What is Psychology?
Overview
This domain introduces psychology as the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. The exam tests whether you can distinguish psychology from common sense and pseudoscience, name major schools and branches, and recognise psychology as an empirical discipline with Indian contributions.
Core concepts
- Behaviour includes overt actions (talking, walking) and covert processes (thinking, remembering, feeling).
- Psychology is empirical, systematic, replicable and objective; it uses observation and evidence rather than intuition alone.
- Major historical schools: structuralism (Wundt, Titchener), functionalism (James), psychoanalysis (Freud), behaviourism (Watson, Skinner), Gestalt psychology, and humanistic psychology (Maslow, Rogers).
- Branches include clinical, counselling, educational, developmental, social, and industrial/organisational psychology.
- Indian approaches emphasise consciousness, yoga, meditation, and culturally situated self-understanding.
Worked example
A student claims, “Psychology means reading minds.” Explain the error. Psychology studies behaviour and mental processes through observable evidence and inferred constructs; it cannot directly read thoughts. A psychologist might measure reaction time, questionnaire responses, or observed behaviour to infer attention or memory. The claim confuses psychology with popular pseudoscience and ignores its scientific method.
Traps that cost marks
Do not equate psychology with psychiatry: psychiatry is a medical speciality dealing with mental disorders, while psychology covers normal and abnormal behaviour. Do not call psychology “just common sense”; common sense is unsystematic and often contradictory. Do not reduce behaviour to only visible actions. Avoid claiming Freud founded scientific psychology-Wundt established the first psychology laboratory in 1879.
Exam focus
Be ready to classify a scenario as overt/covert behaviour, identify a school or branch, and justify psychology’s scientific status using empirical evidence and replication.