one word, “psychology.”
Branches of Psychology
Cognitive psychology focuses on the way people think or process information, perceive people, emotions, how they use their memories and how they learn (Branches of Psychology). The study of cognitive psychology also includes the disciplines of and linguistics neuroscience, and philosophy.
Structuralism in the practice of psychology breaks down the mental process into its simplest form of understanding, and it was also one of the first types of psychology known to be used. Functionalism formed as a reaction to the theories of the structuralism, used as a scientific method to avoid philosophical debates and is also one of the first forms of psychology used. Functionalism tries to explain the psychological processes, or function, by helping the individual adapt to his or her environment Behaviorism focuses on the relation between environmental events or causes and observable behaviors, instead of focusing on internal forces.
Read also: Functionalism Psychology
Gestalt psychology is based on the idea people experience things as incorporated into one, Gestalt psychologists argued that observation is not a passive experience, similar to taking a picture. Instead, they believe the “perception is an active experience of imposing order on an overwhelming panorama of details by seeing them as parts of larger wholes” (Kowalski, and Westen, 2005).
Positive psychology, (Coget, 2006), is a new idea that is taking on wieght in the psycological field. Positive psychology deals with the psycology of making ones’self happy and content surrounding themselves with like minded people and leadership coaches to help keep positive energy in order to maintain good mental health.
Conclusion
Many branches or forms of psycology are studied, practiced and is considered a form of science. Although much of the practice of psycology is considered theroy, since experimintation is impossible to know everything about every aspect of human behavior. In practicing psycology a psycologist has no way to experiment physically on a human. Psycologists use the study of human behavior, the enviornment, and many other resources to help explain why or how psycology is a reputable science, and a way to help people in many areas of their everyday lives to live healtheir happier lives.
Learning of all the different reasons for the studies and different practices of psychology, it is hard to imagine how many actual ocupations and fields of study there are in the field of psychology. With advances in technology, the future could bring answers to many of the questions the researchers and others seek, until then the research continues, and people who choose to take advantage of the hard work that goes into psycology will continue to benefit.
References
Branches of Psychology, Web Link rEesourse, Retrieved July 11, 2008
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/uofphoenix/what.html
Coget, Aymee,(2006), Make me Happy, The Happiness Makeover, July 12, 2008
http://www.makemehappytv.com/happyClub.html
Complexity of Humans, The Web Link rEesourse, Retrieved July 11, 2008
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/uofphoenix/intvw4_zimb02.html
Hunter College Department of Psychology, (2002), An Introduction into the Fields of
Psychology, Retrieved July11, 2008
http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/~bseegmil/hdbk/fields.htm
Kowalski, R. M., and Westen, D. (2005). Psychology, 4th Edition.
Psychology, (2008), In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved July 11, 2008, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/481700/psychology#
