Many people have attempted to provide an exact definition of the concept of psychology. However, over the years, different authors have differed in their vision of psychology.
In no way can one affirm the validity of some and refute others, since each of them has marked a part in the history of psychology.
Therefore, in this Psychology-Online article, we present different definitions of psychology according to different authors.
According to Sos (2015), psychology is a discipline of knowledge dedicated to the production of ideas, instruments, methods and procedures of action and intervention that deal with the psychological and behavioral phenomena and human experience. Try to explain the behavior in a comprehensive sense and in its different contexts, to predict and control the subject’s behavior.
Psychology is a science with a wide variety of areas and approaches. It is considered to be composed of a social part and a natural part. This science is considered by scholars to be a young science, since its study began relatively few years ago.
Broadly speaking, we could say that psychology aims to help people to manage your life effectively. However, in our society there is still a marked taboo when it comes to visiting psychologists, since unfortunately it is still considered that those who turn to psychology do so because they have mental problems.
There are two large entities whose definitions and classifications are currently used as references:
What is psychology according to the APA
Psychology is about study of mind and behavior. It is a diverse scientific discipline comprising several main branches of research, as well as several subareas of research and applied psychology. Research involves observation, experimentation, testing, and analysis to explore the biological, cognitive, emotional, personal, and social processes or stimuli underlying human or animal behavior.
What is psychology according to the WHO
The WHO does not provide an exact definition of psychology, but rather defines mental health. For this, it defines it as a state of mental and psychological well-being. It determines that its objective is to improve the mental health of people and society as a whole, promoting mental well-being, preventing mental disorders and protecting human rights.
On the other hand, the different currents of psychology have seen this discipline from different perspectives. Some of the most relevant authors understood psychology in the following way:
What is psychology according to Freud
Freud overcame the belief linked to the conception of behavioral disorder as an expression of a brain disease. That is, he linked a child’s primary interactions with the subsequent development of behavioral problems. He centered the basis of psychology on psychoanalysis, which focused on the repression of instincts as the only culprit in the development of future pathologies. Here you can read more about.
What is psychology according to Plato
Plato started from the idea that evil did not exist and that therefore no one could be bad by nature. For him, a person was evil as a result of bad habits or poor education. He was the first to divide the soul into three parts, a rational part, a passionate part and finally a hedonistic part.
What is psychology according to Wundt
Wundt’s main goal was to understand consciousness as it is experienced and, in turn, understand the mental laws that govern people.
The name with which this author called what is considered the first psychological school was Voluntarism. For Wundt, the experimental psychology It could only be used to understand immediate consciousness, so naturalistic observation was required to understand higher mental processes and their products.
What is psychology according to James
According to James, the scientific and philosophical approach should be used in the study of behavior and thinking of the man. He stated that all aspects of man could be known through scientific investigation. This author considered that if an idea worked, it was valid. That is to say, the ultimate criterion for judging an idea should be its usefulness.
What is psychology according to Ebbinghaus
The psychologist Ebbinghaus made a great contribution to psychology, which marked a before and after as far as his point of view is concerned. This author studied the learning and memory processes at the same moment in which they occurred and not later, which was exactly how they had been studied up to that point. He was one of the first scientists to use the experimental method within psychology, since contrary to what Wundt claimed, he demonstrated that memory was a superior psychological process capable of being measured experimentally.
What is psychology according to Titchener
For this author, psychology was fundamentally experimental, so everything prior to said version did not have to be considered psychology. He was the founder of the.
Titchener thought like Wundt that psychology should study immediate experience, that is, consciousness. So he defined this concept as the sum total of mental experiences and defined the mind as the experiences accumulated throughout life. He also established as objectives for psychology the determination of what, how and why of mental life. He defines psychology as the analytical study of the human, adult, normal, generalized mindwhich is carried out through introspection.
What is psychology according to Watson
Watson discovered the objective psychology, where he denied both the use of introspection and any type of explanation of behavior based on mentalism. He determined the goal of psychology as the prediction and control of behavior.
What is psychology according to Piaget
Piaget is considered the father of Evolutionary Psychology, which is based on the study of the psychic development of people from birth to old age. For him, psychology is based on the evolution of our knowledge about the environment and the development of thought. In the following article you will find.
What is psychology according to Skiner?
This author is one of the best known within the current psychology of behaviorism, which assumes that all behaviors come as responses to certain stimuli in the environment or from previous experiences in the history of the individual who carries them out. Here you can read the .
What is psychology according to McDougal
For this author, psychology could be better defined as the positive behavioral science of living creatures. He focused on a psychology based on the behavioral methodological school.
What is psychology according to Briggman
Briggman proposed that every existing concept should be defined, that is, operational definitions should link theoretical terms to observable phenomena. This is what was later called operationism.