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Psychology
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Psychology is the science of behavior and mind, embracing all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience as well as thought. It is a discipline and a social science which seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist and can be classified as a social, behavioral, Psychologists explore behavior and mental processes, including perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, and personality. This extends to interaction between people, such as relationships, including psychological resilience, family resilience, and other areas. Psychologists of diverse orientations also consider the unconscious mind, Psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlational relationships between psychosocial variables. Psychology has been described as a hub science, with psychological findings linking to research and perspectives from the sciences, natural sciences, medicine, humanities. By many accounts psychology ultimately aims to benefit society, the majority of psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role, practicing in clinical, counseling, or school settings. Many do scientific research on a range of topics related to mental processes and behavior. The word psychology derives from Greek roots meaning study of the psyche, the Latin word psychologia was first used by the Croatian humanist and Latinist Marko Marulić in his book, Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae in the late 15th century or early 16th century. In 1890, William James defined psychology as the science of mental life and this definition enjoyed widespread currency for decades. Also since James defined it, the more strongly connotes techniques of scientific experimentation. Folk psychology refers to the understanding of people, as contrasted with that of psychology professionals. The ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, India, historians note that Greek philosophers, including Thales, Plato, and Aristotle, addressed the workings of the mind. As early as the 4th century BC, Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that mental disorders had physical rather than supernatural causes, in China, psychological understanding grew from the philosophical works of Laozi and Confucius, and later from the doctrines of Buddhism. This body of knowledge involves insights drawn from introspection and observation and it frames the universe as a division of, and interaction between, physical reality and mental reality, with an emphasis on purifying the mind in order to increase virtue and power. Chinese scholarship focused on the advanced in the Qing Dynasty with the work of Western-educated Fang Yizhi, Liu Zhi. Distinctions in types of awareness appear in the ancient thought of India, a central idea of the Upanishads is the distinction between a persons transient mundane self and their eternal unchanging soul. Divergent Hindu doctrines, and Buddhism, have challenged this hierarchy of selves, yoga is a range of techniques used in pursuit of this goal
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Subfields of psychology
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Psychology encompasses a vast domain, and includes many different approaches to the study of mental processes and behavior. Below are the areas of inquiry that taken together constitute psychology. A comprehensive list of the sub-fields and areas within psychology can be found at the list of psychology topics, abnormal psychology is the study of abnormal behavior in order to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning. Abnormal psychology studies the nature of psychopathology and its causes, and it can be difficult to draw the line between normal and abnormal behaviors. In general, abnormal behaviors must be maladaptive and cause an individual significant discomfort in order to be of clinical, according to the DSM-IV-TR, behaviors may be considered abnormal if they are associated with disability, personal distress, the violation of social norms, or dysfunction. Anomalistic psychology is the study of behaviour and experience connected with what is often called the paranormal. Behavioural genetics uses genetically informative designs to understand the nature and origins of differences in behavior. In focussing on the causes of differences, behavioral genetics is distinct from evolutionary psychology. Behavioral genetics has thus been associated strongly with the diathesis stress model of psychopathology as well as the nature/nurture debate, a resurgence of behavioral genetics research began in the 1960s and rose into prominence in the 1980s and beyond. During this time study and adoption studies were conducted on a wide array of behavioral traits, including personality, cognitive ability, psychiatric illness, medical illness. The general conclusion of large body of work is that every behavioral and medical trait. These genetic variants can then be tested for association with behavioral traits and disorders and this approach to understanding the genetic influences on behavior have seen recent successes in, for example, schizophrenia. Psychiatric genetics is a subfield of behavioral genetics, biological psychology is the scientific study of the biological substrates of behavior and mental states. Seeing all behavior as intertwined with the system, biological psychologists feel it is sensible to study how the brain functions in order to understand behavior. This is the approach taken in behavioral neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology is the branch of psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relate to specific behavioral and psychological processes. Neuropsychology is particularly concerned with the understanding of brain injury in an attempt to work out normal psychological function, cognitive neuroscientists often use neuroimaging tools, which can help them to observe which areas of the brain are active during a particular task. Some clinical psychologists may focus on the management of patients with brain injury—this area is known as clinical neuropsychology. In many countries clinical psychology is a mental health profession
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Behavioural genetics
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Behavioural genetics, also referred to as behaviour genetics, is a field of scientific research that uses genetic methods to investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in behaviour. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, technological advances in genetics made it possible to measure. This led to advances in model organism research and in human studies. Findings from behavioural genetic research have broadly impacted modern understanding of the role of genetic and these include evidence that nearly all researched behaviors are under a significant degree of genetic influence, and that influence tends to increase as individuals develop into adulthood. Further, most researched human behaviours are influenced by a large number of genes. Environmental influences also play a role, but they tend to make family members more different from one another. Selective breeding and the domestication of animals is perhaps the earliest evidence that humans considered the idea that differences in behaviour could be due to natural causes. Plato and Aristotle each speculated on the basis and mechanisms of inheritance of behavioural characteristics, modern-day behavioural genetics began with Sir Francis Galton, a nineteenth-century intellectual and cousin of Charles Darwin. Galton was a polymath who studied many things, including the heritability of human abilities, one of Galtons investigations involved a large pedigree study of social and intellectual achievement in the English upper class. In 1869,10 years after Darwins Origin of the species, in this work, Galton found that the rate of eminence was highest among close relatives of eminent individuals, and decreased as the degree of relationship to eminent individuals decreased. The field of genetics, as founded by Galton, was ultimately undermined by another of Galtons intellectual contributions. The primary idea behind eugenics was to use selective breeding combined with knowledge about the inheritance of behaviour to improve the human species, the eugenics movement was subsequently discredited by scientific corruption and genocidal actions in Nazi Germany. Behavioural genetics was thereby discredited through its association to eugenics, however, it eventually disappeared from usage in favour of behaviour genetics. The start of behavior genetics as a field was marked by the publication in 1960 of the book Behavior Genetics by John L. Fuller. The field has grown and diversified, touching many scientific disciplines. Behavioural genetic research and findings have at times been controversial, major areas of controversy have included genetic research on topics such as racial differences, intelligence, violence, and human sexuality. The primary goal of behavioural genetics is to investigate the nature, a wide variety of different methodological approaches are used in behavioral genetic research, only a few of which are outlined below. In animal research selection experiments have often been employed, for example, laboratory house mice have been bred for open-field behaviour, thermoregulatory nesting, and voluntary wheel-running behaviour
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Cognitive psychology
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Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and thinking. Philosophically, ruminations of the mind and its processes have been around since the times of the ancient Greeks. In 387 BCE, Plato is known to have suggested that the brain was the seat of the mental processes. In 1637, René Descartes posited that humans are born with ideas, and forwarded the idea of mind-body dualism. From that time, major debates ensued through the 19th century regarding whether human thought was solely experiential, some of those involved in this debate included George Berkeley and John Locke on the side of empiricism, and Immanuel Kant on the side of nativism. With the philosophical debate continuing, the mid to late 19th century was a time in the development of psychology as a scientific discipline. Problems such as how to best train soldiers to use new technology, developments in computer science would lead to parallels being drawn between human thought and the computational functionality of computers, opening entirely new areas of psychological thought. Allen Newell and Herbert Simon spent years developing the concept of artificial intelligence and this encouraged a conceptualization of mental functions patterned on the way that computers handled such things as memory storage and retrieval. Noam Chomskys 1959 critique of behaviorism, and empiricism more generally, formal recognition of the field involved the establishment of research institutions such as George Mandlers Center for Human Information Processing in 1964. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images, given such a sweeping definition, it is apparent that cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do, that every psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon. But although cognitive psychology is concerned with all human activity rather than some fraction of it, other viewpoints are equally legitimate and necessary. Dynamic psychology, which begins with rather than with sensory input, is a case in point. Instead of asking how a mans actions and experiences result from what he saw, remembered, or believed, the main focus of cognitive psychologists is on the mental processes that affect behavior. Those processes include, but are not limited to, the following, a key function of attention is to identify irrelevant data and filter it out, enabling significant data to be distributed to the other mental processes. For example, the brain may simultaneously receive auditory, visual, olfactory, taste. The brain is able to only a small subset of this information. Endogenous control works top-down and is the more deliberate attentional system, responsible for attention, divided attention, local and global attention. Attention tends to be visual or auditory
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Comparative psychology
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Research in this area addresses many different issues, uses many different methods and explores the behavior of many different species from insects to primates. Comparative psychology is sometimes assumed to emphasize cross-species comparisons, including those between humans and animals, using a comparative approach to behavior allows one to evaluate the target behavior from four different, complementary perspectives, developed by Niko Tinbergen. First, one may ask how pervasive the behavior is across species, second, one may ask how the behavior contributes to the lifetime reproductive success of the individuals demonstrating the behavior. Theories addressing the causes of behavior are based on the answers to these two questions. Third, what mechanisms are involved in the behavior, fourth, a researcher may ask about the development of the behavior within an individual. Theories addressing the causes of behavior are based on answers to these two questions. For more details see Tinbergens four questions, the earliest works on the social organization of ants and animal communication and psychology were written by al-Jahiz, a 9th-century Afro-Arab scholar who wrote many works on these subjects. The 11th century Arabic writer Ibn al-Haytham wrote the Treatise on the Influence of Melodies on the Souls of Animals, an early treatise dealing with the effects of music on animals. Charles Darwin was central in the development of psychology, it is thought that psychology should be spoken in terms of pre-. Darwins theory led to several hypotheses, one being that the factors that set apart, such as higher mental, moral and spiritual faculties. In response to the vehement opposition to Darwinism was the movement led by George Romanes who set out to demonstrate that animals possessed a rudimentary human mind. Romanes is most famous for two major flaws in his work, his focus on observations and entrenched anthropomorphism. Near the end of the 19th century, several scientists existed whose work was very influential. Douglas Alexander Spalding was called the first experimental biologist, and worked mostly with birds, studying instinct, imprinting, behavioral ecology in the 1970s gave a more solid base of knowledge against which a true comparative psychology could develop. A persistent question with which comparative psychologists have been faced is the intelligence of different species of animal. Indeed, some attempts at a genuinely comparative psychology involved evaluating how well animals of different species could learn different tasks. In the literature, intelligence is defined as whatever is closest to human performance, a wide variety of species have been studied by comparative psychologists. However, a number have dominated the scene
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Developmental psychology
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Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why human beings change over the course of their life. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and this field examines change across three major dimensions, physical development, cognitive development, and socioemotional development. Developmental psychology examines the influences of nature and nurture on the process of human development, many researchers are interested in the interaction between personal characteristics, the individuals behavior and environmental factors, including social context and the built environment. Ongoing debates include biological essentialism vs. neuroplasticity and stages of development vs. dynamic systems of development, influential developmental psychologists from the 20th century include Urie Bronfenbrenner, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Barbara Rogoff, Esther Thelen, and Lev Vygotsky. Watson and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are typically cited as providing the foundations for modern developmental psychology, in the mid-18th century Jean Jacques Rousseau described three stages of development, infants, puer and adolescence in Emile, Or, On Education. Rousseaus ideas were taken up strongly by educators at the time, stanley Hall, who attempted to correlate ages of childhood with previous ages of mankind. James Mark Baldwin who wrote essays on topics that included Imitation, A Chapter in the Natural History of Consciousness and Mental Development in the Child, Baldwin was heavily involved in the theory of developmental psychology. Sigmund Freud, whose concepts were developmental, had a significant impact on public perceptions, Sigmund Freud believed that we all had a conscious, preconscious, and unconscious level. In the conscious we are aware of our mental process, the preconscious involves information that, though not currently in our thoughts, can be brought into consciousness. Lastly, the unconscious includes mental processes we are unaware of and he believed there is tension between the conscious and unconscious, because the conscious tries to hold back what the unconscious tries to express. To explain this he developed three personality structures, the id, ego, and superego, the id, the most primitive of the three, functions according to the pleasure principle, seek pleasure and avoid pain. The superego plays the critical and moralizing role, and the ego is the organized, based on this, he proposed five universal stages of development, that each are characterized by the erogenous zone that is the source of the childs psychosexual energy. The first is the stage, which occurs from birth to 12 months of age. During the oral stage the libido is centered in a babys mouth, the baby is able to suck. The second is the stage, from one to three years of age. During the anal stage, the child defecates from the anus, the third is the phallic stage, which occurs from three to five years of age. During the phallic stage, the child is aware of their sexual organs, the fourth is the latency stage, which occurs from age five until puberty. During the latency stage, the sexual interests are repressed
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Evolutionary psychology
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Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological structure from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which psychological traits are evolved adaptations – that is. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, Evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior is the output of psychological adaptations that evolved to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments. The theories and findings of EP have applications in fields, including economics, environment, health, law, management, psychiatry, politics. Evolutionary psychology is an approach that views human nature as the product of a set of evolved psychological adaptations to recurring problems in the ancestral environment. Evolutionary psychology adopts an understanding of the mind that is based on the theory of mind. EP views the brain as comprising many functional mechanisms, called psychological adaptations or evolved cognitive mechanisms or cognitive modules. Some mechanisms, termed domain-specific, deal with recurrent adaptive problems over the course of evolutionary history. Domain-general mechanisms, on the hand, are proposed to deal with evolutionary novelty. EP has roots in psychology and evolutionary biology but also draws on behavioral ecology, artificial intelligence, genetics, ethology, anthropology, archaeology, biology. Most of what is now labeled as sociobiological research is now confined to the field of behavioral ecology, Nikolaas Tinbergens four categories of questions can help to clarify the distinctions between several different, but complementary, types of explanations. Evolutionary psychology focuses primarily on the why, Questions, while traditional psychology focuses on the how. Evolutionary psychology is founded on several core premises, the brain is an information processing device, and it produces behavior in response to external and internal inputs. The brains adaptive mechanisms were shaped by natural and sexual selection, different neural mechanisms are specialized for solving problems in humanitys evolutionary past. The brain has evolved specialized neural mechanisms that were designed for solving problems that recurred over deep evolutionary time, Human psychology consists of many specialized mechanisms, each sensitive to different classes of information or inputs. These mechanisms combine to produce manifest behavior, Evolutionary psychology has its historical roots in Charles Darwins theory of natural selection. In The Origin of Species, Darwin predicted that psychology would develop an evolutionary basis, Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Darwins work inspired William Jamess functionalist approach to psychology, Darwins theories of evolution, adaptation, and natural selection have provided insight into why brains function the way they do
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Experimental psychology
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Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the processes that underlie it. Experimental psychology emerged as an academic discipline in the 19th century when Wilhelm Wundt introduced a mathematical and experimental approach to the field. Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, other experimental psychologists, including Hermann Ebbinghaus and Edward Titchener, included introspection among their experimental methods. Charles Bell was a British physiologist, whose contribution was research involving nerves. He wrote a pamphlet summarizing his research on rabbits and his research concluded that sensory nerves enter at the posterior roots of the spinal cord and motor nerves emerge from the anterior roots of the spinal cord. Eleven years later, a French physiologist Francois Magendie published the findings without being aware of Bell’s research. Due to Bell not publishing his research, the discovery was called the Bell-Magendie law, Bell’s discovery disproved the belief that nerves transmitted either vibrations or spirits. Weber was a German physician who is credited with being one of the founders of experimental psychology and his main interests were the sense of touch and kinesthesis. His most memorable contribution is the suggestion that judgments of sensory differences are relative and this relativity is expressed in Webers Law, which suggests that the just-noticeable difference, or jnd is a constant proportion of the ongoing stimulus level. Webers Law is stated as an equation, Δ I I = k, where I is the intensity of stimulation, Δ I is the addition to it required for the difference to be perceived. Thus, for k to remain constant, Δ I must rise as I increases, Weber’s law is considered the first quantitative law in the history of psychology. Fechner published in 1860 what is considered to be the first work of experimental psychology, some historians date the beginning of experimental psychology from the publication of Elemente. Weber was not a psychologist, and it was Fechner who realized the importance of Weber’s research to psychology, Fechner was profoundly interested in establishing a scientific study of the mind-body relationship, which became known as psychophysics. Oswald Külpe is the founder of the Würzburg School in Germany. He was a pupil of Wilhelm Wundt for about twelve years, unlike Wundt, Külpe believed experiments were possible to test higher mental processes. In 1883 he wrote Grundriss der Psychologie, which had strictly scientific facts, the lack of thought in his book is odd because the Würzburg School put a lot of emphasis on mental set and imageless thought. The work of the Würzburg School was a milestone in the development of experimental psychology, the School was founded by a group of psychologists led by Oswald Külpe, and it provided an alternative to the structuralism of Edward Titchener and Wilhelm Wundt. Those in the School focussed mainly on operations such as mental set
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Mathematical psychology
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The mathematical approach is used with the goal of deriving hypotheses that are more exact and thus yield stricter empirical validations. Quantifiable behavior is in practice often constituted by task performance, as quantification of behavior is fundamental in this endeavor, the theory of measurement is a central topic in mathematical psychology. Mathematical psychology is therefore related to psychometrics. They thereby established the fields of psychology in general. Researchers in astronomy in the 19th century were mapping distances between stars by denoting the time of a stars passing of a cross-hair on a telescope. For lack of the automatic registration instruments of the modern era and it had been noted that there were small systematic differences in the times measured by different astronomers, and these were first systematically studied by German astronomer Friedrich Bessel. Bessel constructed personal equations from measurements of basic response speed that would cancel out individual differences from the astronomical calculations, independently, physicist Hermann von Helmholtz measured reaction times to determine nerve conduction speed. These two lines of work together in the research of Dutch physiologist F. C. Donders and his student J. J. de Jaager, who recognized the potential of reaction times for more or less objectively quantifying the amount of time elementary mental operations required. However, findings that came from the laboratory were hard to replicate, some of the problems resulted from individual differences in response speed found by astronomers. The failure of Wundts method of introspection led to the rise of different schools of thought, Wundts laboratory was directed towards conscious human experience, in line with the work of Fechner and Weber on the intensity of stimuli. Cattell soon adopted the methods of Galton and helped laying the foundation of psychometrics, in the United States, behaviorism arose in opposition to introspectionism and associated reaction-time research, and turned the focus of psychological research entirely to learning theory. In Europe introspection survived in Gestalt psychology, behaviorism dominated American psychology until the end of the Second World War, and largely refrained from inference on mental processes. Out of this mix of different disciplines mathematical psychology arose and these two papers presented the first detailed formal accounts of data from learning experiments. By the end of the 1950s, the number of mathematical psychologists had increased from a handful by more than a tenfold, most of these were concentrated at the Indiana University, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Stanford. Some of these were invited by the U. S. Social Science Research Counsel to teach in workshops in mathematics for social scientists at Stanford University. This series of volumes turned out to be helpful in the development of the field, in the summer of 1963 the need was felt for a journal for theoretical and mathematical studies in all areas in psychology, excluding work that was mainly factor analytical
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Neuropsychology
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Neuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain as they relate to specific psychological processes and behaviors. It thus shares concepts and concerns with neuropsychiatry and with behavioral neurology in general, the term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also applied to efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells in higher primates. It is scientific in its approach, making use of neuroscience, in practice, neuropsychologists tend to work in research settings, clinical settings, forensic settings or industry. Neuropsychology is a new discipline within the field of psychology. The history of its discovery can be traced back to the Third Dynasty in ancient Egypt, there is much debate as to when societies started considering the functions of different organs. For many centuries, the brain was thought useless, and was discarded during burial processes and autopsies. As the field of medicine developed its understanding of anatomy and physiology. Many times, bodily functions were approached from a point of view and abnormalities were blamed on bad spirits. The brain has not always considered the center of the functioning body. It has taken hundreds of years to develop our understanding of the brain, the study of the brain can be linked all the way back to around 3500 B. C. Imhotep, a highly regarded priest and one of the first physicians recorded in history, imhotep took a more scientific, rather than magical, approach to medicine and disease. Despite this detailed information, Egyptians did not see the brain as the seat of the locus of control, Egyptians preferred to look at the heart as the seat of the soul. The Greeks, however, looked upon the brain as the seat of the soul, Hippocrates drew a connection between the brain and behaviors of the body saying The brain exercises the greatest power in the man. Apart from moving the focus from the heart as the seat of the soul to the brain, however, by switching the attention of the medical community to the brain, the doors were opened to a more scientific discovery of the organ responsible for our behaviors. For years to come, scientists were inspired to explore the functions of the body, scientific discovery led them to believe that there were natural and organically occurring reasons to explain various functions of the body, and it could all be traced back to the brain. Over the years, science would continue to expand and the mysteries of the world would begin to make sense, Hippocrates introduced man to the concept of the mind – which was widely seen as a separate function apart from the actual brain organ. Philosopher René Descartes expanded upon this idea and is most widely known by his work on the mind-body problem, often, Descartes ideas were looked upon as overly philosophical and lacking in sufficient scientific background
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Personality psychology
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Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and its variation among individuals. The word personality originates from the Latin persona, which means mask and it also predicts human reactions to other people, problems, and stress. There is still no consensus on the definition of personality in psychology. Gordon Allport described two major ways to study personality, the nomothetic and the idiographic, nomothetic psychology seeks general laws that can be applied to many different people, such as the principle of self-actualization or the trait of extraversion. Idiographic psychology is an attempt to understand the unique aspects of a particular individual, the study of personality has a broad and varied history in psychology with an abundance of theoretical traditions. The major theories include dispositional perspective, psychodynamic, humanistic, biological, behaviorist, evolutionary, however, many researchers and psychologists do not explicitly identify themselves with a certain perspective and instead take an eclectic approach. There is also an emphasis on the applied field of personality testing. Many of the ideas developed by historical and modern personality theorists stem from the philosophical assumptions they hold. The study of personality is not a purely empirical discipline, as it brings in elements of art, science, behavior is categorized as being either unconscious, environmental, or biological by various theories. Heredity versus environment – Personality is thought to be determined either by genetics and biology, or by environment. Contemporary research suggests that most personality traits are based on the joint influence of genetics, one of the forerunners in this arena is C. Robert Cloninger, who pioneered the Temperament and Character model. Uniqueness versus universality – This question discusses the extent of each humans individuality or similarity in nature, gordon Allport, Abraham Maslow, and Carl Rogers were all advocates of the uniqueness of individuals. Behaviorists and cognitive theorists, in contrast, emphasize the importance of universal principles, such as reinforcement, active versus reactive – This question explores whether humans primarily act through individual initiative or through outside stimuli. Most modern theorists agree that both are important, with aggregate behavior being primarily determined by traits and situational factors being the primary predictor of behavior in the short term. Optimistic versus pessimistic – Personality theories differ with regard to humans are integral in the changing of their own personalities. Theories that place a great deal of emphasis on learning are often more optimistic than those that do not, the study of personality is based on the essential insight that all people are similar in some ways, yet different in others. There have been many different definitions of personality proposed, however, many contemporary psychologists agree on the following defias differentiating the HEXACO model from other personality frameworks. Specifically, the H factor is described as sincere, honest, faithful/loyal, modest/unassuming, fair-minded, VERSUS sly, deceitful, greedy, pretentious, hypocritical, boastful, the H factor has been linked to criminal, materialistic, power-seeking, and unethical tendencies
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Positive psychology
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Those who practice positive psychology attempt psychological interventions that foster positive attitudes toward ones subjective experiences, individual traits, and life events. The goal is to minimize pathological thoughts that may arise in a hopeless mindset, Other sorts of psychological intervention have often focused on mental illness, which suggests an emphasis on maladaptive behavior and negative thinking. Around the mid-20th century, the humanistic movement encouraged an emphasis on happiness, well-being, a pioneer of this development was Martin Seligman, who made positive psychology his main theme when he became President of the American Psychological Association in 1998. Positive psychologists have suggested a number of ways in which individual happiness may be fostered, Social ties with a spouse, family, friends and wider networks through work, clubs or social organisations are of particular importance. Such things as physical exercise and the practice of meditation also may contribute to happiness, Happiness may rise with increasing financial income, though it may plateau or even fall when no further gains are made. The remainder of this article expands on these and many other themes, Positive psychology complements, without intending to replace or ignore, the traditional areas of psychology. Topics of interest to researchers in the field are, states of pleasure or flow, values, strengths, virtues, talents, as well as the ways that these can be promoted by social systems and institutions. The words, the life are derived from speculation about what holds the greatest value in life – the factors that contribute the most to a well-lived. While not attempting a strict definition of the life, positive psychologists agree that one must live a happy, engaged. Martin Seligman referred to the life as using your signature strengths every day to produce authentic happiness. Positive psychologists are concerned with four topics, positive experiences, enduring psychological traits, positive relationships, some thinkers and researchers, like Seligman, have collected data to support the development of guiding theories. Research from this branch of psychology has been applied in various ways, the basic premise of positive psychology is that human beings are often drawn by the future more than they are driven by the past. L. M. Keyes and Shane Lopez illustrate the four typologies of mental functioning, flourishing, struggling, floundering and languishing. However, complete mental health is a combination of high emotional well-being, high psychological well-being, most psychologists focus on a persons most basic emotions. There are thought to be between seven and fifteen basic emotions, the emotions can be combined in many ways to create more subtle variations of emotional experience. This suggests that any attempt to eliminate negative emotions from our life would have the unintended consequence of losing the variety and subtlety of our most profound emotional experiences. Efforts to increase positive emotions will not automatically result in decreased negative emotions, nor will decreased negative emotions necessarily result in increased positive emotions. The International Positive Psychology Association is an established association that has expanded to thousands of members from 80 different countries. ”In cognitive therapy
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Quantitative psychology
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Quantitative psychologists research traditional and novel methods of psychometrics, a field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement. At a general level, quantitative psychologists help create methods for all psychologists to test their hypotheses, Psychological research has a long history of contributing to statistical applications and theory. Quantitative psychologists have traditionally been in demand in industry, government. Their combined training in social science and quantitative methodology provides a unique skill set for solving both applied and theoretical problems in a variety of areas. Quantitative psychology has its roots in experimental psychology when, in the nineteenth century. Wilhelm Wundt is often called the founder of experimental psychology, because he called himself a psychologist, intelligence testing has long been an important branch of quantitative psychology. He established the worlds first mental testing center in 1882 in the year he published his observations and theories in Inquiries into Human Faculty. Statistical methods are the tools most used by psychologists. Pearson introduced the correlation coefficient and the chi-squared test, the 1900–1920 period saw the t-test, the ANOVA and a non-parametric correlation coefficient. A large number of tests were developed in the half of the 20th century. In 1946, psychologist Stanley Smith Stevens organized levels of measurement into four scales, Nominal, Ordinal, Ratio and he gave his name to Cohens kappa and Cohens d. In 1990, a paper titled Graduate Training in Statistics, Methodology. This article discussed the need for increased and up-to-date training in methods for psychology graduate programs in the United States. There have been critiques about the use of methods in psychological research. Notably, Professor Joel Michell from the University of Sydney has written extensively on the use and misuse of psychometric techniques, Training for quantitative psychology can begin informally at the undergraduate level. Many graduate schools recommend that students have coursework in psychology and complete the full college sequence of calculus. Quantitative coursework in other such as economics and research methods. Historically, however, students without all these courses have been accepted if other aspects of their application show promise, some schools also offer formal minors in areas related to quantitative psychology
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Social psychology
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Social psychology is the scientific study of how peoples thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. In this definition, scientific refers to the method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all psychological variables that are measurable in a human being, Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the interaction of mental states and immediate social situations. Social psychology is a discipline that had traditionally bridged the gap between psychology and sociology, during the years immediately following World War II there was frequent collaboration between psychologists and sociologists. However, the two disciplines have become increasingly specialized and isolated from other in recent years, with sociologists focusing on macro variables to a much greater extent. Nevertheless, sociological approaches to social psychology remain an important counterpart to psychological research in this area, in addition to the split between psychology and sociology, there has been a somewhat less pronounced difference in emphasis between American social psychologists and European social psychologists. As a generalization, American researchers traditionally have focused more on the individual, however, the discipline had already developed a significant foundation. Following the 18th century, those in the field of social psychology were concerned with developing concrete explanations for different aspects of human nature. They desired to discover concrete cause and effect relationships that explained the social interactions in the world around them, in order to do so, they believed that the scientific method, an empirically based scientific measure, could be applied to human behavior. The first published study in this area was an experiment in 1898 by Norman Triplett, during the 1930s, many Gestalt psychologists, most notably Kurt Lewin, fled to the United States from Nazi Germany. Attitudes and small group phenomena were the most commonly studied topics in this era, during World War II, social psychologists studied persuasion and propaganda for the U. S. military. After the war, researchers interested in a variety of social problems, including gender issues. Most notable, revealing, and contentious of these were the Stanley Milgram shock experiments on obedience to authority, in the sixties, there was growing interest in new topics, such as cognitive dissonance, bystander intervention, and aggression. By the 1970s, however, social psychology in America had reached a crisis, there was heated debate over the ethics of laboratory experimentation, whether or not attitudes really predicted behavior, and how much science could be done in a cultural context. This was also the time when a radical situationist approach challenged the relevance of self, throughout the 1980s and 1990s social psychology reached a more mature level. Two of the social psychology matured in were theories and methods. Careful ethical standards now regulate research, pluralistic and multicultural perspectives have emerged. Modern researchers are interested in many phenomena, but attribution, social cognition, Social psychologists have also maintained their applied interests with contributions in health, environmental, and legal psychology
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Clinical psychology
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In many countries, clinical psychology is a regulated mental health profession. The field is considered to have begun in 1896 with the opening of the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania by Lightner Witmer. In the first half of the 20th century, clinical psychology was focused on psychological assessment and this changed after the 1940s when World War II resulted in the need for a large increase in the number of trained clinicians. Since that time, three main models have developed in the USA—the Ph. D. Clinical Science model, the Ph. D. science-practitioner model, in the UK the Clinical Psychology Doctorate falls between the latter two of these models, whilst in much of mainland Europe the training is at masters level and predominantly psychotherapeutic. The earliest recorded approaches assess and treat mental distress were a combination of religious, early examples of such physicians included Patañjali, Padmasambhava, Rhazes, Avicenna, and Rumi. In the early 19th century, one approach to mental conditions and behavior was using phrenology. Other popular treatments at that time included the study of the shape of the face, spiritualism and Phineas Quimbys mental healing were also popular. While the scientific community came to reject all of these methods for treating mental illness. The study of mental illness was already being done in the fields of psychiatry. It was not until the end of the 19th century, around the time when Sigmund Freud was first developing his talking cure in Vienna, by the second half of the 1800s, the scientific study of psychology was becoming well established in university laboratories. Although there were a few scattered voices calling for an applied psychology and this changed when Lightner Witmer, a past student of Wundt and head of the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania, agreed to treat a young boy who had trouble with spelling. His successful treatment was soon to lead to Witmers opening of the first psychological clinic at Penn in 1896, the field was slow to follow Witmers example, but by 1914, there were 26 similar clinics in the U. S. Even as clinical psychology was growing, working with issues of mental distress remained the domain of psychiatrists and neurologists. However, clinical psychologists continued to make inroads into this area due to their skill at psychological assessment. The field began to organize under the name clinical psychology in 1917 with the founding of the American Association of Clinical Psychology and this only lasted until 1919, after which the American Psychological Association developed a section on Clinical Psychology, which offered certification until 1927. In 1945, the APA created what is now called Division 12, its division of clinical psychology, Psychological societies and associations in other English-speaking countries developed similar divisions, including in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. When World War II broke out, the once again called upon clinical psychologists
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Consumer behaviour
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It is also concerned with the social and economic impacts that purchasing and consumption behaviour has on both the consumer and wider society. Consumer behaviour blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, marketing and economics and it examines how emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behaviour. The study of behaviour also investigates the influences, on the consumer, from groups such as family, friends, sports, reference groups. The study of behaviour is concerned with all aspects of purchasing behaviour - from pre-purchase activities through to post-purchase consumption and evaluation activities. It is also concerned with all involved, either directly or indirectly, in purchasing decisions and consumption activities including brand-influencers. Research has shown that consumer behaviour is difficult to predict, even for experts in the field, however, new research methods such as ethnography and consumer neuroscience are shedding new light on how consumers make decisions. Customer relationship management databases have become an asset for the analysis of customer behaviour, understanding purchasing and consumption behaviour is a key challenge for marketers. Consumer behaviour, in its broadest sense, is concerned with understanding both how purchase decisions are made and how products or services are consumed or experienced, some purchase decisions involve long, detailed processes that include extensive information search to select between competing alternatives. Other purchase decisions, such as impulse buys, are made almost instanteously with little or no investment of time or effort in information search, some purchase decisions are made by groups while others are made by individuals. When a purchase decision is made by a group, such as a household, different members of the group may become involved at different stages of the decision process. For example, one person may search for information while another may physically go to the store, buy the product, for most purchase decisions, each of the decision roles must be performed, but not always by the same individual. The importance of children as influencers in a range of purchase contexts should never be underestimated. The decision model situates the black box in an environment which shows the interaction of external and internal stimuli as well as consumer responses. The decision model assumes that purchase decisions do not occur in a vacuum, rather they occur in real time and are affected by other stimuli, including external environmental stimuli and the consumers momentary situation. The elements of the include, interpersonal stimuli or intrapersonal stimuli, environmental stimuli. In addition, the black box includes buyer characteristics and the decision process. In practice some purchase decisions, such as those made routinely or habitually, are not driven by a sense of problem-solving. Such decisions are termed low-involvement and are characterized by low levels of information search/ evaluation activities
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Educational psychology
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Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with other disciplines. It is informed primarily by psychology, bearing a relationship to that discipline analogous to the relationship between medicine and biology and it is also informed by neuroscience. Educational psychology both draws from and contributes to science and the learning sciences. The field of educational psychology involves the study of memory, conceptual processes, Educational psychology has been built upon theories of operant conditioning, functionalism, structuralism, constructivism, humanistic psychology, Gest. psychology, and information processing. Educational psychology has seen growth and development as a profession in the last twenty years. However, school psychology itself has built a new profession based upon the practices and theories of several psychologists among many different fields. Educational psychology is a new and growing field of study. Though it can date back as early as the days of Plato and Aristotle and these topics are important to education and as a result it is important to understanding human cognition, learning, and social perception. Educational psychology dates back to the time of Aristotle and Plato, some other educational topics they spoke about were the effects of music, poetry, and the other arts on the development of individual, role of teacher, and the relations between teacher and student. Plato saw knowledge as an ability, which evolves through experience. Such a statement has evolved into an argument of nature vs. nurture in understanding conditioning and learning today. Aristotle observed the phenomenon of association and his four laws of association included succession, contiguity, similarity, and contrast. His studies examined recall and facilitated learning processes, John Locke followed by taking issue with Platos theory of innate learning processes. In place of this theory, he introduced a new theory of learning based on the tabula rasa. Locke explained that learning took place primarily through experience, and we were all born without knowledge and this doctrine is known as empiricism, the view that knowledge is primarily built on learning and experience. In the late 1600s, John Locke advanced the hypothesis that people primarily from external forces. He believed that the mind was like a tablet. Juan Vives proposed induction as the method of study and believed in the observation and investigation of the study of nature
18.
Environmental psychology
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Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the interplay between individuals and their surroundings. The field defines the term environment broadly, encompassing natural environments, social settings, built environments, learning environments, the field develops such a model of human nature while retaining a broad and inherently multidisciplinary focus. Lately, alongside the focus on climate change in society. This multidisciplinary paradigm has not only characterized the dynamic for which environmental psychology is expected to develop and it has also been the catalyst in attracting other schools of knowledge in its pursuit, aside from research psychologists. Geographers, economists, landscape architects, policy-makers, sociologists, anthropologists, educators, closely related fields include architectural psychology, socio-architecture, behavioral geography, environmental sociology, social ecology, and environmental design research. The origins of this field of study are unknown, however, One of his books, Geopsyche, discusses topics such as how the sun and the moon affect human activity, the impact of extreme environments, and the effects of color and form. Among the other scholars at the roots of environmental psychology were Jakob von Uexküll, Kurt Lewin, Egon Brunswik. The end of World War II brought about a demand for developments in the field of social psychology particularly in the areas of attitude change, small group processes. This demand caused psychologists to begin applying social psychology theories to a number of issues such as prejudice, war. It was thought that if problems were addressed, underlying notions. Although this period was crucial to the development of the field, at the time, studies were being conducted in a laboratory setting, which caused some doubt as to their validity in the real world. Consequently, environmental psychologists began to conduct studies outside of the laboratory, today environmental psychology is being applied to many different areas such as architecture and design, television programs and advertisements. Environmental psychology is a study of the relationship between an environment and how that environment affects its inhabitants. Specific aspects of field work by identifying a problem and through the identification of said problem. Therefore, it is necessary for environmental psychology to be problem oriented, One important aspect of a problem-oriented field is that by identifying problems, solutions arise from the research acquired. The solutions can aid in making society function better as a whole, Environmental psychologist Harold Proshansky discusses how the field is also “value oriented” because of the field’s commitment to bettering society through problem identification. Proshansky discusses the importance of not only understanding the problem but also the necessity of a solution, Proshansky also points out some of the problems of a problem-oriented approach for environmental psychology. First the problems being identified must be studied under certain specifications, it must be ongoing and occurring in real life, second, the notions about the problems must derive directly from the source - meaning they must come directly from the specific environment where the problem is occurring
19.
Human factors and ergonomics
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The field has seen some contributions from numerous disciplines, such as psychology, engineering, biomechanics, industrial design, physiology, and anthropometry. In essence, it is the study of designing equipment, devices and processes that fit the human body, the two terms human factors and ergonomics are essentially synonymous. HF&E is employed to fulfill the goals of health and safety and productivity. It is relevant in the design of such things as safe furniture and easy-to-use interfaces to machines, proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent repetitive strain injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders, which can develop over time and can lead to long-term disability. Human factors and ergonomics is concerned with the fit between the user, equipment and their environments and it takes account of the users capabilities and limitations in seeking to ensure that tasks, functions, information and the environment suit each user. He used it to encompass the studies in which he had engaged during. The expression human factors is a predominantly North American term which has adopted to emphasise the application of the same methods to non work-related situations. A human factor is a physical or cognitive property of an individual or social behavior specific to humans that may influence the functioning of technological systems, the terms human factors and ergonomics are essentially synonymous. Ergonomics comprise three main fields of research, Physical, cognitive and organisational ergonomics, there are many specializations within these broad categories. Specialisations in the field of physical ergonomics may include visual ergonomics, specialisations within the field of cognitive ergonomics may include usability, human–computer interaction, and user experience engineering. New terms are being generated all the time, for instance, user trial engineer may refer to a human factors professional who specialises in user trials. Physical ergonomic principles have been used in the design of both consumer and industrial products. Physical ergonomics is important in the field, particularly to those diagnosed with physiological ailments or disorders such as arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome. Pressure that is insignificant or imperceptible to those unaffected by these disorders may be painful, or render a device unusable. Many ergonomically designed products are used or recommended to treat or prevent such disorders. One of the most prevalent types of work-related injuries is musculoskeletal disorder, every year,1.8 million U. S. workers experience WRMDs and nearly 600,000 of the injuries are serious enough to cause workers to miss work. Certain jobs or work conditions cause a higher rate of complaints of undue strain, localized fatigue, discomfort. These types of jobs are often those involving activities such as repetitive and forceful exertions, frequent, heavy, or overhead lifts, awkward work positions, or use of vibrating equipment
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Forensic psychology
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Forensic psychology is the intersection between psychology and the justice system. Further, in order to be a witness, the forensic psychologist must understand the philosophy, rules. Primarily, they must understand the adversarial system, there are also rules about hearsay evidence and most importantly, the exclusionary rule. Lack of a grasp of these procedures will result in the forensic psychologist losing credibility in the courtroom. A forensic psychologist can be trained in clinical, social, organizational, generally, a forensic psychologist is designated as an expert in a specific field of study. The number of areas of expertise in which a forensic psychologist qualifies as an expert increases with experience, Forensic neuropsychologists are generally asked to appear as expert witnesses in court to discuss cases that involve issues with the brain or brain damage. They may also deal with issues of whether a person is competent to stand trial. Questions asked by the court of a forensic psychologist are generally not questions regarding psychology but are legal questions, for example, a forensic psychologist is frequently appointed by the court to assess a defendants competence to stand trial. The court also appoints a forensic psychologist to assess the state of mind of the defendant at the time of the offense. This is referred to as an evaluation of the defendants sanity or insanity at the time of the offense and these are not primarily psychological questions but rather legal ones. Thus, a forensic psychologist must be able to translate psychological information into a legal framework, Forensic psychologists may work with any party and in criminal or family law. In the United States, they may help with jury selection. Forensic psychologists may hold a Ph. D. or Psy. D. in clinical psychology, social psychology, organizational psychology, ideally, the psychologist would have some years of postdoctoral experience in forensic psychology and have training and supervision in forensic psychology. However, practices vary from state to state and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, in the United States legal system, the ultimate authority is the judge and the judge may select whomever he or she sees fit to qualify as an expert. In other countries, training and practitioner requirements vary, in the United Kingdom, for example, a person must obtain the Graduate Basis for Registration with the British Psychological Society—normally through an undergraduate degree. This would be followed by Stages 1 and 2 of the Diploma in Forensic Psychology, assessment occurs via examination, research, supervised practice, and the submission of a portfolio showing expertise across a range of criminological and legal applications of psychology. There are numerous positions and employment possibilities for forensic psychologists. They can be practiced at several different employment settings, academic forensic psychologists engage in teaching, researching, training, and supervision of students, and other education-related activities
21.
Humanistic psychology
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It helps the client gain the belief that all people are inherently good. It adopts an approach to human existence and pays special attention to such phenomena as creativity, free will. It encourages viewing ourselves as a whole greater than the sum of our parts. Humanistic psychology acknowledges spiritual aspiration as an part of the human psyche. It is linked to the field of transpersonal psychology. Essentially, this allows the merging of mindfulness and behavioural therapy. More than any other therapy, Humanistic-Existential therapy models democracy and it imposes ideologies of others upon the client less than other therapeutic practices. We validate our clients human potential, in the 20th century, humanistic psychology was referred to as the third force in psychology, distinct from earlier, even less humanistic approaches of psychoanalysis and behaviorism. In our post industrial society, humanistic psychology has become significant, for example. Its principal professional organizations in the US are the Association for Humanistic Psychology, in Britain, there is the UK Association for Humanistic Psychology Practitioners. One of humanistic psychologys early sources was the work of Carl Rogers, who was influenced by Otto Rank. Rogers focus was to ensure that the developmental processes led to healthier, if not more creative, the term actualizing tendency was also coined by Rogers, and was a concept that eventually led Abraham Maslow to study self-actualization as one of the needs of humans. Rogers and Maslow introduced this positive, humanistic psychology in response to what they viewed as the overly pessimistic view of psychoanalysis, the other sources of inspiration include the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology. The humanistic approach has its roots in phenomenological and existentialist thought, watson and B. F. Skinner, Abraham Maslow gave behaviorism the name the second force. Historically the first force were psychologists like Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Melanie Klein, Harry Stack Sullivan, and others. The five basic principles of psychology are, Human beings, as human. They cannot be reduced to components, Human beings have their existence in a uniquely human context, as well as in a cosmic ecology. Human beings are aware and are aware of being aware - i. e. they are conscious, Human consciousness always includes an awareness of oneself in the context of other people
22.
Music psychology
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Music psychology, or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of both psychology and musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behavior and experience, including the processes through which music is perceived, created, responded to, and incorporated into everyday life. Modern music psychology is primarily empirical, its knowledge tends to advance on the basis of interpretations of data collected by systematic observation of, Music psychology can shed light on non-psychological aspects of musicology and musical practice. For example, it contributes to music theory through investigations of the perception and computational modelling of musical structures such as melody, harmony, tonality, rhythm, meter, ethnomusicology can benefit from psychological approaches to the study of music cognition in different cultures. The study of sound and musical phenomenon prior to the 19th century was focused primarily on the modelling of pitch. This view that sound and music could be understood from a physical standpoint was echoed by such theorists as Anaxagoras. An important early dissenter was Aristoxenus, who foreshadowed modern music psychology in his view that music could only be understood through human perception, Research by Vincenzo Galilei demonstrated that, when string length was held constant, varying its tension, thickness, or composition could alter perceived pitch. From this he argued that simple ratios were not enough to account for musical phenomenon and he also claimed that the differences between various tuning systems were not perceivable, thus the disputes were unnecessary. Study of topics including vibration, consonance, the series, and resonance were furthered through the scientific revolution, including work by Galileo, Kepler, Mersenne. This included further speculation concerning the nature of the organs and higher-order processes, particularly by Savart, Helmholtz. The latter 19th century saw the development of music psychology alongside the emergence of a general empirical psychology. The first was structuralist psychology, led by Wilhelm Wundt, which sought to break down experience into its smallest definable parts, Carl Seashore led this work, producing his The Measurement of Musical Talents and The Psychology of Musical Talent. Seashore used bespoke equipment and standardized tests to measure how performance deviated from indicated markings, Music psychology in the second half of the 20th century has expanded to cover a wide array of theoretical and applied areas. From the 1960s the field grew along with science, including such research areas as music perception, musical development and aptitude, music performance. It has also emerged into the public sphere, much work within music psychology seeks to understand the cognitive processes that support musical behaviors, including perception, comprehension, memory, attention, and performance. Music has been shown to elicit emotional responses in its listeners. The field draws upon and has significant implications for areas as philosophy, musicology. A significant amount of research concerns brain-based mechanisms involved in the processes underlying music perception
23.
Occupational health psychology
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Occupational health psychology is an interdisciplinary area of psychology that is concerned with the health and safety of workers. OHP emerged from two distinct disciplines within applied psychology, namely, health psychology and industrial and organizational psychology, OHP has also been informed by other disciplines including industrial sociology, industrial engineering, and economics, as well as preventive medicine and public health. OHP is concerned with the relationship of psychosocial workplace factors to the development, maintenance, and promotion of workers health, thus the fields focus is work-related factors that can lead to injury, disease, and distress. The Industrial Revolution prompted thinkers, such as Karl Marx with his theory of alienation, to themselves with the nature of work. The creation in 1948 of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan was important because of its research on occupational stress and employee health. Research in the U. K. by Trist and Bamforth suggested the reduction in autonomy that accompanied organizational changes in English coal mining operations adversely affected worker morale. Arthur Kornhauser’s work in the early 1960s on the health of automobile workers in Michigan also contributed to the development of the field. A1971 study by Gardell examined the impact of work organization on mental health in Swedish pulp, Research on the impact of unemployment on mental health was conducted at the University of Sheffield’s Institute of Work Psychology. In 1970 Kasl and Cobb documented the impact of unemployment on blood pressure in U. S. factory workers, the term occupational health psychology first appeared in print in 1986 when Everly advocated for psychologists role in workplace health promotion. Established in 1987, Work & Stress is the first and longest established journal in the fast developing discipline that is occupational health psychology, three years later, the American Psychological Association and NIOSH jointly organized the first international Work, Stress, and Health conference in Washington, DC. The conference has become a biannual OHP meeting. In 1996, the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology was published by APA and that same year, the International Commission on Occupational Health created the Work Organisation and Psychosocial Factors scientific committee, which focused primarily on OHP. In 1999, the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology was established at the first European Workshop on Occupational Health Psychology in Lund, Sweden. That workshop is considered to be the first EA-OHP conference, the first of a series of conferences EA-OHP organizes and devotes to OHP research. Also in 2000, Work & Stress became associated with the EA-OHP, in 2005, the Society for Occupational Health Psychology was established in the United States. In 2008, SOHP joined with APA and NIOSH in co-sponsoring the Work, Stress, in 2017, SOHP began to publish an OHP-related journal Occupational Health Science. The research methods used in OHP are similar to those used in branches of psychology. Self-report survey methodology is the most used approach in OHP research, cross-sectional designs are commonly used, case-control designs have been employed much less frequently
24.
Psychology of religion
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Psychology of religion consists of the application of psychological methods and interpretive frameworks to religious traditions, as well as to both religious and irreligious individuals. It attempts to describe the details, origins, and uses of religious beliefs. Although the psychology of religion first arose as a discipline as recently as the late 19th century. In contrast to neurotheology, the psychology of religion studies only psychological rather than neural states, many areas of religion remain unexplored by psychology. While religion and spirituality play a role in many lives, it is uncertain how they lead to outcomes that are at times positive. The first, descriptive task naturally requires a clarification of ones terms, above all, the early psychologists of religion were fully aware of these difficulties, typically acknowledging that the definitions they were choosing to use were to some degree arbitrary. Factor analysis was brought into play by both psychologists and sociologists of religion, in an effort to establish a fixed core of dimensions. The justification and adequacy of these efforts, especially in the light of constructivist and other postmodern viewpoints, in fact, spirituality has likewise undergone an evolution in the West, from a time when it was essentially a synonym for religion in its original, subjective meaning. He proposes that religion can be considered the process of searching for meaning in relationship with the sacred, schnitker and Emmons theorized that the understanding of religion as a search for meaning makes implications in the three psychological areas of motivation, cognition and social relationships. The cognitive aspects relate to God and a sense of purpose, the ones to the need to control. American psychologist and philosopher William James is regarded by most psychologists of religion as the founder of the field and he served as president of the American Psychological Association, and wrote one of the first psychology textbooks. In the psychology of religion, James influence endures and his Varieties of Religious Experience is considered to be the classic work in the field, and references to James ideas are common at professional conferences. James distinguished between institutional religion and personal religion, institutional religion refers to the religious group or organization, and plays an important part in a societys culture. Personal religion, in which the individual has mystical experience, can be experienced regardless of the culture, James was most interested in understanding personal religious experience. In studying personal religious experiences, James made a distinction between healthy-minded and sick-souled religiousness, individuals predisposed to healthy-mindedness tend to ignore the evil in the world and focus on the positive and the good. James used examples of Walt Whitman and the religious movement to illustrate healthy-mindedness in The Varieties of Religious Experience. In contrast, individuals predisposed to having a religion are unable to ignore evil and suffering. James included quotations from Leo Tolstoy and John Bunyan to illustrate the sick soul, William James hypothesis of pragmatism stems from the efficacy of religion
25.
School psychology
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They are knowledgeable about effective instruction and effective schools. They are trained to carry out testing and psychoeducational assessment, counseling, and consultation. School psychology dates back to the beginning of American psychology in the late 19th, the field is tied to both functional and clinical psychology. School psychology actually came out of functional psychology, School psychologists were interested in childhood behaviors, learning processes, and dysfunction with life or in the brain itself. They wanted to understand the causes of the behaviors and their effects on learning, in addition to its origins in functional psychology, school psychology is also the earliest example of clinical psychology, beginning around 1890. While both clinical and school psychologists wanted to improve the lives of children, they approached it in different ways. School psychologists were concerned with learning and childhood behavioral problems. Another significant event in the foundation of school psychology as it is today was the Thayer Conference, the Thayer Conference was first held in August 1954 in West Point, New York in Hotel Thayer. The 9 day-long conference was conducted by the American Psychological Association, the purpose of the conference was to develop a position on the roles, functions, and necessary training and credentialing of a school psychologist. At the time of the Thayer Conference, school psychology was still a young profession with only about 1,000 school psychology practitioners. One of the goals of the Thayer Conference was to define school psychologists, the agreed upon definition stated that school psychologists were psychologists who specialize in education and have specific knowledge of assessment and learning of all children. School psychologists use this knowledge to assist school personnel in enriching the lives of all children and this knowledge is also used to help identify and work with children with exceptional needs. It was discussed that a school psychologist must be able to assess, participants at the conference felt that since school psychology is a specialty, individuals in the field should have a completed a two-year graduate training program or a four-year doctoral program. Participants felt that states should be encouraged to establish certification standards to ensure proper training and it was also decided that a practicum experience be required to help facilitate experiential knowledge within the field. The Thayer Conference is one of the most significant events in the history of psychology because it was there that the field was initially shaped into what it is today. Before the Thayer Conference defined school psychology, practitioners used seventy-five different professional titles, by providing one title and a definition, the conference helped to get school psychologists recognized nationally. It is essential that school psychologists meet the qualifications and receive appropriate training nationwide. These essential standards were first addressed at the Thayer Conference, at the Thayer Conference some participants felt that in order to hold the title of a school psychologist an individual must have earned a doctoral degree
26.
Traffic psychology
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Traffic psychology is a discipline of psychology that studies the relationship between psychological processes and the behavior of road users. Behavior is frequently studied in conjunction with accident research in order to assess causes and differences in accident involvement, traffic psychologists distinguish three motivations of driver behavior, reasoned or planned behavior, impulsive or emotional behavior, and habitual behavior. Additionally, social and cognitive applications of psychology are used, such as enforcement, road safety education campaigns, broad theories of cognition, sensory-motor and neurological aspects psychology are also applied to the field of traffic psychology. Traffic psychology deals with the noncognitive, cognitive, and sensory-motor aspects of people in the context of driving, dealing with traffic, by identifying feelings that cause cognitive thoughts, traffic psychology allows the understanding of resulting actions and gives a way modifying behavior. Traffic psychology can be defined as a tool, which, through analysis, helps to increase the overall quality of lives through behavioral observation, identification. Traffic and transport sciences concern themselves with the study, comprehension, explanation and prediction of everything related to the mobility of people and it incorporates several aspects of the transportation systems along with multiple techniques. This process attempts to develop valid and reliable methods to better understand, the transportation system consists of road, rail, sea and air infrastructures. It includes the possibilities and limitations of its economics, laws and regulations, for instance, speed can be influenced by method of travel, by financial capabilities for the type of vehicle, or by regulations such as speed limits in rural areas versus city driving. The traffic environment takes into account location, time constraints, population and these environmental factors pose danger and risk to motorists that may be fatal. Driving in wet, narrow, and dark conditions exposes drivers to far greater risk than driving on a day on an open road. Drivers generally use some degree of compensation to assess driving decisions. Alcohol and drug usage, alertness and fatigue, distraction and focus are a few of the main factors attributed to driver error, examination of the operator plays a large role in transportation psychology. While many external factors influence traffic safety, internal factors are also significant, seven separate brain networks have been identified in driving simulations as being of importance to the neurophysiological processes involved in driving. By linking neuropsychological processes and driving, the ability to understand errors, development, the involvement of motor and cerebellar networks in driving was confirmed by Calhoun, Pekar, and Pearlson. Rehabilitation counseling is a process because of the steps involved for an individual to become self-reliant. Evaluating a driver requires many aspects, a clinical assessment includes a review of the medical history, driving history, and driving needs. “An initial driver evaluation can last one to four hours, depending on the client’s presenting disabilities, following the clinical assessment, clients undergo an on-road assessment if they meet the minimum state standards for health and vision, and the client holds a valid driver’s license or permit. Mobility, including its positive and negative repercussions, originates in people’s decisions and behavior –, the main causes of traffic accidents are errors due to maladaptive behavior in interaction with roadways or other vehicles
. PMID 14403679.
