The object of STUDY of PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology has entered law among the disciplines most followed by the population, also due to its strong fascination. It has been legitimized, first socially and then legally, as a science capable of providing answers, solutions and proposals for change. On the one hand, for social problems such as issues related to the human soul, the interpersonal relationships and everything that is difficult to detect by simple observation review.

Thus, in this Psychology-Online article, we will delve into the subject and the object of study of psychology.

Index

1. What does psychology study
2. Object of study of clinical psychology
3. What Evolutionary Psychology Studies
4. Object of study of social psychology
5. What does cognitive psychology study?
6. Object of study of educational psychology

Currently, psychology is configured as an extremely varied and extraordinarily complex discipline. Throughout the world, each psychologist is working on the study of different and multiple objects, is called to operate in different fields of application and is able to use intervention methodologies of which he knows the effectiveness.

Nowadays there is an increasing tendency to talk about psychology, underlining the extremely complex of the discipline, which is defined by an objective study of man and the context in which it lives. To summarize the numerous definitions present in the literature, psychology is the study of mind, behavior and experience of human beings. In general terms, we can define psychology as a theoretical and operational information system that provides knowledge and / or a reading key to relate to the world.

Clinical psychology is one of the fields of research and professional intervention in psychology. The scope of clinical psychology refers to adjustment problems, behavioral disorders, states and conditions of discomfort and suffering, in order to evaluate and care for them with psychological means to facilitate and support well-being, and the cognitive, emotional and relational development of people.

Clinical psychology It is distinguished by the theories, methods and instruments of intervention aimed at activities of prevention, evaluation, habilitation-rehabilitation and psychological support, with special attention to understanding the individual and collective demand of the user (partner, family, groups, organizations and communities), psychological diagnosis and help and support interventions, including strictly psychotherapeutic.

The object of study of clinical psychology includes thematic nuclei of operational interest and clinical research such as:

• The prevention primary and secondary of personal annoyances.
• The ID and the early diagnosis of psychopathological risks;
• The cognitive factors, affective-emotional, psychosocial, behavioral, personality, social and cultural that are at the origin of the disturbances that maintain the condition of discomfort.
• emotions and their regulation in relation to health and disease, with special attention to affective disruptions;
• The clinical management modalities of the different types of individual, couple, family and group disorders.
• The various forms of psychological counseling individual, couple, family and group.
• Improving the effectiveness of psychodiagnostic techniques.
• The management modalities of emotional, relational or decision-making crisis situations that arise in various phases and contexts of life.
• The promotion of psychosocial well-being individual and in social settings (nurseries, schools, family and work).
• Designing effective forms of psychological rehabilitation and psychosocial.
• The evaluation of the effectiveness of aid interventions and prevention and health promotion programs in different social contexts.

Evolutionary psychology or evolutionary age is the discipline that deals with the development of the various personality aspects and of the various forms of behavior in the period from birth to the end of adolescence. Indeed, in this period the personality is acquiring, through some evolutionary processes, greater autonomy and maturation in understanding affective participation and socialization.

Current perspectives on evolutionary psychology originate from the psychoanalysis theory of Sigmund Freud, who was the first to identify the successive phases of the intrapsychic development of the boy or girl: the oral, anal and phallic phase, to reach the maturation characterized by the phase genital. Generally, this process is divided into five conventional phases, which each individual can cross at different ages:

• The early childhood: 0 to 2 years.
• The second childhood: from 2 to 6 years.
• The childhood: from 6 to 10 years.
• The preadolescence: from 10 to 14 years old.
• The adolescence: from 14 to 18-25 years old.

Goals of evolutionary psychology

All these phases imply the overcoming of certain evolutionary tasks that, in turn, determine periods of crisis physiological and aimed at achieving an adaptation between one's own vision of the world and the growing complexity of life inside. In reference to this vision, the object of study of evolutionary psychology is to measure dysfunction, identify the problem and focus the objective.

More specifically, it is investigatesthe emotional and behavioral manifestation of the child, which assumes a meaning within that particular relationship of attachment-care, inserted in a specific family, social and cultural context.

Evolutionary psychology It was not established as an independent discipline from both general psychology and pedagogy until the end of the last century. The investigations carried out in evolutionary psychology are grouped around some great themes of which they have constituted a progressive deepening:

• The development areas and their interdependence.
• The development phases.
• The developmental factors.

Social psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the interaction between people: manifestations, causes, consequences and psychological processes involved. Gordon Allport (1954) provides a widely used and more technical definition: "Social psychology is the scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the objective, imagined or implicit presence of the rest.

Social psychology is not the only science that deals with interactions between individuals. It differs from sociology and anthropology in at least two respects:

1. The methodology in social psychology places more emphasis on the quantification of descriptions and the experimentation in controlled situations, contrary to the usual practice in sociology or social anthropology.
2. Research on human interaction carried out in the field of social psychology has a psychological orientation rather than a social or cultural one. The object of our interest is the role of psychological processes and variables in interaction between individuals and not the explanation and understanding of the larger culture in which they live.

In this article, you will find more information about difference between social psychology and sociology.

Perhaps, more than any other science, social psychology deals with human behavior at a common, everyday, observable level, of which all of us, by definition, are "experts." Most of us have an implicit knowledge and understanding of how, for example, non-verbal communication looks in everyday interactions. The task of social psychology is to make this implicit knowledge explicit. Describe in controlled situations exactly what each non-verbal signal communicates in various circumstances.

Cognitive psychology, also called cognitivism, is a branch of psychology applied to the study of cognitive processes, theorized around 1967 by the American psychologist Ulric Neisser. The object of study of cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes through which information is obtained from the cognitive system, processed, stored and retrieved.

It studies the mind as an intermediate element between behavior and purely neurophysiological brain activity. The operating model is assimilated, metaphorically, to that of a software that processes information coming from the outside (input), returning information (output) in the form of a representation of the knowledge, organized in semantic and cognitive networks.

The main theme that cognitivism takes into account is precisely how the subject changes with the interaction with the outside world. Cognitive psychology wants help the subject to modify their way of processing data and stimuli, acting on the basis of the problem. By changing the way of elaboration it is possible to help people to find appropriate behaviors to each situation, to eliminate those that can be considered counterproductive and in some cases self-destructive. It makes them free to have a healthy and balanced life.

Cognitive psychology is today a strongly multidisciplinary science, using methods, theoretical apparatus, and empirical data from many other disciplines, including:

• Linguistics.
• The neurosciences.
• The social and communication sciences.
• Biology.
• Artificial intelligence and computing.
• The maths.
• The philosophy.
• Physics.

Educational psychology, born at the beginning of the 20th century, is a branch of psychology that studies learning processes that involve the individual and the development of it. On the other hand, it also studies the teaching processes in schools, that is, educational institutions in which knowledge is transmitted, behaviors, habits, values ​​and norms of social interest, through instruments and methodologies of evaluation, teaching, class formation, etc.

It is about identifying factors in the learning environment that can facilitate or hinder learning, motivation, well-being of students and, in general, of learners. For example, the way the teacher conducts the class, the characteristics of the explanation, the use of material as an educational aid, etc. In this article, you will see what is learning psychology: history, books and authors.

In essence, it can be said that while developmental psychology focuses on the evolution (change, growth, maturation) of the individual, without forgetting the environmental, family and cultural factors that can affect such development, the psychology of education is interested in the way education, even if it's not strictly school, can improve behavior, the knowledge and skills, the way of thinking and the attitudes of the individual.

The educational psychology It is a science that studies and intervenes on the psychological conditions that characterize the educational process of the person within her ecosystem, to promote the well-being of her development. In this sense, it can be defined as the psychology of prevention and development promotion.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to The object of study of psychology, we recommend that you enter our category of Basic psychology.

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