Cognitive Psychology
February 12, 2025
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The term ’Psychology’ has been derived from two Greek words ’Psyche’ which means life and ’logos’ which means explanation. Psychology as a social science scientifically studies the mind and behaviour, which influences our day to day lives, professional well being and our relationships with family members and society.
Psychology as a social science has evolved a lot over several years and has widespread applications in clinical field, forensic field, counseling and psycho-therapy sessions for people who are distressed, research and observation for understanding certain behaviour patterns and differences in personality, attitude or perception. As per Seyidov (2000), Psychology analysis is a pertinent area of concern for the HR or Management professionals, as it addresses the four crucial problem areas: Employee Motivation, Interpersonal Relations, Leadership and Selection of the talent pool.
Several years of research and investigations done by the psychologists (both researchers and practitioners) focus on one common aspect, that is relying on scientific techniques. Most of the researches on psychology involve a scientific assessment of human behaviour (Heider, 1958; Kelley, 1967). Psychology is predominantly based on three important premises:
The field of Psychology has transformed from being more speculative in its approach, to being more objective and scientific by adopting technology to assess human behaviour (Benjamin & Baker, 2004). The father of Modern Psychology is Wilhelm Wundt, who introduced the first psychology lab in Germany in 1879. In the “first” psych experiment, Wundt measured the time it took people to hit a switch as soon as they heard and perceived a sound. The German psychologist was the main proponent of structuralism. The origin of Psychology finds its mention in the studies of scholars like Buddha, Confucius and Hebrew, who philosophized on the functioning of mind in a broader sense. Even the Greeks, like Plato and Socrates, philosophized that mind is different from the rest of the body and also that we all are born with knowledge which is innate.
Much later in 1600s, Rene Descartes tried figuring out the relationship or connection between the mind and body, for which he performed a dissection on the animals to study their nerves as well as the brains. Francis Bacon conducted experiments using scientific techniques, for which he is also known as the father of modern science. According to John Locke, people’s minds can be compared to a “blank slate” or tabula rasa. Which means, whatever we know is learnt, which gave birth to “empiricism” – knowledge comes from experiences.
Dramatic changes took place during 1800s due to the efforts of Wilhelm Wundt, German Psychologist (18321920) and William James, American Psychologist (18421910). Let’s analyze the various approaches or schools of thought on Psychology.
Structuralism: Wundt and his student Edward Bradford Titchener propounded the structuralism approach of Psychology, with focus on the structure of the mind or analysis of the basic elements of consciousness and their interrelationship using introspection. The subjectivity of this approach and the limitations associated with introspection, made structuralism approach a bit less popular.
Functionalism (1842-1910): William James was the father of Functionalism approach which focused on understanding the functioning of the mental processes instead of analyzing the structure of consciousness. His main achievement was the psych lab that he established, though functionalism approach also had its own limitations.
Biopsychosocial Approach: According to this approach, human behaviour is influenced by all the three key components-Psychological, Biological and Socio-cultural factors. From the biopsychosocial approach we derived the modern approaches to psychology:
Let’s analyze the vast field of psychology by understanding the various branches of this field and their areas of concentration
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