Overview of the field of psychology

The field of psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behaviour, encompassing a wide array of topics that range from cognitive processes to emotional responses and social interactions. It seeks to understand how people think, feel, and act both individually and in groups. The field is inherently interdisciplinary, integrating knowledge from biology, anthropology, sociology, and even philosophy to form a comprehensive understanding of human existence.

 Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. Such study can involve both animal and human behaviours. When applied to humans, psychology covers everything that people think, feel, and do. Psychologists differ in how much importance they place on specific types of behaviour. For example, some psychologists believe that you should study only behaviour that you can see, observe, or measure directly. Steve’s behaviour of logging on and remaining on the Internet for hours at a time is an observable behaviour. Some psychologists believe that our thoughts, feelings, and fantasies are also important, even though these processes are not directly observable. Steve may log on because he feels intimidated by others or by schoolwork, but psychologists cannot directly observe that these are the reasons that Steve is engaging in this behaviour.

While psychologists may differ on which types of behaviour are important, they do agree that the study of behaviour must be systematic. The use of a systematic method of asking and answering questions about why people think, act, and feel as they do reduce the chances of coming to false conclusions. Consider the story of the blind men and the elephant. A long time ago, three very wise, but blind, men were out on a journey when they came across a sleeping elephant. Because they could not see the elephant, they did not know what was blocking their way, so they set about to discover what they could about the obstacle.

As it happened, each man put his hands on a different section of the elephant, examining it in great detail and with much thought. The first man, having felt the elephant’s trunk, described a creature that was long, wormlike, and quite flexible. “No, no! You must be mistaken,” said the second man, who was seated astride the elephant. “This creature is wide, very round, and does not move very much.” The man who was holding one of the elephant’s tusks added his description of a small, hard, pointed creature.

Each of these men was correct in his description of what he felt, but in order to understand the elephant fully, they needed to combine their accumulated knowledge. The study of human behaviour is similar. We cannot rely on simplistic explanations. In order to understand our observations, we usually have to combine all of our thoughts.

We each like to think we understand people. We spend time observing others (and ourselves) and form conclusions about people from our daily interactions. Sometimes the conclusions we draw, however, are not accurate because we are not systematic in our efforts.

The Goals of Psychology

As psychologists go about their systematic and scientific study of humans and animals, they have several goals. Overall, psychologists seek to do four things—describe, explain, predict, and influence behaviour.

Description The first goal for any scientist or psychologist is to describe or gather information about the behaviour being studied and to present what is known. For example, we described Steve’s behaviour at college.

Explanation Psychologists are not content simply to state the facts. Rather, they also seek to explain why people (or animals) behave as they do. Such explanations can be called psychological ‘principles’, i.e., generally valid ideas about behaviour. Psychologists propose these explanations as hypotheses. A hypothesis is an educated guess about some phenomenon. It is a researcher’s prediction about what the results of a study are expected to be. As research studies designed to test each hypothesis are completed, more complex explanations called theories are constructed. A theory is usually a complex explanation based on findings from a large number of experimental studies. Theories change as new data improves our understanding, and a good theory becomes the source of additional ideas for experiments. A number of theories taken together may validate or cause us to alter the principles that help explain and predict observed behaviour.

Prediction The third goal of psychologists is to predict, as a result of accumulated knowledge, what organisms will do and, in the case of humans, what they will think or feel in various situations. By studying descriptive and theoretical accounts of past behaviours, psychologists can predict future behaviours.

Influence Finally, some psychologists seek to influence behaviour in helpful ways. These psychologists are conducting studies with a long-term goal of finding out more about human or animal behaviour. They are doing basic science, or research. Other psychologists are more interested in discovering ways to use what we already know about people to benefit others. They view psychology as an applied science and are using psychological principles to solve more immediate problems.

Psychologists who study the ability of infants to perceive visual patterns are doing basic research. They may not be concerned with the implication their findings might have on the design of a crib. Psychologists studying rapid eye movement in sleep research are also involved in basic science. If they discover that one individual has a sleep disturbance, they will try to under­stand and explain the situation, but they may not try to correct it. That is a job for applied scientists, such as clinical psychologists, industrial/organizational psychologists, counselling psychologists, or engineering psychologists.

 THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF PSYCHOLOGY

To ensure that data are collected accurately, psychologists rely on the scientific method (see Figure 1.4). In psychology, facts are based on data. The data are obtained from methods such as experiments, surveys, and case studies. This means that psychologists reach their conclusions by identifying a specific problem or question, formulating a hypothesis, collecting data through observation and experimentation, and analyzing the data.

The scientific basis of psychology goes back many years. Today people are very sophisticated about scientific procedures, but that has not always been true. Wilhelm Wundt is credited with setting up the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, in 1879. He proposed that psychological experience is composed of compounds, much like the compounds found in chemistry. Psychology, he claimed, has two kinds of elements, sensations and feelings. 

Wundt tried to test his statements by collecting scientific data. Although Wundt’s methods proved cumbersome and unreliable, the importance of Wundt’s work is the procedure he followed, not the results he obtained. He called the procedure “introspection,” and in psychology it led to what we now call the scientific method. Whereas in Wundt’s introspection an individual observes, analyzes, and reports his or her own mental experiences, the scientific method developed as an objective method of observation and analysis.

Although psychologists use the scientific method to demonstrate and support many theories, many questions about behaviour remain unanswered. Psychological theories are continually reviewed and revised. New theories and technological developments are constantly generating new questions and new psychological studies.

Scientific Process in the Field of Psychology

 Objectives of Psychology

The objectives of psychology are many. Of these, the most important are:

1.               Understanding human behaviour.

2.               Explaining data. This is usually achieved by formulating a theory that can explain the data. Relying on the scientific method to test the accuracy of their theories because so many factors are involved in the manifestation of behaviour. One test of a theory’s accuracy and usefulness is its ability to predict behaviour and mental processes.

3.               Applying knowledge to promote human welfare. Knowledge gained through psychological research touches almost on every aspect of our lives, ranging from the way we raise and teach children to the tests you took to gain admission to the Rusangu University (RU); from the advertising of goods and services that we see on television to the design of ‘tie-and-dye’ (our local textile print) and from the way nations resolve conflicts.

Shaping of human behaviour when necessary. When psychology is referred to as a ‘new’ science we mean that the methods of studying psychological problems are new. This is bound to be so since psychology became a science in the modern sense of the concept, in the mid-nineteenth century. That was when scientific methods were first applied to psychological problems.