Definition
Psychology as a modern scientific discipline originated in Western Europe and North America in the second half of the nineteenth century. The new discipline emerged out of Western philosophy and based itself on the experimental method and modern scientific concepts of the turn of The century.
The definition of`psycho1ogy has changed over time. At the start of the twentieth century most psychologists considered their discipline to be the study of mental life, mind or consciousness.
Within a few years, however, such definitions were criticized for being vague and unscientific.
Between the 1920s and the 1950s many psychologists preferred to define their discipline as the study of behavior, because what people do--unlike what they think or feel --can be directly observed or measured. But this definition also came under attack, or criticism. To those who still wanted to study thinking, dreaming, feeling and all other mental processes, reducing psychology to the study of behavior made not much sense.
Today, most psychologists are willing to include both behavior and mind in the formal definition of psychology. We can therefore define psychology as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by the organism’s physical state, mental state and external environment .
Key Terms:
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Behavior is any action performed by an organism.
• Mental processes
are activities involved in thinking: remembering, imagining, dreaming, forming
Opinions, etc.
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In very broad terms, psychology is one of the disciplines which are concerned, in a fundamental way, with the study of man . More specifically, it belongs to a family of disciplines known as the human (or social sciences , such as sociology, anthropology, as well as economics, political science, etc.
All of these sciences attempt to analyze human problems objectively and to search for reliable patterns in behavior and mental activity. All of them teach us to understand both the similarities and the differences among individuals and groups . But there are some important differences in emphasis between them.
 Sociology studies groups and institutions within society in order to understand their organization and development.
 Anthropology deals with the physical; social and cultural origins and development of the human race.
 Economics is the study of how people produce, distribute, and consume goods and services.
 Political science is the study of political behavior and the establishment and conduct of government.
Psychology shares with these other social sciences the fundamental concern with the understanding of the similarities and differences among individuals and groups. However, psychologists tend to pay more attention than sociologists to personality and individual difference. Nonetheless, one of these specialties, social psychology , falls on the border between psychology and sociology; it focuses on how social groups and situations affect an individual's behavior.
Of all the social sciences, psychology relies more heavily on laboratory experiments and observations .
At the same time, it is the most personal of all the social sciences, focusing more than the others on the individual and his or her well-being.
Psychology also makes more use of biological information than the other disciplines do. When psychologists do biological research, however, it is only for the light their finding may shed on behavior and mental activities.
Psychology has one other sister science: psychiatry. Psychiatry is the medical specialty concerned with mental disorders, maladjustment and abnormal behavior. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who have had general medical training, internship in general medicine and residency in psychiatry.
Clinical psychologists also treat patients, but they have an advanced degree in psychology rather than a medical degree. Psychiatrists are more likely than psychologists to treat severe mental disorders.

They tend to be more medically oriented because they have been trained to diagnose physical problems that can cause mental ones. Most important, psychiatrists can write prescriptions and thus far, psychologists cannot.
Question: What is the main difference between psychology and all the other human sciences?
SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY: MAJOR SUBIIELDS
Psychology today has numerous areas of specialization, or subfields. Psychology's subfields are defined in part by the phenomena studied and in part by which aspects of the phenomena are emphasized. `
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Biological psychology analyzes how biology shapes behavior and mental processes. Biological psychologists study, for example, where and how alcohol acts on the brain to impair the drinker's ability to think or talk or walk; or, how nerve cells communicate with each other.
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Developmental psychology studies how people change and grow over time, physically, mentally, and socially. Developmental psychologists describe these changes and try to understand their causes and effects throughout the individual's life span.
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Personality psychology . Whereas some psychologists seek laws that govern the behavior of people in general, personality psychologists focus on the characteristics that make each person unique. They also try to identify the specific ways in which people differ in their thinking, acting and feeling.
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Social psychology studies how groups, institutions and the social context influence individuals and vice versa. Among their interests are conformity, obedience, competition, cooperation, leadership styles, etc.
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Educational psychology studies psychological principles that explain learning, and searches for ways to improve human learning in educational systems. Their interests range from the application of` findings on memory and thinking to the use of rewards to encourage achievement.
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Clinical psychology . Most psychologists explore normal behavior and mental processes, but clinical psychologists try to understand and correct abnormal functioning. Clinical psychology is closely related to counselling psychology. Psychologists in both areas study and seek to alleviate human problems. Clinical psychologists, however, tend to deal with a wider range of disorders, and they often focus on more severe problems than in the case of counselling psychologists.
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The purpose of psychology is to find an answer to the age-old-question of why people think, feel and act the way they do. For that purpose, psychologists have attempted to investigate various aspects of human nature. The scope of psychological research ranges from the study of nerve cells
(neurophysiology) to investigations of the interaction in families and other groups (social psychology). It covers such areas as: sensation and perception; memory and Learning; emotion and motivation; thinking and language; intelligence; childhood and personality development; normal and abnormal behavior; mental disorders and much more. Psychology studies all these topics from a variety of perspectives ranging from the biological or physiological to the psychodynamic, through the behavioral, the cognitive and the humanistic.
This is because psychologists seek to answer a wide range of important questions about the nature of the human being;
 Are individuals genetically predisposed at birth to develop certain traits or abilities?
 How accurate are people at remembering faces, places, or conversations from the past?
 Do intelligence tests predict future success in school or in a job?
 What motivates us to seek out friends or mates?
 Why do so many people become depressed and behave in ways that seem self-destructive as seen in the case of alcoholics or drug addicts?
 Can the mind be used to heal the body?
The answers to these questions which can be reached through psychological research can help people understand themselves, have better relationships with others, and solve some of the many problems that they may face in their lives.
Psychology shows us how the human being is a complex creature who can do various things in various ways. These include acting and reacting, feeling and thinking, planning and imagining, learning and remembering or forgetting, and above all, the individual can be consciously aware of the world and communicate and interact with it in various ways.
These aspects of behavior and mental processes form the manor components of the discipline of general psychology which may be examined in detail to show how they ultimately come together in the human being as a whole.
The process of understanding this complex whole, made up of various aspects of behaviour and mental processes, may conveniently begin with the study of biological aspects, showing how nerve cells communicate with one another to create behavior and mental activity. Next, the study of the phenomenon of sensation will show how special groups of cells can detect sound, light, and other forms

of energy and how they are able to convert this energy into the sensations of hearing, vision, taste, smell, and touch. Examination of the phenomenon of perception will show us how the individual organizes, interprets and attends to these sensations. Focus on consciousness will teach us more about how we experience the world and how this process can be affected by sleep, hypnosis, meditation, and alcohol or drugs.
Being aware of the complexities of consciousness can help us better understand the processes of learning, memory, thinking, and the use of language. We already know that some people are better at these processes than others will allow us to look at differences in mental abilities, including intelligence.
Psychology involves not only the study of what people do, but also investigation into why they do it, which makes it necessary to look at the phenomenon of motivation. And to better understand motivated behaviors, we need to understand the phenomenon of emotion which often accompanies motivated behavior: anger, joy, fear, hope, desperation, or any number of other emotions.
Psychology shows us that all these processes are integrated in functioning individuals and are part of how those individuals relate to their environments. Study of personality will show how different respond differently to environmental influences or stimuli.
Differences between individuals are the main focus in the study of personality, which is a central topic in psychology. It is important to know what personality is and how it relates to behavior and mental processes.
Examination of psychological disorders shows the many ways in which behavior and mental processes can become abnormal Study of abnormal or clinical psychology will introduce the major approaches and methods used in treating psychological problems.
Finally, study of social psychology allows one to discover the ways in which an individual’s actions, thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and other processes influence or are influenced by other people.