Cherry (2018) defines psychology as the study of mind and behavior. Psychology seeks to understand how a person acts and thinks in situations. There are various fields in psychology such as clinical psychology, criminal psychology and many more. Psychology is relatively different compared to other fields as it focuses more on the complex human mind. While many argue that Psychology and sociology are similar, one vast difference between the two fields is that psychologists analyzes people’s mind and behavior while sociology focuses more on a person’s behavior in a group or the patterns of social relationships. Psychologists exploit different approaches while analyzing the behavior of a person. For example the learning approach, the Psychodynamic approach, the Cognitive approach, the Humanistic approach and Biological approach. I will be focusing on each of these approaches and explaining their role in psychology.
The learning approach to psychology suggests that behavior can be learned by experiencing certain situations repeatedly. Unlike other approaches learning approach focuses on observable behavior and therefore can be scientifically tested. This approach somewhat contradicts the biological approach which suggests that behavior can be hereditary. This approach arose in an attempt to understand the relationship between mind and body and the influence on heredity on our behaviour .If I were to take an issue like drug addiction for an example the learning approach suggests that the addict might have used drugs several times hence leading to addiction. Whereas from a biological perspective the psychologist might consider a possible brain injury causing the person to take relief from drugs or the biological roots that lie behind the abuse of drugs.
One of the most popular approaches to psychology is cognitive Approach. Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes such as thinking, feeling, learning, decision making and problem solving. Famous psychologists Jean Piaget and Albert Bandura played a huge role in the growth of this approach over the past decades. Researching more about how the human brain think and process information has helped psychologists get a deeper understanding of how the brain works and in turn helps them discover new and improved ways to treat patients with psychological disorders. Cognitive psychology focuses more on how people perceive, interpret and store information. Cognitive research helps you cope with memory disorders, increases decision making accuracy and helps people recover from brain injuries.
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Works Cited
- Cherry, K. (2018, February 05). verywellmind. Retrieved March 12, 2019, from An overveiw of psychology: http://www.verywellmind.com/psychology-4014660
