Presented by Dr Angita Sarmah Boruah Department of Education Cotton University, Assam

2. INTRODUCTION
 Psychology as a branch of knowledge is devoted to
the study of behavior of human beings and animals.
As the society is getting more complex, psychology
assumes a vital position in solving human problems.
The relevance of psychology cannot be doubted in the
field of education. More importantly teachers’ need it
to understand the behavior of his/her students in
relation to the learning process. Therefore, psychology
plays an important role in the field of education and
knowledge of psychology is essential in the field of
education.

3. MEANING OF PSYCHOLOGY
 The word, “Psychology” is derived from two Greek
words, ‘Psyche’ and ‘Logos’. ‘Psyche’ means ‘soul’ and
‘Logos’ means science and study. Thus, the literary
meaning of Psychology is ‘study of soul’.
Psychology=Psyche(soul/mind)+Logos(scientific
study)=Scientific study of soul/mind

4. In the beginning, psychology was
defined as the ‘science of soul’. But
soul is something which has no
physical identity. It cannot be seen,
observed and touched and we cannot
make scientific experiments on soul.
So, psychology was no more
considered as science of soul.

5. In the 18th century, psychology was
understood as the ‘science of mind’.
William James(1892) defined
psychology as the science of mental
processes. But the word ‘mind’ is also
quite ambiguous as there was
confusion regarding the nature and
functions of mind.

6. Failing to define the nature of soul and mind,
modern psychologists defined psychology as
the “science of consciousness”. Again this
definition was rejected, because
consciousness is a very minute portion of a
human being. Freud in his psychoanalytical
theory described that mind consists of three
states-conscious, subconscious and
unconscious. The definition of psychology as
consciousness was considered too narrow as
this did not include the unconscious and
subconscious activities of mind. Hence, this
definition was also discarded.

7. Most of the modern psychologists
agree on a definition of psychology
as the scientific study of behavior
and mental processes of organism.
William McDougall(1905) defined
psychology as the “science of
behavior”, W.B. Pillsbury(1911) and
J.B. Watson(1912) also defined
psychology as the science of
behavior.

8. In short, psychology may be defined as the
scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
It is a systematic approach to the understanding of
people, their thoughts, emotions and behavior.
Though it is highly concerned with the study of
humans, the behavior of animals is also studied.
Psychology is a science as it attempts to investigate
the causes of behavior using systematic and
objective procedures for observation,
measurement and analysis.

9.  Explaining the changing concept of
psychology, psychologists Woodworth
remarked, “First psychology lost its soul,
then it lost its mind, then it lost its
consciousness and it still has behavior of a
kind.”
 DEFINITIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY
 1. Watson: Psychology is the positive science
of behavior.
 2. Guilford: Psychology is the science of
mental activity of an organism.

10. 3. According to Crow & Crow, “Psychology is
the study of human behavior and human
relationship.”
It may then be concluded that Psychology is a
science of behavior or a scientific study of
behavioral activities and experiences.
THANKS