PSYCHOLOGY

• Psychology is an offspring of subject philosophy. Psychology is a Greek word,

‘psychic’ and ‘logos’ means the ‘study of’ or ‘knowledge’- study of soul. Williams
used the term ‘mind’ , which replaced soul. As years went by, the meaning of
psychology changed. The influence of physiology made some scientists like
Wilhelm Wundt of Germany define psychology as the study of ‘consciousness’.
Meaning of behavior-
• ‘Any manifestation of life is activity’ and behavior is a collective name for these
activities. The term behavior include the following:
1. Motor or conative activities (walking, swimming, dancing etc. )
2. Cognitive activities (thinking, reasoning, imaging etc.)
3. Affective activities (feeling happy, sad angry etc.)
• Behavior includes not only the conscious behavior and activities of the human mind, but
also the subconscious and unconscious. It covers not only the overt behavior, but also
the covert behavior involving all the inner experiences and mental processes.
DEFINITION -: Psychology: the study of behavior and mental processes and how they
are affected by an organism’s physical state, mental state, and environment.
 (William McDoughall-1949)
• Psychology is a science of human behavior.
OR
• Psychology is the science of human and animal behavior, it
include the application of behavioral science to human
problems.

(Walter Bowers Pillsbury-1911 )

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The Science of Psychology

• Empiricism
• The history of psychology before and after use of the
scientific method
– Trephination
– Hippocrates
– Descartes (dualism)
– Joseph Gall (phrenology)
– Wilhelm Wundt
(structuralism)
– William James
(functionalism)

Psychology’s
Present
• Biological Perspective – emphasizes the role of biology
(physiology, genetics) on behavior and mental processes
– How damage to different parts of the brain affects personality,
behavior, learning ability, language
– How genetics predispose us to develop certain personality traits,
mental illness
• Learning Perspective – emphasizes the role of the
environment and our experiences on behavior and mental
processes
– How children adopt certain behaviors by imitating their parents
(social-learning) or by parents directly rewarding those behaviors
(behavioral)
• Cognitive Perspective – emphasizes the role of cognitive
processes on behavior and mental processes
– If we believe we will fail, we may not even try
 – It is easier for us to remember/recall information that is
consistent with our beliefs than information that is inconsistent
with our beliefs
• Sociocultural Perspective – emphasizes the role of
society/culture on behavior and mental processes
– Technological advances in our culture (internet, gaming, cell
phones) have affected our attention processes
– Societal pressure for thinness has contributed to increased
incidence rates of eating disorders
• Psychodynamic Perspective: emphasizes the role of
unconscious conflicts on behavior and mental processes
• Humanistic: emphasizes free will, personal growth, and
resilience

Psychological Perspectives:
 Depression Example
• Biological: abnormalities in neurotransmitters in the brain
• Learning: depressive symptoms have been reinforced
(rewarded) by the environment (e.g., getting to stay home
from school because of feeling depressed)
• Cognitive: negative, pessimistic thinking style
• Socio-cultural: societal stress and role demands; modern
culture has made us increasingly isolated
• Psychodynamic: depression is due to unconsciously
displacing anger towards your parent onto yourself
• Humanistic: depression is due to being inauthentic or by
being otherwise blocked in fulfilling your potential
 The scope of psychology
1. Research (pure) psychology

2. Applied psychology
1. Research (pure) psychology

2. Applied psychology
 Research psychology
Applied psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Counseling psychology
• Educational psychology
• Psychology and Law
• Health psychology
• Human factors psychology
• Industrial and organizational psychology
• School psychology
1. Research (pure) psychology

• Abnormal psychology
Abnormal psychology is the study of abnormal
behavior in order to describe, predict, explain,
and change abnormal patterns of functioning.
Abnormal psychology studies the nature of
psychopathology and its causes, and this
 Research psychology
knowledge is applied in clinical psychology to
treating patients with psychological disorders.
 Research psychology
※Psychopathology
Psychopathology is a term which refers to
either the study of mental illness or mental
distress, or the manifestation of behaviors and
experiences which may be indicative of mental
illness or psychological impairment.
•
•

• Biological psychology
 Research psychology
Biological psychology is the scientific study of the
biological bases of behavior and mental states.
Because all behavior is controlled by the central
nervous system, it is sensible to study how the
brain functions in order to understand behavior.
This is the approach taken in behavioral
neuroscience, cognitive
neuroscience, and neuropsychology.
• Cognitive psychology
 Research psychology
The nature of thought is another core interest in
psychology. Cognitive psychology studies
cognition, the mental processes underlying
behavior. It uses information processing as a
framework for understanding the mind. Perception,
learning, problem solving, memory, attention,
language and emotion are all well researched
areas.
• Comparative psychology
 Research psychology
Comparative psychology refers to the study of the
behavior and mental life of animals other than human
beings.

• Development psychology
Mainly focusing on the development of the
human mind through the life span,
developmental psychology seeks to understand
how people come to perceive, understand, and
act within the world and how these processes
change as they age.
• Personality psychology
 Research psychology
Personality psychology studies enduring
psychological patterns of behavior, thought and
emotion, commonly called an individual's
personality.

extraversion—introversion neuroticism—
emotional stability psychoticism.
• Quantitative psychology
Quantitative psychology involves the application
of statistical analysis to psychological research,
 Research psychology
and the development of novel statistical
approaches for measuring and explaining
human behavior. And it is loosely comprised of
the subfields psychometrics and mathematical
psychology.
 Research psychology
• Social psychology
Social psychology is the study of the nature and
causes of human social behavior, with an
emphasis on how people think towards each
other and how they relate to each other.
• Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is the application of
psychological science and research to the
understanding, treatment, and assessment of
health problems, particularly emotional,
 Applied psychology
behavioral and mental health problems. It has
traditionally been associated with psychological
treatment and psychotherapy.
Applied psycholgoy
The work performed by clinical psychologists tends to be done
inside various therapy models. A popular model is the
Cognitive-Behavioral therapy (CBT) framework. One of the
most famous CBT therapies is cognitive therapy.

※Cognitive therapy
focused on depression and developed a list of "errors"
in thinking that he proposed could cause or maintain
depression, including arbitrary inference, selective
abstraction, over-generalization, and magnification (of
negatives) and minimization (of positives). Cognitive
therapy seeks to identify and change "distorted" or
"unrealistic" ways of thinking, and therefore to
influence emotion and behavior.
• Counseling psychology
Counseling psychology differs from clinical
psychology in that it is focused more on normal
developmental issues and everyday stress
 Applied psychology
rather than psychopathology. Counseling
psychologists are employed in a variety of
settings, including universities, hospitals,
schools, governmental organizations,
businesses, private practice, and community
mental health centers.
 Applied psychology
• Educational psychology
Educational psychology is the study of how humans
learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of
educational interventions, the psychology of teaching.

• Psychology and law

Together, Forensic psychology and Legal
Psychology compose the area known as
Psychology and Law.
※Forensic psychology
 Applied psychology
Forensic psychology is the application of
psychological principles and knowledge to
various legal activities. Typical issues include
child custody disputes, child abuse or neglect,
assessing personal capacity to manage one's
affairs, matters of competency to stand trial,
criminal responsibility, personal injury, and
advising judges in matters relating to sentencing
regarding various mitigants and the actuarial
assessment of future risk.
 Applied psychology
• Health psychology
Health psychology is the application of psychological
theory and research to health, illness and health care.
Health psychology is concerned with the psychology of a
much wider range of health-related behavior including
healthy eating, the doctor-patient relationship, a patient's
understanding of health information, and beliefs about
illness.

• Human factors psychology

 Applied psychology
Human factors psychology is the study of how cognitive
and psychological processes affect our interaction with
tools and objects in the environment.
• Industrial and organizational psychology
Industrial and organizational psychology (I/O) is
among the newest fields in psychology.
Industrial Psychology focuses on improving,
evaluating, and predicting job performance while
Organizational Psychology focuses on how
 Applied psychology
organizations impact and interact with
individuals.
• School psychology
School psychology is the area of discipline that
is dedicated to helping young people succeed
academically, socially, and emotionally. School
psychologists collaborate with educators,
parents, and other professionals to create safe,
healthy, and supportive learning environments
 Applied psychology
for all students that strengthen connections
between home and school.
 Psychological Methods

Method of psychology
Psychology is termed as the scientific study of human
behavior. Special tools and procedures help us in
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 gathering and organizing its subject matter or the
essential facts about behavior. These procedures are
termed as methods, which are used to study human
behavior. They are as under:
 Introspection or self observation method
 Observational method
 Experimental method
 Clinical or case method
 Survey method
 Genetic and development method

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 Introspection or self-observation
method
This is one of the oldest methods of psychology. Introspection
means ‘to look within’. It is not possible to understand the inner
feelings and experiences of other person. for example, a patient
after an operation may be asked to report how he feels. The patient
will try to look within and recall what happened and how he is
presently feeling. This information will help for better treatment.
This is the characteristics method of psychology, which is not
available to other natural science.
Merits - 1. It is a fundamental method of psychology. Observation
and experimentation are based upon introspection.
2. It is gives us direct, immediate and exact knowledge of our own
mental processes. This method does not require any laboratory.
Demerits- 1. this method is not applicable for children or animal or
mentally retarded people, because they cannot introspect.
2. It is purely private affair and cannot be verified by other
observers.

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3. In many cases, the patients may not have the insight to know
about their conditions or language to describe them accurately.

Observation method
It is the objective method of studying the behavior of individual. It consist of
perception of an individual’s behavior under natural conditions by the other
individuals and the interpretation and analyzes of this perceived behavior
them. In this method the observer observes and collects the data. Example –
in the hospital the nurse makes an observation of patient’s temperature,
pulse, etc.to understand clinical condition of the patient.
Steps in observation method
1 Observation of behavior
2 Noting of behavior
3 Interpretation and analyze of behavior
4 Generalization
Merit- 1 It is economical, natural, flexible. The result can be verified.

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Demerit- 1 There are chance of subjective report and also prejudices of
observer mey creep in.
2 It lacks repeatability, as each natural situation can occur only once.
3 Not being able to establish a proper cause and effects relationship.

Experimental method
• It is considered as the most scientific and objective method of studying
behavior. The word experiment comes from a Latin word meaning ‘to try',
'put to test’. The use of this method has raised psychology to the status of
an experimental science like physics, chemistry, and physiology.
Essential features of experimental method-:
1. Require two persons, the experimenter and the subject or the person,
whose behavior is observed.
2. Experimentation should be done on living organisms.
3. All experiments are conducted under controlled conditions.
STEPS IN EXPERIMENTS-
A. Stating the problem
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B. Formulation of hypothesis
C. To find out independent and dependent variable
D. Arranging the environment
E. Analysis of the result
F. Testing of the hypothesis

Merits-
• scientific method
• Finds out cause and effect relationship
• Maximum control of phenomena
• Repetition is possible
Demerits-
• All problem of psychology cannot be studied by this method, as we cannot
perform experiments for all the problems.
• It is costly and time consuming method.
• It is fails to study behavior in naturalistic condition.

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 Clinical and case history
method
• This method is used by clinical psychologists, psychiatric social worker in
child guidance clinics or mental hygiene clinics and the allied institutions. it
aims at studying the cause and basis of peoples anxieties' fears and
personal adjustment.
Merits
A. Case histories will give the clinicians an insight in to the cause of the
problem and suggest possible solution.
B. Case study can be productive sources of ideas for further investigation by
other methods.
Demerits
A. The case history method depends largely on memory of incidents, which
may have been observed inaccurately or over interpreted.

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 Survey method
All problem in psychology cannot be studied by the experimental and
other methods some problem like study of opinions, attitudes, health
care needs, etc. can be studied by mean of survey method. This is
commonly employed in social psychology. The survey methods
involve collection or gathering of information from a large number of
people by using questioner, inventories, checklist, rating scale and
interviews.
Merits
1. A large amount of data can be collected in a shorter time.
Demerits
1. The behavior is not observed directely.

Genetics and development

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 method
psychologists study not only the behavior of an individual at a particular time,
but also his development from birth to death, the influence of heredity and
environment in the development of the person and condition favorable and
unfavorable for normal and abnormal behavior. For example- to understand
the learning behavior of an adult, the study will start from the childhood and
adolescence. This can be done by two ways-:
1. cross-sectional study in which, the children of different age groups will be
studied simultaneously.
2. Longitudinal study in which, the same child will be studied in different
stage of life. Merits
This is a more useful method to understand the behavior from point of view of
hereditary and environmental influence.
Demerits
This method require more time and energy.

Psychology has become necessary in every

profession including nursing today. This is
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 because of increasing emphasis being laid out
on the interplay of body, mind and spirit in
the health status of every individual.
The learning of psychology helps a nurse
in the following waysA.To
understand own self B.To
understand patients
C.To recognize abnormal behavior
D.To understand other people
E.To provide quality care to patients

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F.Help patients adjust to the situation
G.Help the student nurse to appreciate
the necessity for changing the
environment or surrounding
H.Help for effective study
I.Readjustment

Psychology has its roots spread in every single industry. It has become
imperative to study human mind for the better outcome of operations carried out
on daily basis. It has influenced many minds and is known to have a great
impact on nursing as well. Psychology and nursing are poles apart but at a
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certain level they are interconnected. Nursing focuses entirely on helping people
recover from acute and chronic illnesses while psychology emphasizes on
treating the psychological issues of people. Nurses have to understand the
psychology of their patients and support them emotionally for a speedy
recovery.
1.To understand own self- The knowledge of psychology will help the nurse to
get insight in to her own motives, desires, emotions, feelings, attitudes. She will
realize how her personality is highly individualistic and complex, arrives at
decisions her life and solves her own problems. This knowledge also help her to
understand her strength and weakness.
2.To understand patients- The nurse are professionals meant for providing care
to patients. Patients may also have tension worries, pains and also many
doubts about their illness. The knowledge of psychology will help the nurse to
understand the problems and needs of patients and attend to them. She can
understand the motives, attitudes of patients in a better way.

3. To recognize abnormal behavior- The knowledge of psychology will help

nurses to understand abnormal behaviors and help the patient in

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 management of mental illnesses. Nurses working in mental hospitals
definitely need an adequate knowledge of normal and abnormal psychology.
4. To understand other self-The student nurse has to study, work, and live with
other nurses and doctor, patient and their family members. With her scientific
knowledge of human nature, she will understand them better and thus
achieve greater success in interpersonal relationship. She will learn why
other differ from her in their like and dislike, in their interest and abilities or in
their reaction to others.
5. To provide quality care to patients- A nurse with good knowledge of human
psychology can understand what fears or anxieties the patient faces, what
he feels, what he would like to know and why he behaves the way he does. A
good understanding of these patients by the nurse can be of best support to
him.

6. Help patients adjusts to the situation- Illness and physical handicaps often bring about
the need for major adjustment. A nurse trained in psychology can be effective health
educator and help in these kind of adjustment.
7. Help the student nurse to appreciate the necessity for changing the environment or
surrounding- Good nursing care depends upon the ability of a nurse to understand the

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 situations properly and also in obtaining the cooperation of other people concerned.
The change in the environment is sometimes necessary for better adjustment and
happiness.
8. Help foe effective studying- The nurse has to learn many new things during her
training. She has to obtain the knowledge of correct facts about disease condition and
their treatment. The study of psychology of learning will help the nurse to acquire
knowledge in an effective way.
9. Readjustment –1. Every profession and career requires readjustment. A nurse needs
to make the following kinds of adjustment for success in the nursing carrier-:
overcoming homesickness and self-reliance is needed if she has to live smoothly in a
hostel or a hospital.
2. Adjusting to sick person, who may cry desperate and ventilate their anger by making
the nurse a target of their abuses and curses.
3. Trying to work and study together.

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 Application of psychology
1. In the field of education- Theories of learning,
motivation and personality, etc. have been
responsible for shaping and designing the
educational system according to the needs and
requirements of the students. The application of
psychology in the field of education has helped
the learners to learner, the teacher to teach,
administrators to administer and educational
planner to plan effectively and efficiently.
2.In the field of medicine
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 A doctor, nurse or any person who attends
the patient, needs to know the science of
behavior to achieve good result .
Psychological has contributed valuable
therapeutic measures like behavior therapy,
play therapy, group therapy,
psychoanalysis, etc. for the diagnosis and
cure of patients suffering from
psychosomatic, as well as mental diseases.
3. In the field of business and industry- it has
highlighted the importance of knowledge of
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 consumer’s psychology and harmonious
interpersonal relationship in the field of
commerce and industry.
4. In the field of criminology- it has helped in
detection of crimes and in dealing with
criminals.
* the field of politics- it has proved useful to
the politicians and leaders to learn the
qualities of leadership for leading the
masses.
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5. In the field of guidance and counseling- it
has provided valuable help in relation to
guidance and counseling in educational,
personal as well as vocational area.
6. In the field of military science

Psychology helps in the selection, training, promotion

and classification of defense personnel. In fighting the
enemy, the morale of the defense personnel and of
citizen must at all costs be high and this can only be
achieved by providing suggestions, insight and
confidence.

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6. In the field of human relationship and self-development-
finally it has helped human beings to learn the art of
understanding their own behavior, seeking adjustment
with their self and others and enhancing, as well as
actualizing their potentialities to the almost possible.

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