HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHIES

Psychology is a comprehensive field that plays with the study of human thought, development, behaviour, personality, emotions, motivation and many more. Obtaining and understanding deep knowledge of psychology can help people in improving themselves as well as a better understanding of others. Gaining knowledge of psychology can make you more motivational and smarter irrespective of your profession.

Psychology is the science of behaviour and mind. It includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought. Psychological research seeks to understand and explain the thinking, behaviour, feeling of people according to the personalities as well as individually.

Applications for brain science incorporate emotional wellness treatment, execution improvement, self-improvement, ergonomics and numerous different regions influencing well being and everyday life. It is hard to catch everything that brain science incorporates in only a short definition, yet themes; for example, advancement, character, sentiments, feelings, inspirations, and social practices speak to only a segment of what brain research tries to comprehend, foresee, and clarify.

A professional practitioner or researcher working in the field of psychology is called a psychologist. The professionals can be classified as social, behavioural, cognitive, clinical psychologist. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behaviour. Psychologists expand behaviour and mental processes, including perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence, subjective experiences, motivation, brain functioning, and personality. This extends to interaction with the people such as interpersonal relationships.

Psychologists are in great demand. They help in solving the mental health issues of people. Psychologists can also help in solving crimes. Psychologists do design and implement various mental health programmes. The work of a psychologist can also vary from counselling individuals with anxiety, stress and depression and help firms in building up better teams and teamwork.

The word psychology derives from Greek roots meaning study of the psyche, or soul. The history of psychology as a scholarly study of the mind and behaviour dates back to the Ancient Greeks. Psychology as a self-conscious field of experimental study began in 1879, in Leipzig Germany, when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research in Germany.

Psychology as a separate discipline –

Psychology emerged as a separate discipline during the mid-1800s under German physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt. He used scientific research methods to investigate reaction times. His book published in 1874, “Principles of Physiological Psychology,” outlined many of the major connections between the science of physiology and the study of human thought and behaviour.

Wilhelm Wundt later opened world’s first psychology lab in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. This event is generally considered the official start of psychology as a separate and distinct scientific discipline. What was the view of Wilhelm Wundt to psychology? He perceived the subject as the study of human consciousness and sought to apply experimental methods to studying internal mental processes.

Around 17,000 students and more than a hundred attended lectures and pursued degree respectively in Wilhelm Wundt’s psychology lab. His impact on psychology is unquestionable.

Structuralism emerged as a first school of thought –

Edward B. Titchener, one of Wundt’s most famous students, found psychology’s first major school of thought. According to structuralists, human consciousness could be separated into littler parts. Utilizing a procedure known as thoughtfulness, prepared subjects would endeavour to separate their reactions and responses to the most fundamental sensation and discernments.

Structuralism methods were unreliable, limiting and subjective. Structuralism died eventually with Edward B. Titchener in 1972.

Indian Psychology –

The study of Indian psychology refers to a study of an emerging scholarly and scientific subfield of psychology. Psychologists, currently working recover the mental thoughts installed in indigenous Indian strict and otherworldly conventions and ways of thinking and communicating these thoughts in mental terms that license further mental research and application.

Indian psychology has no relevance to ‘mentality or psychology of Indian people’ or psychology subject taught in Indian Universities. The Indian Psychology Movement refers to psychologists encouraging or carrying out the recently expanded activity in this field.

Narendra Nath Sen Gupta firstly introduced psychology to India. Sen Gupta made contributions to the disciplines of psychology, philosophy, education, and anthropology in India. He was the founding editor of the Indian Journal of Psychology. He is known as the father of Indian Psychology. Sen Gupta had lion’s share in founding the Indian Psychology Association in 1924.

Psychology is such an extensive topic, that conveying depth and breadth of the subject can be difficult. Therefore, numbers of unique and distinctive branches have been emerged to deal with particular subtopics within the study of mind, behavior and brain. All branches share the same goal and explain human thought and behavior.

Cognitive Psychology –

Cognitive Psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with mental processes especially with respect to the internal events occurring between sensory stimulation and the overt expression of behaviour compare behaviourism. The area of psychology began to grow since 1960s. Cognitive psychologists often study and keep information about human perception, thinking, learning and memory. The history of cognitive psychology suggests philosophically, ruminations of the human mind and its processes have been around since the times of the ancient Greeks. In 387 BCE, Plato is known to have suggested that the brain was the seat of the mental processes.

Clinical Psychology –

Clinical Psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the assessment of telepathic issues, abnormal behaviour and psychiatric disorders. Clinical psychologists mainly work privately but also perform their work in community centres, universities, colleges etc. Such psychologists may collaborate with the team of mental health professionals, physicians and psychiatrists. The history of clinical psychology states, by the second half of the 1800s, the scientific study of psychology was becoming well established in university laboratories. Although there were a few scattered voices calling for applied psychology, the general field looked down upon this idea and insisted on “pure” science as the only respectable practice.

Developmental Psychology –

It is a branch of psychology that focuses on the study of transition and growing of people throughout the whole lifespan. The scientific study of developmental psychology explains why and how people change throughout their lives. This scientific study of developmental psychologists includes research of people behaviour, emotions, intellectual growth, social growth and overall changes throughout life. This field covers a huge range of topics including everything from prenatal development to Alzheimer’s disease.

Social Psychology –

Social psychology is completely regarded with the public or social behaviour of an individual. The study includes social behaviour, social interactions, nonverbal communications and social influences on decision making. The study mainly focuses on the individual’s behaviour amongst people, fluctuations in behaviour and effects of it, irrespective of good and bad.