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Psychology

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   Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the scientific
   study of mental processes and behaviour. Psychology also refers to the
   application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity,
   including problems of individuals' daily lives and the treatment of
   mental illness.

   Psychology differs from the other social sciences — anthropology,
   economics, political science, and sociology — in seeking to explain the
   mental processes and behaviour of individuals. Psychology differs from
   biology and neuroscience in that it is primarily concerned with the
   interaction of mental processes and behaviour on a systemic level, as
   opposed to studying the biological or neural processes themselves. In
   contrast, the subfield of neuropsychology studies the actual neural
   processes and how they relate to the mental effects they subjectively
   produce. Biological psychology is the scientific study of the
   biological bases of behaviour and mental states.

   The word psychology comes from the ancient Greek ψυχή psyche ("soul,"
   "mind") and -λογία, -ology, "study").

History

Early development

   Rudolf Goclenius
   Enlarge
   Rudolf Goclenius

   The first use of the term psychology is often attributed to the
   "Yucologia hoc est de hominis perfectione, anima, ortu", written by the
   German scholastic philosopher Rudolf Goeckel (1547-1628), who often
   goes by the Latinized Rudolph Goclenius, and published in Marburg in
   1590. However, the term was in fact used more than six decades earlier
   by the Croatian humanist Marko Marulić (1450-1524) in the title of his
   Latin treatise "Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae." Although the
   treatise itself has not been preserved, its title appears in a list of
   Marulic's works compiled by his younger contemporary, Franjo
   Bozicevic-Natalis in his "Vita Marci Maruli Spalatensis" (Krstić,
   1964). This, of course, may not have been the very first usage, but it
   is the earliest documented use at present.

   The term did not fall into popular usage until the German idealist
   philosopher, Christian Wolff (1679-1754) used it in his Psychologia
   empirica and Psychologia rationalis (1732-1734). This distinction
   between empirical and rational psychology was picked up in Diderot's
   Encyclodedie and was popularized in France by Maine de Biran.

   The root of the word psychology ( psyche) is very roughly equivalent to
   " soul" in Greek, and psychology came to be considered a study of the
   soul (in a religious sense of this term) much later, in Christian
   times. Psychology as a medical discipline can be seen in Thomas Willis'
   reference to psychology (the "Doctrine of the Soul") in terms of brain
   function, as part of his 1672 anatomical treatise "De Anima Brutorum"
   ("Two Discourses on the Souls of Brutes"). Until about the end of the
   19th century, psychology was regarded as a branch of philosophy.

Early modern era

   In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), known as "the father of
   psychology", founded a laboratory for the study of psychology at
   Leipzig University in Germany. The American philosopher William James
   published his seminal book, Principles of Psychology, in 1890, laying
   the foundations for many of the questions that psychologists would
   focus on for years to come. Other important early contributors to the
   field include Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909), a pioneer in the
   experimental study of memory at the University of Berlin; and the
   Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), who investigated the
   learning process now referred to as classical conditioning.
   Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, bronze cast by Alexis Rudier, Laeken
   Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium.
   Enlarge
   Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, bronze cast by Alexis Rudier, Laeken
   Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium.

   Meanwhile, during the 1890s, the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, who
   was trained as a neurologist and had no formal training in experimental
   psychology, had developed a method of psychotherapy known as
   psychoanalysis. Freud's understanding of the mind was largely based on
   interpretive methods and introspection, and was focused in particular
   on resolving mental distress and psychopathology. Freud's theories
   became very well-known, largely because they tackled subjects such as
   sexuality and repression as general aspects of psychological
   development. These were largely considered taboo subjects at the time,
   and Freud provided a catalyst for them to be openly discussed in polite
   society. Although Freud's theories are only of limited interest in
   modern academic psychology departments, his application of psychology
   to clinical work has been very influential.

   Partly in reaction to the subjective and introspective nature of
   Freudian psychology, and its focus on the recollection of childhood
   experiences, during the early decades of the 20th century behaviorism
   gained popularity as a guiding psychological theory. Championed by
   psychologists such as John B. Watson and Edward Thorndike (and later,
   B.F. Skinner), behaviorism was grounded in studies of animal behaviour.
   Behaviorists argued that psychology should be a science of behaviour,
   not the mind, and rejected the idea that internal mental states such as
   beliefs, desires, or goals could be studied scientifically. In his
   paper "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" (1913), Watson argued
   that psychology "is a purely objective [emphasis added] experimental
   branch of natural science," that "introspection forms no essential part
   of its methods", and that "the behaviorist recognizes no dividing line
   between man and brute."

   Behaviorism reigned as the dominant model in psychology through the
   first half of the 20th century, largely due to the creation of
   conditioning theories as scientific models of human behaviour, and
   their successful application in the workplace and in fields such as
   advertising.

Modern era

   However, it became increasingly clear that although behaviorism had
   made some important discoveries, it was deficient as a guiding theory
   of human behaviour. Noam Chomsky's review of Skinner's book Verbal
   Behaviour (that aimed to explain language acquisition in a behaviorist
   framework) is considered one of the major factors in the ending of
   behaviorism's reign. Chomsky demonstrated that language could not
   purely be learned from conditioning, as people could produce sentences
   unique in structure and meaning that couldn't possibly be generated
   solely through experience of natural language, implying that there must
   be internal states of mind that behaviorism rejected as illusory.
   Similarly, work by Albert Bandura showed that children could learn by
   social observation, without any change in overt behaviour, and so must
   be accounted for by internal representations.

   Humanistic psychology emerged in the 1950s and has continued as a
   reaction to positivist and scientific approaches to the mind. It
   stresses a phenomenological view of human experience and seeks to
   understand human beings and their behaviour by conducting qualitative
   research. The humanistic approach has its roots in existentialist and
   phenomenological philosophy and many humanist psychologists completely
   reject a scientific approach, arguing that trying to turn human
   experience into measurements strips it of all meaning and relevance to
   lived existence.

   Some of the founding theorists behind this school of thought were
   Abraham Maslow who formulated a hierarchy of human needs, Carl Rogers
   who created and developed Client-centred therapy, and Fritz Perls who
   helped create and develop Gestalt therapy.

   The rise of computer technology also promoted the metaphor of mental
   function as information processing. This, combined with a scientific
   approach to studying the mind, as well as a belief in internal mental
   states, led to the rise of cognitivism as the dominant model of the
   mind.

   Links between brain and nervous system function were also becoming
   common, partly due to the experimental work of people like Charles
   Sherrington and Donald Hebb, and partly due to studies of people with
   brain injury (see cognitive neuropsychology). With the development of
   technologies for accurately measuring brain function, neuropsychology
   and cognitive neuroscience have become some of the most active areas in
   contemporary psychology.

   With the increasing involvement of other disciplines (such as
   philosophy, computer science and neuroscience) in the quest to
   understand the mind, the umbrella discipline of cognitive science has
   been created as a means of focusing such efforts in a constructive way.

   However, many psychologists have not been happy with what they perceive
   as 'mechanical' models of the mind and human nature. Coming full
   circle, Transpersonal psychology and the Analytical Psychology of Carl
   Jung seek to return psychology to its spiritual roots. Others, such as
   Serge Moscovici and Gerard Duveen, argue that behavior and thought are
   essentially social in nature and seek to embed psychology in a broader
   social scientific study that incorporates the social meaning of
   experience and behaviour.

Principles

Mind and brain

   Psychology describes and attempts to explain consciousness, behavior
   and social interaction. Empirical psychology is primarily devoted to
   describing human experience and behaviour as it actually occurs. In the
   past 20 years or so psychology has begun to examine the relationship
   between consciousness and the brain or nervous system. It is still not
   clear in what ways these interact: does consciousness determine brain
   states or do brain states determine consciousness - or are both going
   on in various ways? Perhaps to understand this you need to know the
   definition of "consciousness" and "brain state" - or is consciousness
   some sort of complicated 'illusion' which bears no direct relationship
   to neural processes? An understanding of brain function is increasingly
   being included in psychological theory and practice, particularly in
   areas such as artificial intelligence, neuropsychology, and cognitive
   neuroscience.

Schools of thought

   Various schools of thought have argued for a particular model to be
   used as a guiding theory by which all, or the majority, of human
   behaviour can be explained. The popularity of these has waxed and waned
   over time. Some psychologists may think of themselves as adherents to a
   particular school of thought and reject the others, although most
   consider each as an approach to understanding the mind, and not
   necessarily as mutually exclusive theories.

Scope of psychology

   Psychology is an extremely broad field, encompassing many different
   approaches to the study of mental processes and behaviour. Below are
   the major areas of inquiry that comprise psychology. A comprehensive
   list of the sub-fields and areas within psychology can be found at the
   list of psychological topics and list of psychology disciplines.

Research psychology

   Research psychology encompasses the study of behaviour for use in
   academic settings, and contains numerous areas. It contains the areas
   of abnormal psychology, biological psychology, cognitive psychology,
   comparative psychology, developmental psychology, personality
   psychology, social psychology and others. Research psychology is
   contrasted with applied psychology.

Abnormal psychology

   Abnormal psychology is the study of abnormal psychological behaviour in
   order to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of
   functioning. Abnormal psychology studies the nature of psychopathology
   and its causes, and this knowledge is applied to treating patients with
   psychological disorders in clinical psychology.

   The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by
   the American Psychiatric Association, is the handbook used most often
   in diagnosing mental disorders in the United States.

Biological psychology

   Image of the human brain. The arrow indicates the position of the
   hypothalamus.
   Enlarge
   Image of the human brain. The arrow indicates the position of the
   hypothalamus.

   Biological psychology is the scientific study of the biological bases
   of behavior and mental states. Because all behaviour is controlled by
   the central nervous system, it is sensible to study how the brain
   functions in order to understand behaviour. This is the approach taken
   in behavioural neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, and
   neuropsychology. Neuropsychology is the branch of psychology that aims
   to understand how the structure and function of the brain relate to
   specific behavioural and psychological processes. Often
   neuropsychologists are employed as scientists to advance scientific or
   medical knowledge. Neuropsychology is particularly concerned with the
   understanding of brain injury in an attempt to work out normal
   psychological function.

   The approach of cognitive neuroscience to studying the link between
   brain and behaviour is to use neuroimaging tools, such as fMRI, to
   observe which areas of the brain are active during a particular task.

Cognitive psychology

   Neural network with two layers.
   Enlarge
   Neural network with two layers.

   The nature of thought is another core interest in psychology. Cognitive
   psychology studies cognition, the mental processes underlying
   behaviour. It uses information processing as a framework for
   understanding the mind. Perception, learning, problem solving, memory,
   attention, language and emotion are all well researched areas.
   Cognitive psychology is associated with a school of thought known as
   cognitivism, whose adherents argue for an information processing model
   of mental function, informed by positivism and experimental psychology.

   Cognitive science is very closely related to cognitive psychology, but
   differs in some of the research methods used, and has a slightly
   greater emphasis on explaining mental phenomena in terms of both
   behaviour and neural processing.

   Both areas use computational models to simulate phenomena of interest.
   Because mental events cannot directly be observed, computational models
   provide a tool for studying the functional organization of the mind.
   Such models give cognitive psychologists a way to study the "software"
   of mental processes independent of the "hardware" it runs on, be it the
   brain or a computer.

Comparative psychology

   Comparative psychology refers to the study of the behaviour and mental
   life of animals other than human beings. It is related to disciplines
   outside of psychology that study animal behaviour, such as ethology.
   Although the field of psychology is primarily concerned with humans,
   the behaviour and mental processes of animals is also an important part
   of psychological research, either as a subject in its own right (e.g.,
   animal cognition and ethology), or with strong emphasis about
   evolutionary links, and somewhat more controversially, as a way of
   gaining an insight into human psychology by means of comparison or via
   animal models of emotional and behaviour systems as seen in
   neuroscience of psychology (e.g., affective neuroscience and social
   neuroscience).

Developmental psychology

   How do infants experience the world?
   Enlarge
   How do infants experience the world?

   Mainly focusing on the development of the human mind through the life
   span, developmental psychology seeks to understand how people come to
   perceive, understand, and act within the world and how these processes
   change as they age. This may focus on intellectual, cognitive, neural,
   social, or moral development. Researchers who study children use a
   number of unique research methods to make observations in natural
   settings or to engage them in experimental tasks. Such tasks often
   resemble specially designed games and activities that are both
   enjoyable for the child and scientifically useful, and researchers have
   even devised clever methods to study the mental processes of small
   infants. In addition to studying children, developmental psychologists
   also study aging and processes throughout the life span, especially at
   other times of rapid change (such as adolescence and old age). Urie
   Bronfenbrenner's theory of development in context (The Ecology of Human
   Development - ISBN 0-674-22456-6) is influential in this field, as are
   those mentioned in "Educational psychology" immediately below, as well
   as many others. Developmental psychologists draw on the full range of
   theorists in scientific psychology to inform their research.

Personality psychology

   Personality psychology studies enduring psychological patterns of
   behaviour, thought and emotion, commonly called an individual's
   personality. Theories of personality vary between different
   psychological schools. Trait theories attempts to break personality
   down into a number of traits, by use of factor analysis. The number of
   traits have varied between theories. One of the first, and smallest,
   models was that of Hans Eysenck, which had three dimensions:
   extraversion— introversion, neuroticism—emotional stability, and
   psychoticism. Raymond Cattell proposed a theory of 16 personality
   factors. The theory that has most empirical evidence behind it today
   may be the " Big Five" theory, proposed by Lewis Goldberg and others.

   A different, but well known, approach to personality is that of Sigmund
   Freud, whose structural theory of personality divided personality into
   the ego, superego, and id. Freud's theory of personality has been
   criticized by many, including many mainstream psychologists.

Psychometric psychology

   Psychometrics is the field of psychology concerned with the theory and
   technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement
   of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits. The field
   is primarily concerned with the study of differences between
   individuals. It involves two major research tasks, namely: (i) the
   construction of instruments and procedures for measurement; and (ii)
   the development and refinement of theoretical approaches to
   measurement.

   Much of the early theoretical and applied work in psychometrics was
   undertaken in an attempt to measure intelligence. The origin of
   psychometrics has connections to the related field of psychophysics.
   Charles Spearman, a pioneer in psychometrics who developed approaches
   to the measurement of intelligence, studied under Wilhelm Wundt and was
   trained in psychophysics. The psychometrician L. L. Thurstone later
   developed and applied a theoretical approach to the measurement
   referred to as the law of comparative judgment, an approach which has
   close connections to the psychophysical theory developed by Ernst
   Heinrich Weber and Gustav Fechner. In addition, Spearman and Thurstone
   both made important contributions to the theory and application of
   factor analysis, a statistical method that has been used extensively in
   psychometrics.

   More recently, psychometric theory has been applied in the measurement
   of personality, attitudes and beliefs, academic achievement, and in
   health-related fields. Measurement of these unobservable phenomena is
   difficult, and much of the research and accumulated art in this
   discipline has been developed in an attempt to properly define and
   quantify such phenomena. Critics, including practitioners in the
   physical sciences and social activists, have argued that such
   definition and quantification is impossibly difficult, and that such
   measurements are often misused. Proponents of psychometric techniques
   can reply, though, that their critics often misuse data by not applying
   psychometric criteria, and also that various quantitative phenomena in
   the physical sciences, such as heat and forces, cannot be observed
   directly but must be inferred from their manifestations.

   Figures who made significant contributions to psychometrics include
   Karl Pearson, L. L. Thurstone, Georg Rasch and Arthur Jensen.

Social psychology

   A crowd of people in Shibuya, Tokyo.
   Enlarge
   A crowd of people in Shibuya, Tokyo.

   Social psychology is the study of the nature and causes of human social
   behavior, with an emphasis on how people think towards each other and
   how they relate to each other. Social Psychology aims to understand how
   we make sense of social situations. For example, this could involve the
   influence of others on an individual's behaviour (e.g., conformity or
   persuasion), the perception and understanding of social cues, or the
   formation of attitudes or stereotypes about other people. Social
   cognition is a common approach and involves a mostly cognitive and
   scientific approach to understanding social behaviour.

   A related area is community psychology, which examines psychological
   and mental health issues on the level of the community rather than
   using the individual as the unit of measurement. " Sense of community"
   has become its conceptual centre (Sarason, 1986; Chavis & Pretty,
   1999).

Applied psychology

   Applied psychology encompasses both psychological research that is
   designed to help individuals overcome practical problems and the
   application of this research in applied settings. Much of applied
   psychology research is utilized in other fields, such as business
   management, product design, ergonomics, nutrition, and clinical
   medicine. Applied psychology includes the areas of clinical psychology,
   industrial and organizational psychology, human factors, forensic
   psychology, health psychology, school psychology and others.

Clinical psychology

   Clinical psychology is the application of abnormal psychology research
   to the understanding, treatment, and assessment of psychopathology,
   including behavioural and mental health issues. It has traditionally
   been associated with psychological treatment and psychotherapy,
   although modern clinical psychology may take an eclectic approach,
   including a number of therapeutic approaches. Typically, although
   working with many of the same clients as psychiatrists, clinical
   psychologists do not prescribe psychiatric drugs. Some clinical
   psychologists may focus on the clinical management of patients with
   brain injury. This area is known as clinical neuropsychology.

   In recent years and particularly in the United States, a major split
   has been developing between academic research psychologists in
   universities and some branches of clinical psychology. Many research
   psychologists believe that many contemporary clinicians use therapies
   based on discredited theories and unsupported by empirical evidence of
   their effectiveness. From the other side, these clinicians believe that
   the research psychologists are ignoring their experience in dealing
   with actual patients. The disagreement resulted in the formation of the
   Association for Psychological Science by the research psychologists as
   a new body distinct from the American Psychological Association.

   The majority of work performed by clinical psychologists tends to be
   done inside a Cognitive-Behaviorial therapy (CBT) framework. CBT is an
   umbrella term that refers to a number of therapies which focus on
   changing cognitions and/or behaviors, rather than changing behaviour
   exclusively, or discovering the unconscious causes of psychopathology
   (as in the psychodynamic school). The two most famous CBT therapies are
   Aaron T. Beck's cognitive therapy and Albert Ellis's rational emotive
   behaviour therapy (with cognitive therapy being, by far, the most
   extensively studied therapy in contemporary clinical psychology).

Counseling psychology

   Counseling psychology as a psychological specialty facilitates personal
   and interpersonal functioning across the life span with a focus on
   emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related,
   developmental, and organizational concerns. Counseling psychology
   differs from clinical psychology in that it is focused more on normal
   developmental issues and everyday stress as opposed to severe mental
   disorders. Counseling psychologists are employed in a variety of
   settings, including universities, private practice, businesses, and
   community mental health centers.

   The emerging field of relationship counseling which seeks to describe
   typical human relationship successes and failures in rather concrete
   form, has the very specific appeal of avoiding psychology's rather
   universal assignation of pathology on all persons who seek assistance.
   Current health insurance reimbursement for psychological services
   commonly involves the assignment of mental disease nomenclature, a
   feature that potential consumers might find offensive, and other
   practitioners might find iatrogenic.

   Relationship counseling, also referred to as relationship education,
   includes psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers. It is based
   on decades of university based research, specifically through the
   observation and analysis of both successful and unsuccessful marriages
   and family units. Important names in this field are John Gottman, Diane
   Sollee, Howard Markman, Scott Stanley, Bill Doherty and Michelle
   Weiner-Davis.

Educational psychology

   Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational
   settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the
   psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as
   organizations. The work of child psychologists such as Lev Vygotsky,
   Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner has been influential in creating teaching
   methods and educational practices.

Forensic psychology

   Forensic psychology is the area concerned with the application of
   psychological methods and principles to the legal arena. Most
   typically, forensic psychology involves a clinical analysis of a
   particular individual and an assessment of some specific psycho-legal
   question. Typically, referrals to forensic practices constitute
   assessments for individuals that have ostensibly suffered neurologic
   insult(s). These patients have sought legal recourse, and the job of
   the forensic psychologist is to demonstrate that there is or is not
   (depending on their employ by either the prosecution or defense) a
   cause-and-effect relation between the accident and the subsequent
   (again, ostensible) neurologic change. A job required of the forensic
   psychologist in any case is the detection of malingering, although this
   is not exclusive to forensics.

Health psychology

   Health psychology is the application of psychological theory and
   research to health, illness and health care. Whereas clinical
   psychology focuses on mental health and neurological illness, health
   psychology is concerned with the psychology of a much wider range of
   health-related behaviour including healthy eating, the doctor-patient
   relationship, a patient's understanding of health information, and
   beliefs about illness. Health psychologists may be involved in public
   health campaigns, examining the impact of illness or health policy on
   quality of life or in research into the psychological impact of health
   and social care.

Human factors psychology

   Human factors psychology is the study of how cognitive and
   psychological processes affect our interaction with tools and objects
   in the environment. The goal of research in human factors psychology is
   to better design objects by taking into account the limitations and
   biases of human mental processes and behaviour.

Industrial and organizational psychology

   Industrial and organizational psychology (I/O) is among the newest
   fields in psychology. Industrial Psychology focuses on improving,
   evaluating, and predicting job performance while Organizational
   Psychology focuses on how organizations impact and interact with
   individuals. In 1910, through the works and experiments of Hugo
   Munsterberg and Walter Dill Scott, Industrial Psychology became
   recognized as a legitimate part of the social science . Organizational
   Psychology was not officially added until the 1970s and since then, the
   field has flourished. The Society for Industrial Organizational
   Psychology has approximately 3400 professional members and 1900 student
   members. These two numbers combine to make up only about four percent
   of the members in the American Psychology Association but the number
   has been rising since 1939 when there were only one hundred
   professional I/O psychologists .

   I/O psychologists are employeed by academic institutions, consulting
   firms, internal human resources in industries, and governmental
   institutions. Various universities across the United States are
   beginning to strengthen their I/O Psychology programs due to the
   increase of interest and job demand in the field .

   Industrial organizational psychologists look at questions regarding
   things such as who to hire, how to define and measure successful job
   performance, how to prepare people to be more successful in their jobs,
   how to create and change jobs so that they are safer and make people
   happier, and how to structure the organization to allow people to
   achieve their potential.

School psychology

   School psychology is the area of discipline that is dedicated to
   helping young people succeed academically, socially, and emotionally.
   School psychologists collaborate with educators, parents, and other
   professionals to create safe, healthy, and supportive learning
   environments for all students that strengthen connections between home
   and school. They are trained to be experts in educational and
   behavioural assessment, intervention, prevention, and consultation, and
   many have extensive training in research. Currently, school psychology
   is the only field in which a professional can be called a
   "psychologist" without a doctoral degree, with the National Association
   of School Psychologists (NASP) recognizing the Specialist degree as the
   entry level. This is a matter of controversy, however, as the APA does
   not recognize anything below a doctorate as the entry level for a
   psychologist. Specialist-level school psychologists, who typically
   receive three years of graduate training, function almost exclusively
   within school systems, while those at the doctoral-level are found in a
   number of other settings as well, including universities, hospitals,
   clinics, and private practice.

Psychology of art

   Psychology has, of course, had a profound impact on the arts and their
   definition in the twentieth century. One of the earliest to integrate
   psychology with art history was Heinrich Wölfflin (1864 – 1945), a
   Swiss art critic and historian, whose dissertation Prolegomena zu einer
   Psychologie der Architektur (1886)attempted to show that architecture
   could be understood from a purely psychological (as opposed to a
   historical-progressivist) point of view. Though first developed in
   Germany, there were soon advocates of art psychology in the USSR,
   France ( André Malraux), and the US. In the US, the philosophical
   premises of art psychology were strengthened - and given political
   valence - in the work of John Dewey. His Art as Experience was
   published in 1932, and was the basis for significant revisions in
   teaching practices whether in the kingergarten or in the university.
   The impact of psychology was particularly strong between 1950 and 1970
   when it coincided with the expansion of art history and museum
   programs, as well as with the development in the post-WWII years of
   expanded undergraduate teaching curriculi. The writings of Rudolf
   Arnheim (born 1904) were particularly influential. His Toward a
   Psychology of Art (Berkeley: University of California Press) was
   published in 1966. By the 1970s, the centrality of art psychology in
   academe began to wane. Artists became more interested in
   psychoanalysis, and architects in phenomenology and the writings of
   Derrida. As for art and architectural historians, they critiqued
   psychology for being anti-contextual and culturally naive. Today,
   psychology still plays an important role in art discourse, though
   mainly in the field of art appreciation.

Research methods

   Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German psychologist, generally
   acknowledged as a founder of experimental psychology.
   Enlarge
   Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German psychologist, generally
   acknowledged as a founder of experimental psychology.

   Research in psychology is conducted in broad accord with the standards
   of the scientific method, encompassing both qualitative ethological and
   quantitative statistical modalities to generate and evaluate
   explanatory hypotheses with regard to psychological phenomena. Where
   research ethics and the state of development in a given research domain
   permits, investigation may be pursued by experimental protocols.
   Psychology tends to be eclectic, drawing on scientific knowledge from
   other fields to help explain and understand psychological phenomena.
   Qualitative psychological research utilizes a broad spectrum of
   observational methods, including action research, ethography,
   exploratory statistics, structured interviews, and participant
   observation, to enable the gathering of rich information unattainable
   by classical experimentation. Research in humanistic psychology is more
   typically pursued by ethnographic, historical, and historiographic
   methods.

   The testing of different aspects of psychological function is a
   significant area of contemporary psychology. Psychometric and
   statistical methods predominate, including various well-known
   standardized tests as well as those created ad hoc as the situation or
   experiment requires.

   Academic psychologists may focus purely on research and psychological
   theory, aiming to further psychological understanding in a particular
   area, while other psychologists may work in applied psychology to
   deploy such knowledge for immediate and practical benefit. However,
   these approaches are not mutually exclusive and most psychologists will
   be involved in both researching and applying psychology at some point
   during their career. Clinical psychology, among many of the various
   disciplines of psychology, aims at developing in practicing
   psychologists knowledge of and experience with research and
   experimental methods which they will continue to build up as well as
   employ as they treat individuals with psychological issues or use
   psychology to help others.

   When an area of interest requires specific training and specialist
   knowledge, especially in applied areas, psychological associations
   normally establish a governing body to manage training requirements.
   Similarly, requirements may be laid down for university degrees in
   psychology, so that students acquire an adequate knowledge in a number
   of areas. Additionally, areas of practical psychology, where
   psychologists offer treatment to others, may require that psychologists
   be licensed by government regulatory bodies as well.

Controlled experiments

   B.F. Skinner, pioneer of experimental psychology and behaviorism
   Enlarge
   B.F. Skinner, pioneer of experimental psychology and behaviorism

   Experimental psychological research is conducted in the laboratory
   under controlled conditions. This method of research attempts to rely
   solely on an application of the scientific method to understand
   behavior and mental processes. Examples of such measurements of
   behaviour include reaction time and various psychometric measurements.
   Experiments are conducted to test a particular hypothesis.

   As an example of a psychological experiment, one may want to test
   people's perception of different tones. Specifically, one could ask the
   following question: is it easier for people to discriminate one pair of
   tones from another depending upon their frequency? To answer this, one
   would want to disprove the hypothesis that all tones are equally
   discriminable, regardless of their frequency. (See hypothesis testing
   for an explanation of why one would disprove a hypothesis rather than
   attempt to prove one.) A task to test this hypothesis would have a
   participant seated in a room listening to a series of tones. If the
   participant would make one indication (by pressing a button, for
   example) if they thought the tones were two different sounds, and
   another indication if they thought they were the same sound. The
   proportion of correct responses would be the measurement used to
   describe whether or not all the tones were equally discriminable. The
   result of this particular experiment would probably indicate better
   discrimination of certain tones based on the human threshold of
   hearing.

Longitudinal studies

   A longitudinal study is a research method which observes a particular
   population over time. For example, one might wish to study specific
   language impairment (SLI) by observing a group of individuals with the
   condition over a period of time. This method has the advantage of
   seeing how a condition can affect individuals over long time scales.
   However, since individual differences between members of the group are
   not controlled, it may be difficult to draw conclusions about the
   populations.

Neuropsychological methods

   Neuropsychology involves the study of both healthy individuals and
   patients, typically who have suffered either brain injury or mental
   illness.

   Cognitive neuropsychology and cognitive neuropsychiatry study
   neurological or mental impairment in an attempt to infer theories of
   normal mind and brain function. This typically involves looking for
   differences in patterns of remaining ability (known as 'functional
   disassociation's') which can give clues as to whether abilities are
   comprised of smaller functions, or are controlled by a single cognitive
   mechanism.

   In addition, experimental techniques are often used which also apply to
   studying the neuropsychology of healthy individuals. These include
   behavioural experiments, brain-scanning or functional neuroimaging -
   used to examine the activity of the brain during task performance, and
   techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, which can safely
   alter the function of small brain areas to investigate their importance
   in mental operations.

Computational modeling

   Computational modeling is a tool often used in cognitive psychology to
   simulate a particular behaviour using a computer. This method has
   several advantages. Since modern computers are extremely fast, many
   simulations can be run in a short time, allowing for a great deal of
   statistical power. Modeling also allows psychologists to visualise
   hypotheses about the functional organization of mental events that
   couldn't be directly observed in a human.

   Several different types of modeling are used to study behaviour.
   Connectionism uses neural nets to simulate the brain. Another method is
   symbolic modeling, which represents many different mental objects using
   variables and rules. Other types of modeling include dynamic systems
   and stochastic modeling.

Criticism

   Although modern mainstream psychology largely attempts to be a
   scientific endeavour, the field has a history of controversy. Some
   criticisms of psychology have been made on ethical and philosophical
   grounds. Some have argued that by subjecting the human mind to
   experimentation and statistical study, psychologists objectify persons;
   because it treats human beings as things, as objects that can be
   examined by experiment, psychology is sometimes portrayed as
   dehumanizing, ignoring or downplaying what is most essential about
   being human.

   A common criticism of psychology concerns its fuzziness as a science.
   Since some areas of psychology rely on "soft" research methods such as
   surveys and questionnaires, some have said that those areas of
   psychology are not as scientific as psychologists claim. Methods such
   as introspection and expert analysis, used by some psychologists, are
   open to subjectivity and rely on speculation. The question has been
   raised whether psychology should be classified as a science, because
   objectivity, validity, and rigour are key attributes one rule for
   empiricism and science, and some approaches to psychology have fallen
   short on these criteria, notably though not uniquely psychodynamic
   theory and introspection. On the other hand, greater use of statistical
   controls and increasingly sophisticated research design, analysis, and
   statistical methods, as well as a decline - at least within academic
   psychology departments - in the use of some of the more problematic
   methods such as introspection, have lessened the impact of this
   criticism to some degree. Debates continue, however, with questions
   regarding factor indeterminacy and external validity, as well as
   questions of the effectiveness of "Null Hypothesis Testing" as a valid
   research tool. In particular, a concern often raised is that null
   hypothesis testing, especially with large samples, may promote rather
   trivial findings as meaningful.

   There is also concern from researchers concerning a perceived
   scientific gap between research and clinical practice in psychology.
   For example, therapies such as neurolinguistic programming, rebirthing,
   and primal therapy have gained popularity in recent years despite a
   lack of empirical evidence of their effectiveness. Those who support
   the controversial methods often argue that therapy is an individual
   process, and broad examinations of effectiveness may not produce
   accurate pictures for how any given individual will respond to them;
   detractors of specific unsupported therapies or pseudoscientific
   psychological theories on the other hand feel that any claims of
   effectiveness cannot be made unless the techniques are empirically
   found to provide general results that are clearly different from no
   therapy at all.
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