What is Psychology?

Many people who have never been familiar to psychology as a subject think that psychology is some kind of knowledge that helps one take an entry to others mind like a ghost and will come to know every feeling and thought of the other person!

Well that is not exactly what psychology is!


 In real terms, "Psychology is the field of knowledge that scientifically studies organism's behavior and mental process and skillfully apply this knowledge to solve practical human problems."

Now this seems bit complex! Let me explain it to you,

1. Psychology is a field of knowledge like any other field such as biology, history, mathematics etc,

2. It studies behaviour and mental processes (thinking, feelings, fears etc) of organisms; organism means both humans and animals. Psychologists study both humans and animals as many of the behavioural processes are applicable to both.

For instance how do we learn new habits? We learn those habits that are rewarded, like children start obeying their parents because they know they will be called 'good girls' & 'good boys' if they obey them.

Simillarly experiments are done on animals like chimpanzees, dogs, rats and cats to understand the animal behavior and infer human behaviour from the experiments done on animals. As the structure and function of human brain is very similar to these animals, and conclusions from these experiments can be generalized to human beings as well.

3. Psychologists study these behaviours and mental processes scientifically. That means they do not judge people based on their own believes. They study human behaviour by OBJECTIVELY observing behaviour and conducting experiments to find the CAUSE of behavior. After finding cause they PREDICT behaviour and provide INTERVENTION in case of controlling abnormal behaviour, or promoting useful behaviour.

4. Now when we say psychologists INTERVENE, we mean they apply the scientific psychological knowledge to help humans in controlling their abnormal or harmful behaviours and promote useful or important behaviours.


I hope you are now clear with the meaning of psychology and the work a psychologist do. So next time you meet a psychologist you would know that she is not someone who will enter your mind😜, but help you control or promote some concerned behaviour with the help of her scientific knowledge of the field.