After reading this essay you will learn about:- 1. Meaning of Psychology 2. Scope of Psychology 3. Tasks 4. Study.

Essay on the Meaning of Psychology:

Most people use the term ‘psychology’ to mean a subject which is concerned with the understanding of the human mind and its activities. It is a widely-held belief that psychologists can read the minds of others and understand what is going on in their minds. While this is the view of the layperson, scientists in the field of psychology, however, do not accept this definition.

Today scientific psychology is generally defined as the science of behaviour. The term ‘behaviour’ is employed in a very inclusive and comprehensive sense. We may now see the difference between the layperson’s definition of psychology as the science of the mind and the scientific definition of psychology as a science of behaviour.

A few decades ago even scientific psychologists defined psychology as the study of the mind. Soon, however, it was found that defining psychology as the field concerned with the study of the mind created certain problems. The term ‘mind’ was derived from philosophy. This was felt to be undesirable when psychology decided that it should join the family of natural sciences.

Secondly, acceptance of the concept of mind resulted in several questions like: What is the mind? Where is the mind and so on? The concept of the mind turned out to be rather abstract and, therefore, not suitable for scientific study.

In view of this, in the first part of this century, psychologists decided to drop the term ‘mind’ and adopt the term ‘behaviour’. Two outstanding psychologists who initiated this change were William McDougall and John Broadus Watson.

These two psychologists expressed the view that psychology should concern itself with the actual behaviour of organisms, both human and animals, because behaviour is something concrete, factual and observable, unlike the mind. This move was generally welcomed and over the years, a consensus has emerged in defining psychology as the study of the behaviour of living organisms.

This change or transition from ‘mind’ to ‘behaviour’, however, was neither smooth nor simple. Further, even those who defined psychology as the science of behaviour were not completely in agreement among themselves as to what behaviour is.

Some people stressed that only the observable activities of living organisms should be considered as behaviour. People who subscribed to this view were not in favour of using terms like thinking, feeling, remembering etc. because these were not directly observable.

In brief, these psychologists held the view that only movements of the muscles, changes brought about by glands and other organs of the human body constituted human behaviour. This view was advanced with vehemence by John Watson, the founder of the School of Behaviourism in psychology.

Perhaps, such an extreme view is not held by anybody today. Nevertheless, the emphasis on observability and the role of the body in defining behaviour is still prevalent among large sections of psychologists though they cannot be called faithful followers of Watson.

A second group of psychologists hold the view that the term ‘behaviour’ should include not only observable behaviour but also the unobservable inner activities and processes. According to this view, terms like thinking, feeling and remembering can be used with perfect legitimacy.

Some among this group go even beyond this and emphasize unconscious processes which are not only not observable by others but are unknown even to the person himself or herself. In contemporary psychology, unconscious processes are emphasized by a large number of psychologists.

The emphasis on unconscious processes was first laid by Sigmund Freud. But one can refer to many more controversies and divergences of opinion which over the years have become narrow as research and understanding has increased.

Today there is sufficient agreement, if not unanimity, in defining psychology as the science of behaviour as also in the understanding of the term behaviour, which is now used to include the observable, unobservable and inferred behaviour of the organism.

It is difficult to define behaviour briefly. It is easier to describe the nature and characteristics of behaviour. Most psychologists have, therefore, concentrated on the description of behaviour rather than on its definition, and at this point we could consider some of the characteristics of behaviour.

This may help us to understand what is the nature and scope of psychology. Definitions of psychology can be left to the reader himself to evolve his or her own definition because ultimately definitions can never be complete or perhaps are not even necessary.

Essay on the Scope of Psychology:

Psychology deals with the origins, development and change of behaviour. It deals with similarities and differences among people, with the occurrence of expected behaviour as well as unexpected behaviour. Equally so it is concerned with the non-occurrence of expected behaviour. It is concerned with behaviour which is observable and unobservable, conscious and unconscious, with the behaviour of individuals as well as groups and with the influence of individuals on the behaviour of one another.

It may also be said that psychologists are concerned not only with the actual day-to-day behaviour but also with the unique products of human activity like dreams, art, literature, mythology, folklore and all other products of human behaviour.

By analysing and studying these products, psychologists have tried to understand the motivational processes and other factors which might have influenced the production and creation of these activities. In recent years, psychologists have also extended their interest to studying political philosophies, ideologies and forms of government.

All this has naturally resulted in the expansion of the scope of psychology. Psychology is applied everywhere in the home, at the school, at the hospitals, in factories and offices, in the armed forces and in all imaginable situations involving the behaviour of human individuals alone or in a group.

The subject of psychology which was mainly developed by philosophers from their armchairs, progressed to laboratories and is today studied and applied in all walks of life.

Essay on Tasks of Psychology:

Psychology is generally defined as the science of behaviour. So defined, psychology has to necessarily deal with the various characteristics of behaviour.

What then are the tasks of psychology?

(a) Firstly, a science of behaviour should observe, investigate and identify the various factors which influence behaviour and also assess their relative influences.

(b) It must investigate the role of each of these factors separately and together in producing similarities and differences in behaviour.

(c) Based on these investigations, psychology should arrive at generalizations in the form of theories, laws, and principles explaining the similarities and also the differences in behaviour.

(d) Following from the above, the science of psychology should also explain the complementary functions of the factors and processes, in generating similarities as well as differences among people.

(e) Since behaviour is purposive, the science of psychology must investigate the nature, kinds, and number of purposes, their origin and development, and the relationships among them.

(f) Since behaviour changes, it is the responsibility of psychology to study and explain the nature of such changes, the processes which govern them and the interaction among different kinds of changes. More specifically this includes changes due to growth and maturation, learning and experience, and of course the mutual interaction between these.

(g) While changes in behaviour are to be understood, stability and consistency in behaviour also need to be explained.

(h) The master concern of psychology is to explain how change and stability, similarity and difference, are organised and integrated to produce both generality and uniqueness in behaviour.

Since it is not enough to deal generally with explanation and understanding, the science of psychology has to go a few steps further. Based on the above understanding, the science of behaviour should be able to develop methods and techniques of predicting behaviour. For this purpose, it has to evolve methods and techniques of accurate measurement and prediction. Such measures should bring out both similarities and differences as well as stability and change.

It may be stated that the science of human behaviour like any other science should also be able to translate its understanding and measurement into strategies and techniques which would help to influence, change and regulate behaviour. For example, if we have developed knowledge about factors influencing learning and also laws regarding the learning process, then we should be able to use these laws to improve learning among poor learners and slow learners.

It is only the extent of our success in doing this that can tell us whether our understanding, our laws and theories are correct. It is often said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Similarly, the correctness of psychological theories is tested by our ability to predict and control behaviour, so as to enable the people to achieve their goals in such a manner that this helps rather than hinders the achievement of their goals by other individuals also.

In brief, we may state that the science of psychology is concerned with the understanding, prediction and control of behaviour. Sometimes the first two objectives are considered as pure or basic objectives. The aspects of psychology dealing with these two objectives are regarded as constituting Pure Psychology and the third objective as the concern of Applied Psychology. But it is obvious that such a distinction is not very valid.

Pure Psychology and Applied Psychology are complementary. One cannot think of predicting, regulating, changing and controlling behaviour without understanding the basic principles and processes. At the same time, whether basic principles and laws are true and accurate can be tested only by putting them to test in actual application.

Very often, efforts at practical application help to expose the limitations and inaccuracies of basic laws and theories. One may draw an analogy here with science and technology. Technology cannot advance or be effective unless the basic laws of physics, mathematics and chemistry are adequate.

At the same time success or failure in technological applications have led to expansion, improvement, modification and reformulation of basic theories and laws of science. The relationship between Pure Psychology and Applied Psychology is the same as the relationship between science and technology. The distinction between Pure Psychology and Applied Psychology, therefore, is purely arbitrary and perhaps no such serious distinction is made by modem psychologists.

Essay on The Study of Psychology:

The reader, it is hoped would have by now been able to gain some idea of psychology as a field of scientific knowledge. Science is a very interesting quest and unravels the mysteries around us, helping us not only to understand but to profit from this understanding. But the degree of success of both our understanding and ability to profit from such understanding very much depends on how we go about acquiring and consolidating scientific knowledge. To put it briefly, science should be studied scientifically.

While books and instructions from teachers provide basic aids and sources for acquiring scientific information, a real appreciation of scientific knowledge depends on active learning by the learner with a readiness to try to verify, confirm and validate whatever information is acquired. It is this healthy attitude of testing acquired knowledge against reality that really constitutes understanding and contributes to the growth of such understanding.

Clinical psychology is a field where the basic requirement is a concern for and interest in the welfare of people. At the same time one has also to maintain an attitude of objectivity. Psychology, especially psychologists, should refrain from passing judgements on people and their actions.

The psychologist is not bothered whether a person is good or bad, right or wrong. It is rather difficult to expect a young reader to develop this attitude of interested objectivity but it should be possible for anybody to cultivate this attitude in due course of time.

This process of cultivating such an attitude of interested objectivity will be facilitated if the reader follows some steps.

Firstly, one should try to read as many books as possible.

Secondly, one should form the habit of observing people in action in a variety of situations. One should be ready to relate what one learns from books and what one observes. Physicists and chemists use laboratory experiments to explore observed phenomena.

The psychologist also relies on laboratory experimentation but the best laboratory for the psychologist is life itself with all its variety, its certainties and uncertainties, practicabilities and predilections. What happens is no doubt important; what does not happen is probably more important. It is this combination of the attitudes of open-mindedness, healthy curiosity and objective observation which will go a long way in gaining a real understanding of psychology.

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