Psychology Chapter 1 (11th) Flashcards
What part about defining disciplines applies to psychology?
Firstly, any knowledge discipline is hard to define, mainly because it continuously evolves, but also because the range of phenomena it studies cannot be captured by any one definition. This is true even for psychology.
What is psychology derived from and what is it established as now?
The term ‘psychology’ is derived from two Greek words “psyche”, meaning soul, and “logos” meaning science or study or a subject. Thus psychology was a study of the soul or mind. But it has now established itself as a scientific discipline that deals with underlying processes of human experience and behaviour.
What is the formal definition of psychology?
Psychology is formally defined as a science which studies mental processes, experiences and behaviour in different context, while it can also be simply defined as the scientific study of the human mind and behaviour in a given context.
What is the range of psychology?
It studies a range of phenomena at individual, dyadic and group or organizational level.
What are the bases of psychology?
Psychology as a discipline uses methods of both Biological (Natural) and Social sciences to obtain data systematically. Hence it has both biological and social bases.
How and why does psychology enjoy a position as both a natural science and social science?
Psychology is generally categorized as a social science. Some psychologists believe that subjectivity is important in understanding psychological phenomena and behaviour by taking experiences of the experiencing person into account. While other psychologists seek to make their analysis of a behaviour of phenomenon more objective and scientific, by studying and explaining behaviour, mental processes and experiences in a systematic and verifiable manner.
So psychology as a discipline today has two parallel streams. One which makes use of physical and biological science methods and the other which uses social and cultural science methods and also focuses on explaining behaviour in terms of interactions, relationships and cultural context.
