What is Psychology?
Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes, not mind-reading or mere common sense. The BSEB paper tests definitions, school–founder matching, and the choice of method for a research question.
Nature and scope
Psychology is empirical (based on observation), objective (verifiable procedures), and systematic. It studies overt behaviour and covert processes such as memory, emotion, and thought. Its scope runs from biological bases to developmental, social, clinical, and organisational psychology.
Schools of thought
- Structuralism (Wundt, Titchener): conscious experience analysed into elements through introspection.
- Functionalism (James): mental processes as adaptations to the environment.
- Gestalt (Wertheimer, Köhler, Koffka): experience is organised as wholes, not isolated parts.
- Behaviourism (Watson, Skinner): observable behaviour and its consequences.
- Psychoanalysis (Freud): unconscious conflict and early experience.
- Humanistic (Maslow, Rogers): growth, choice, and self-actualisation.
- Cognitive: information processing, memory, and problem solving.
Methods
Observation, experiment, correlation, survey, case study, interview, and standardised tests. Experiments manipulate a variable to establish cause–effect; correlational designs only show association.
Worked example
A researcher asks whether loud music lowers memory scores. Sound level is the independent variable, recall score is the dependent variable, and participants are randomly assigned to quiet or loud conditions. Only this design supports a causal claim; a survey linking music preference and marks would be correlational.
Traps
Do not call correlation causation, treat introspection as an experiment, or claim behaviourism ignores mental events entirely. Keep structuralism (elements) distinct from functionalism (adaptation), and remember that psychoanalysis is not the same as psychiatry.