Careers - Psychology

Psychology comes from the Greek phrase meaning “to talk about the soul.” It is defined as the study of mental processes and behavior. Psychologists study such aspects as perception, cognition, emotion, personality and behavior. Psychology is everywhere in the world. It is in your family, your career, your school, your relationships, and more.

Psychology describes and attempts to explain consciousness, behavior, and social interaction. It examines the relationship between consciousness and the brain or nervous system. Psychology has always been around, but a man by the name of Wilhelm Wundt really introduced it into the world. He was known as the “father of psychology.” He founded a laboratory in Germany in 1879, which is known as the “birth date of psychology.” Other important early contributors to the field include Hermann Ebbinghaus, who studied memory at the University of Berlin; and the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who studied the learning process that is now known as classical conditioning. His experiment was using a dog and ringing a bell to signal there was food. This would make the dog salivate. After a while, he took away the food, and just by ringing a bell, the dog would salivate. There are many different types of research methods that psychologists perform such as controlled experiments, animal studies, surveys, and longitudinal studies.

During the 1890s, an Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, who had no experience or training in the field of psychology, had developed a method of psychotherapy known as psychoanalysis. Freud's methods were focused on helping with internal conflicts and mental distress. His theories ranged from topics like sexuality to repression to the unconscious mind. They became very popular because people did not normally discuss these topics. Freud had no idea that he would be influencing psychologists for years and years ahead of him. Freud divided the mind into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is our pleasure center. It does what would be most pleasurable to the body and mind. It acts on impulses and is driven by our most unconscious desires. The ego mediates the id. Its purpose is to find balance between impulses and morals. It regulates between the id and the superego. The superego is the conscience.

Psychology is narrowed down into many other fields such as: abnormal, cognitive, developmental, personality, counseling, health, and many, many more. Abnormal deals with personality disorders. Cognitive deals with studying mental processes and why people do what they do. Developmental is studying infants and children from before they are even born until adolescence. Personality deals with emotions of people.