1. What is psychology?

Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. The word

psychology" comes from the Greek words psyche" meaning life, and
logos," meaning explanation.

2. History of psychology

While psychology did not emerge as a separate discipline until the late
1800s, its earliest history can be traced back to the time of the early
Greeks. During the 17th-century, the French philosopher Rene Descartes
introduced the idea of dualism, which asserted that the mind and body
were two separate entities that interact to form the human experience.
Many other issues still debated by psychologists today, such as the
relative contributions of nature vs. nurture, are rooted in these early
philosophical traditions.

3. Goals of psychology

Psychology has four main goals:

1. Describe the behavior
2. Understand or explain the behavior
3. Predict the behavior
4. Control or modify the behavior

4. Branches of Psychology
1. Clinical Psychology - deals with scientific ways of handling psychological
problems. It is also called counseling psychology.
2. Abnormal Psychology- deals with the abnormalities in a persons
behavior and psyche.
3. Educational Psychology- is often taught in educational institutions like
schools and colleges. This field of study basically focuses on student life.
4. Developmental Psychology- deals with the changes that occur in a
human being over course of time. It deals with early childhood
developmental stages.
5. Personality Psychology - deals with the IQ and personality of an
individual.
6. Evolutionary Psychology - deals with the study of psychological stimuli
in human beings.
7. Cognitive Psychology - deals with the mental processes like thoughts,
memory and problem solving. It basically deals with the perception and
problem solving capability of the brain.
8. Legal Psychology- is almost similar to cognitive and clinical psychology.
Its just that it has got a legal point of view. The legal psychologist assists
the crime investigation by assessing the testimonies and statements of the
witnesses and the victims.
9. Community Psychology- is the study of the psychological aspects of the
individuals in a community. This is based on characteristics like
interdependence, adaptation, diplomacy and so on.
10. Behavioral Psychology - the study of behavioral science such as mental
process and human behavioral patterns. Behavioral Psychology is based
on study of the functions of brain cells.
5. What are the schools of thought in psychology?

1. Functionalism - has the most influence of any theory in contemporary
psychology. Psychological functionalism attempts to describe thoughts
and what they do without asking how they do it.
2. Gestalt Psychology - According to Gestalt psychologists, the human
mind works by interpreting data through various laws, rules or organizing
principles, turning partial information into a whole.
3. Psychoanalysis - Psychoanalytic theory, which originated with Sigmund
Freud, explains human behavior by looking at the subconscious mind.
Freud suggested that the instinct to pursue pleasure, which he described
as sexual in nature, lies at the root of human development.
4. Behaviorism- Behaviorists believe that observing behavior, rather than
attempting to analyze the inner workings of the mind itself, provides the
key to psychology. This makes psychology open to experimental methods
with results that can be replicated in the same way as any scientific
experiment.
5. Humanistic Psychology - Humanist psychologists teach that to
understand psychology, we must look at individuals and their motivations.
6. Cognitivism - Cognitive psychology follows behaviorism by
understanding the mind through scientific experimentation, but it differs
from it by accepting that psychologists can study and understand the
internal workings of the mind and mental processes.