Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour (of people).

It uses objective, scientific research methods.

The focus of Psychology is ‘BASIC’.

B People are biological creatures

A From birth we adapt to our environments, through learning, thinking and problem solving

S Our world is a social world and the influence of others is huge, as is the importance of our interactions with others

I We are all individually different in so many ways – our abilities, thoughts, beliefs and personal style

C Psychological knowledge can be applied to various important contexts, such as the world of work, schools and hospitals

Some people accuse Psychology of being “Just common sense” because most people believe they know a lot about their everyday experiences. The truth is that Psychology is a very technical subject that sometimes agrees with “common sense” and often contradicts it. Indeed, we may often have little insight into our own experiences.

For example:

• How did you learn to speak and to hold conversations before you were 3 years old?

• How do you catch a ball? When you follow the trajectory of a ball through the air and move to intercept it, are you aware of the complex set of calculations your brain is solving at exceptionally high speed in order to predict trajectory while controlling the muscles of your body to make an accurate interception?

• If you want a perfect stranger to give you money for a parking meter, did you know that by simply touching them briefly on the arm you will make it far more likely they will help?

Skills Developed by Studying Psychology

Psychology training develops many important transferable skills that are eagerly sought by numerous prospective employers. These skills include critical analysis, computer skills, numerical and verbal reasoning, self-organisation, team working, presentation and interpersonal skills.

Methods

Psychology usually advances knowledge by establishing facts that it obtains through careful observation and measurement in experimental situations. Experiments are carried out both in laboratories and in real-life situations often making use of computer technology and statistical methods.

For many years, Psychology has been successfully applied to real-life situations and various branches have grown to make a significant contribution. The main branches are:

Clinical

Assessing and treating abnormal behaviour and mental function such as schizophrenia, anxiety, sexual problems, dementia and stress.

Educational

Helping children with special educational needs; designing curricula; and school management practice.

Industrial/Organisational

Helping people and organisations become more effective.

Designing ways of selecting staff; motivating and rewarding them; designing good man-machine interfaces; Leadership and management theory and practice. (University of Glasgow, 2005)

However, there are several more branches of psychology. For example;

· Anthropological Psychology: the interdisciplinary study of human beings in historical, naturalistic, phylogenetic, and cross-cultural perspectives.

· Socio-Cultural Psychology: the study of persons and their practices in historical and contemporary institutional contexts.

· Neuropsychology: Research with a special focus on adaptation and development: the psychological and pedagogical study of children, youth and adults with different kinds of neurobiological deficit.

· Cognitive Psychology: the interdisciplinary study of human cognitive processes and systems, including cognitive development and psycholinguistics.

· Psychotherapy and Psychopathology: the theoretical, empirical, and practical study of interventions aimed at remediating pathological conditions.

· Health Psychology: the study of psychological aspects of somatic illness.

· Working Life and Organization: the study of the relationship between individuals and groups, and their work and organizational settings.

· Qualitative Research Methodology: the interdisciplinary, theoretical based study of different kinds of qualitative methods and their relation to quantitative methods (MIT, 2005)

REFERENCES:

MIT International Student Exchange (2005) (online) http://mit.psy.au.dk/ise/intro.html

University of Glasgow (2005) (online) accessed 10-14-2005 http://www.gla.ac.uk:443/studying/files/pdfs/ug/psychology.pdf