PSYCHOLOGY AS SCIENCE

Psychology is the science and art of explaining and changing mental

processes and behaviors. Its immediate goal is to understand humanity by both
discovering general principles and exploring specific cases, and its ultimate aim is to
benefit society.
In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called
a psychologist, and is classified as a social or behavioral scientist. Psychologists attempt
to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also
exploring the physiological and neurological processes that underlie certain functions and
behaviors. The history of psych
ology as a scholarly study of the mind and behavior dates back to the Ancient Greeks.
There is also evidence of psychological thought in ancient Egypt. Psychology was a
branch of philosophy until 1879, when psychology developed as an independent
scientific discipline in Germany and the United States. Psychology borders on various
other fields including physiology, neuroscience,artificial
intelligence, sociology, anthropology, as well as philosophy and other components of
the humanities.
Psychologists explore such concept
as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, brain
functioning,personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Some, especially depth
psychologists, also consider theunconscious mind. Psychologists employ empirical
methods to infer causal and correlational relationships between psychosocial variables.
While psychological knowledge is typically applied to
the assessment and treatment of mental health problems, it is also applied to
understanding and solving problems in many different spheres of human activity.
Although the vast majority of psychologists are involved in clinical, counseling,
and school positions, some are employed in industrial and organizational settings, and in
other areas such as human development and aging,sports, health, the media and law.
The final decades of the 20th century have seen the rise of a new
interdisciplinary approach to studying human psychology, known collectively
as cognitive science. Cognitive science again considers the mind as a subject for
investigation, using the tools of psychology,linguistics, computer science, philosophy,
and neurobiology. New methods of visualizing the activity of the brain, such as PET
scans andCAT scans, began to exert their influence as well, leading some researchers to
investigate the mind by investigating the brain, rather than cognition. These new forms of
investigation assume that a wide understanding of the human mind is possible, and that
such an understanding may be applied to other research domains, such as artificial
intelligence.

Bibliography:
www.wikipedia.org
www.psychnet-uk.com