Psychology

What is Psychology?

• is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

• Behavior : All of our outward and overt actions and reactions such as talking etc.
• Mental Processes : All the internal, covert activity of our mind such as thinking etc.

• Why scientific?

• To prevent possible biases from leading to faulty observations

Psychology Goals

• Description
• What is happening?
• Involves observing behavior and noting everything about it, what, where, to whom.

• Explaination
• Why is it happening?
• To come out with a tentative explaination on certain behaviors.
• To explain the observation.
• To form a theory. (general explaination of a set of observation or facts)

• Prediction
• When will it happen again?
• To determine when will a certain behavior happen again in the future.
• Predict based on previous results and apply to similar situations.

• Control
• How can it be changed?
• To focus on the control or modification of some behavior. (to change a behavior from undesirable to a desirable)

Types of Psychological Professionals

• Psichiatrist
• Medical doctor that specializes in diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders.
• Can prescribe medication.
• Only for medical course doctors.

• Psychologist
• Has a doctrate degree and works with either humans or animals in a variety of setting based on the area of specialization.
• Must be licensed to practise independently and does not prescribe medication.

• Psychoanalyst
• Usually a psychoanalyst or psychologist who has special training in theories of Freud.

• Psichiatric social worker
• Has training in area of social works and often has a professional license to practise.