Psychology Essay Questions

Essay on The History of Psychology
The History of Psychology In order to discuss Psychology's history, it is important to understand
that psychology still does not have one unifying approach unlike the natural sciences; even the
definition of Psychology and what it truly means is still undecided. However I shall attempt to
review chronologically its philosophical origins, include how the science of Physics and Biology
were placed in history and how they influenced research and determined the development of
Psychology as its recognised today. Beginning with the philosophers Plato and Aristotle (between
428– 347) in ancient Greece, they began to ask...show more content...
For example, the taste of lemonade (perception) to be a molecule of conscious experience could be
analyzed in terms of elements (sensations) i.e. sweet, sour, cold, warm, bitter, and how it was
identified by introspection (observation). Wundt's structuralism was quickly abandoned because it
could not be empirically or scientifically tested, it was also criticised for favouring deterministic
structural forces over the ability of individual people to act refusing the suggestion of freewill. But at
the end of the 19th century and lasting only 25 years Structuralism was still seen as a historically
important school of thought and it was the movements that it developed, rather than structuralism
itself that pushed forward the progress of psychology Functionalism as a psychology developed from
the philosophy of Pragmatism (practical, matter–of–fact way of approaching or assessing situations
or of solving problems). William James (1842–1910) laid the foundations with the publication of
"Principles of Psychology" a book that gave Psychology its distinction and it's well used definition
"the science of mental life" for its study. He introduced a methodology for the inclusion of conscious
mental processes and believed consciousness to be the primary object of psychology
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Essay about Definition of Psychology
Definition of Psychology
The term psychology comes from two Greek words: psyche, which means
1. The spirit or soul. 2. The human mind. 3. In psychoanalysis, the mind functioning as the center of
thought, emotion, and behavior.
And logos, "the study of." or according to modern researches "science"
These root words were first combined in the 16th century, at a time when the human soul, spirit, or
mind was seen as distinct from the body.
Definition of Psychology:
Psychology is one of the youngest sciences. It is still going through the process of its development.
There has been much fierce controversy about its definition. It has been variously defined as the
science of soul,...show more content...
Great psychologist like Sigmand Freud support this fact.
The science of Behavior:
J.B. Watson described Psychology as the science of Behavior.. He said that external action or
behavior is the only concern of Psychology. He totally ignored mental processes. He said that what
goes on in our mind eventually comes out as our behavior. But this is not true for all times so this
was considered incomplete.
Now a days the most comprehensive definition of Psychology is:
"Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior, and its application to solve human
problems"
OR
"Psychology is the schematic study of behavior and mental processes"
This definition contains three elements. The first is that psychology is a scientific enterprise that
obtains knowledge through systematic and objective methods of observation and experimentation.
Second is that psychologists study behavior, which refers to any action or reaction that can be
measured or observed–such as the blink of an eye, an increase in heart rate, or the unruly violence
that often erupts in a mob. Third is that psychologists study the mind, which refers to both conscious

and unconscious mental states. These states cannot actually be seen, only inferred from

A Career as a Psychologist Essay
Psychologists are very important people; they help millions of people with their everyday
struggles and problems that they have to deal with. Not only do psychologists help people with
problems that they cannot handle on their own, they also are scientists who study human minds
and behaviors. With being a psychologist, there are many different careers to choose from within
this profession (Explore Health Careers). The first type of psychologists to choose from is a
clinical psychologist. Clinical psychologists help people with counseling and psychotherapy. They
work with people who have all around life problems, such as new adjustments in life. Clinical
psychologists also help people who have emotional disorders or...show more content...
They also provide consolation to courts and attorneys in different types of legal proceedings (Psyris).
Next is an organization psychologist, which helps in the productivity of groups and individuals in a
workplace. These types of psychologists focus on improving the function of organizations, and to
keep individuals healthy within the organization (Psyris). Another type of psychology to choose from
is a counseling psychologist. These are important psychologists because they teach people how to
deal with their everyday problems. They help their patients determine their problems and help them
understand the problems they are facing. Not only do counseling psychologists help their patients
with the issues they are experiencing at home but also in their workplace or their community in
general. By helping their patients identify their strengths and resources, is how counseling
psychologists help them with their problems (Bureau of Labor Statistics). The next type of
psychology is the developmental psychologist. Developmental psychologists work with
psychological processes and development that takes place throughout life. They study aging and
problems the elderly may face, but this type of psychologist mainly focuses on children and
adolescents (Bureau of Labor Statistics). The last type of psychologist to choose from is the social

Psychology Interview Essay
I decided to interview someone in the Psychology field. Psychology is in the College of Arts and
Sciences. I am attracted to this major because I am currently taking an Introduction to Psychology
course, and so far it is very interesting to me so far. It also allows me to pursue the mental health
aspect of it. According to my Strong Interest Inventory, I rank high in the investigative theme which
is the science interest part of it. Then one of my top ten recommended occupations is a mental health
counselor. That's why I chose Psychology is my major of choice. I interviewed a friend of one of
my friends. I was talking to her about this assignment, and she recommended one of her friends.
Rachel was the name of the person I interviewed and she...show more content...
As I stated earlier, I have an interest in the mental health services area. Rachel is going into the Law
enforcement and Criminal Investigation field, which involves a Psychology major. Other areas I
found interesting included Art therapy, Case management, and Counseling. A person with a
Psychology major can explore many different fields of work, depending on their interest.
Rachel gave quite a few examples of the many different minors, activities, and experiences someone
can partake in. She discussed that, depending on what the person is doing, they can often double
major. Rachel was thinking of double majoring in Psychology and Criminal Justice. She mentioned
that people who are in Pre–med often get a degree in Psychology. There are a few certificates she
mentioned. The two I listed were the clinical certificate and neuroscience certificate. She said that
these can come in handy for people interested in that field. She told me that there are quite a few
clubs. She mentioned the Psych club, Cognitive science club, and the Neuroscience club are great
to participate in for Psych majors. Volunteer work is very good on a resume especially if it is
related to counseling. Rachel also mentioned that joining research labs are a great way to gain
experience. Research assistants are essential for someone who wants to attend grad school. She
mentioned that many students who attend grad school are involved in some kind of

Essay on Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychology aims to understand, treat and prevent psychological distress and dysfunction
thus to encourage good health, good adaptive thinking and a healthy lifestyle. People working in this
field research into mental dysfunction suffered by the patients, assess their cognitive state of mind
and perform psychotherapy to decrease the psychological symptoms and/ or the underlying causes.
There are many sub divisions of therapies focusing on different routes of cure/prevention.
Biologically, chemotherapy and psychosurgeries are available; but below I will discuss the
treatments available psychologically. Psychologically, there are various treatments mainly the
psychodynamic and the behavioural approach. The main psychodynamic...show more content...
In contrast behaviour in the unconsciousness state lacks awareness of self and the environmental
situations. In between these is the preconscious state where thoughts from the unconscious state, that
are not suppressed, thus can be brought to the conscious by slowly recalling the thoughts.
Upon this differentiation Freud discovered that these symptoms resulted from the unconscious
decisions made following psychological conflicts experienced at the present moment. One specific
case, involved a young boy, who mother was asking him to sign a letter accusing the father of
abusing him, in order support her in their divorce. However the boy, knowing that both parents are of
no harm couldn't decide whether to sign the letter in favour of the mother or not to in favour of the
father (unconscious psychological conflict). Thus this resulted in the boy suffering paralysis (mental
neurotic dysfunction).
Such neurosis are maladaptive behaviours, that doesn't resolve but instead avoids the under lying
situation. This initiates from childhood feelings, memories, wishes and experiences that are
emotionally attached.
Freud's theory of personality defines that the psychological conflicts experienced by the individuals'
link to the compromises made against the forces of cognitive construct. Id, this form of cognitive
construct is from the unconscious that follows the

Essay on Educational Psychology
One of the more popular areas of psychology is Educational Psychology. Educational Psychology
can be explained several ways. The idea is to study theories and concepts from different parts of
psychology and apply them in educational settings. These educational settings may occur in different
school settings such as preschool. The goal of educational psychology is to create a positive
student–teacher relationship. Educational psychology uses five different types of psychology,
behavioral, cognitive, developmental, and social cognitive, and constructivist in this research paper
I will be briefly discussing each type of psychology listed above. Behaviorism is the point of view
where learning and behavior are described and explained in terms...show more content...
Some examples are belief, desire, ideas and motivation. Next, cognitive psychologists think memory
structures determine how information is perceived, processed, stored, retrieved and forgotten.
Cognitive psychology include perception, categorization, memory, knowledge representation,
language and thinking processes. "The relationship of cognitive psychology to classroom is like the
relationship of physics to engineering. Knowledge of the mind gleaned from cognitive psychology
experiments will not tell teachers how to teach children, any more than knowledge of physics can
prescribe what a bridge should look like" (Willingham, 2009) Developmental psychology is the point
of view that occurs in learners over the course of a period of time. The developmental perspective
includes theories that are continuous and discontinuous. Discontinuous theories are stage–like. The
processes of learning and development involve distinct stages, which are characterized by qualitative
differences in behavior. Theorists who use discontinuous theories use a specific beginning and end
period for each stage. Continuous theories explain that learning and development generally happen
in incremental processes. Learning involves changes throughout the lifespan. "Contemporary views
on the nature of cognitive development have been vastly influenced by the work of one man. This
was Jean Piaget (1896–1980), once a biologist, who turned his

Essay on Psychologists
Psychology is the study of human behavior, how we think, feel and act. Psychologists study both
normal and abnormal behavior to understand it. Psychologists also try to use what we learn from
that study to help people change aspects of their behavior that they want to change. Areas of
psychology are clinical, industrial, and developmental. Careers in Psychology offer varied
opportunities.
Employment opportunities for capable psychologists are expected to be slightly better than average
over the next several years. However, if you're interested in a career in Psychology, you should know
that the training program to become a psychologist is a long one. There is also stiff competition for
places in graduate training programs in Psychology....show more content...
A person with only a bachelor's degree cannot legally practice psychology in the states. They can
hold psychology related positions. With a bachelor's degree in Psychology, salary starts at about
$17,000 a year.
With a doctoral degree in Psychology and one year of a supervised internship, a student can
become a legal psychologist. In many states, it is required that one pass an exam before practicing
Psychology. One with a doctoral degree can have a salary of $45,000 per year, on the low end. After
schooling, the field of Psychology can expand many ways.
To give you an idea, here are some indepth looks at various fields.Some psychologists work in the
health care field. They practice in hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, and both public and private
clinics. They may work individually or in teams with other health care professionals such as
physicians, nurses, social workers, and so forth. Psychologists in health care provide assessment
and treatment services to persons with mental and emotional disorder. Because of the growing body
of scientific knowledge about the role of psychological factors in physical health and disease,
psychologists also play a role

Four Goals of Psychology Essay
Four Goals of Psychology
Amanda K Farias
12/17/2010
Four Goals of Psychology What are the four goals of psychology? To understand the four goals of
psychology, you must first understand that psychology is based off of its findings from scientific
research and critical thinking. The four goals of psychology are to describe, understand, predict, and
control behavior and the mental process. These goals were set to help psychologists to better
understand what factors cause different types of behavior and why. In order for these goals to be
successful, information must be obtained from direct observation of the patient. Do these goals help
humanity? Do these goals hurt humanity? These questions will be answered in the essay below.
...show more content...
The psychologists, tries to predict under what conditions the event or behavior is likely to occur.
Control behavior The final step in psychology is to control behavior. Psychologists try to help the
patient understand behavior and the reasons the patient is doing or acting the way he or she is.
Psychologists try to influence the behavior. How is the principle applied or what change in
condition is necessary to prevent unwanted occurrence or to bring about a desired outcome. Once the
psychologists see what the unhealthy behavior is, he or she can influence the patient change their
behavior to healthy behavior. They can influence the behavior in many ways from counseling to
medication. The four goals of psychology take time to be processed. With psychologists doing
studies everyday on different situations, it is getting easier to help patients. I feel that the four goals
of psychology help humanity in the long run. With psychologists doing research and studying
patients and the data collected can help psychologists better predict and even treat future patients.
Science has made medications to help with Parkinson disease, schizophrenia, ADD, ADHD and
many more. Some disorders are because there are not enough neurotransmitters. Diseases such as
Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease are caused from the brain not having enough
neurotransmitters; these are two examples of how the four goals of psychology have helped

Introduction to Psychology Essay examples
Introduction to Psychology The concern about life is a main human characteristic. No matter if his
concern is concentrated in himself or in persons or things that surround him and constitute his
environment, everybody wants to know why people, himself included, behave the way they
behave. Everybody, also, wants to improve his behavior, so as to live in harmony with himself and
the society. The Greek word Psychology, is a word consisted of the words
ψυχή–soul and λόγος–utterance, talk. So,
generally, psychology is the science that examines the soul. But , since the psychologists work on
the problems of the personal, family, school, professional and social life, we could say, more...show
more content...
The heartbeats, the movements of our head are behavior. The way we eat, the way we drink, the
way we walk, we talk, are behavior. The construction of a bridge, the composition of a song are
behavior. The fantasies of a child, the dreams of a adolescent, the illusions of an alcoholic are
behavior. Although we are all familiar with human behavior, a little do we understand or we can
explain about it. Since our infancy we learn about behavior through the experiences and the
knowledge that we get by observing other people or having relations with them. Living in society
leads us to watch and try to explain the way people behave. But that is not always easy. Sometimes
we cannot understand even ourselves. Psychology comes to give answers to all this uncertainty.
Therefore, according to modern psychology, the term behavior means all the conscious,
unconscious, verbal, mental and kinetic expressions of ourselves. Psychology uses statistic
researches so as to distinguish the normal behavior from the abnormal one. Such a thing is very
difficult because every society has its own behavior standards, and, consequently, an act that is
normal according to one society, may be abnormal according to another. For example, polygamy is
not permitted in Europe, but it is permitted in certain societies in Africa. So, the judgement of a
behavior must bear in mind the social environment in which it takes place .

Essay on Psychology Class Reflection
Over the course of this class I have pieced together many things about my own life that before
went unnoticed. I am now able to see things in a bit of a different light. Now that I have been
introduced to the realm of psychology I understand some of the reasons for behavior around me. I
have learned that there is a reason for most everything and a lot of our behaviors and mental
processes can be explained through psychology. Studies have been conducted for many years to try
and pinpoint the source of our behavior and it is not something that most people think about every
day. Having a better understanding of why we operate the way we do will help me to better
understand myself and the others around me. Our behavior at...show more content...
role confusion stage. (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2009) It is a coping mechanism that probably stems
from his childhood in some way. This is just one example of how I am seeing the world from a
more psychological perspective. I now try and form some theory about abnormal behavior rather
that just shrugging it off. While I have not really had any experience with anyone with any very
serious psychological conditions I see now that there is much more than meets the eye when it
comes to their behavior. There is typically some sort of explanation that can be found in
psychology and I think if everyone had a basic understanding of psychology they would
understand the abnormal behavior a little better. After this introduction to psychology I can now
also better understand my behavior and understand the things that are affecting my life. There are
certain aspects in my life that limit me from making the choices I may prefer to make. I have
obligations and responsibilities that I must maintain in order to provide a decent life for my
family. There is much at stake for me and I cannot always just do whatever it is that I would like
to do. As a child I was raised in a house where honesty was the key. It has been instilled in my life
and to this day I know the right thing to do is to be honest. My parents were very good at
instilling a since of honor in me. I am still not sure how they did it but I know it affected the
decisions that I made and make today. I was always

The Science of Psychology Essay
The Science of Psychology
"Psychology is the scientific study of mind, brain and behaviour. Some of what you do learn may
seem like 'common sense', or at least familiar to you because you are learning about topics in which
you can relate to. However some things you may believe is true, but is incorrect. The way we know
this is through the application of scientific methods."
Mark Leary suggests that the subject matter of psychology is much more familiar to most people
than is the subject matter of physics or biology; we see behaviour all around us. Psychology would
be an odd science of thought and behaviour if it only considered thoughts and behaviours completely
foreign to people's...show more content...
An example of this is; one of the simplest rules of behaviour is that if you reward someone for
doing something, they are more likely to do it again (the principle of reinforcement. How many
people out there actually verbalise this rule and use it consistently? Certainly not the mother who
rewards her child's tired tantrum in the street by buying them a toy or a magazine, nor the person
who showers their partner with attention and affection when they are having a jealous sulk at a party.
If you take Milgram's study of obedience, you can see that, the teacher obeyed the person with
authority. If you met a policeman in the street and he asks you where you were the following
night, because an incident happened and you may have been around the area or the time it
happened, you would do as the policeman asks as he has more authority, so it may seem like
common sense, as it is something you would see happening in everyday life. But Milgram's study
was a scientific experiment to see whether people would go as far as killing a person by authority.
Also if you look at the surroundings and at how the experiment was set up it was all very scientific,
based in a make–believe laboratory. With scientific equipment, so a lot of it actually was more
scientific than common sense, which is explained above that scientific methods usually way up more
than common sense.
Zimbardo's study

Essay on Motivation in Psychology
The human mind is designed with the innate ability to achieve anything. The interesting part of this
paper is how we all use different triggers and motivations to goad us into gear. Motivation is an area
of psychology that has gotten a great deal of attention, especially in the recent years. There are
several distinct theories of motivation we will discuss in this section. Some include basic biological
forces, while others seem to transcend concrete explanation. All creatures are born with specific
innate knowledge about how to survive. Animals are born with the capacity and often times
knowledge of how to survive by spinning webs, building nests, avoiding danger, and reproducing.
These innate tendencies are preprogrammed at birth,...show more content...
This theory focused on how children socialize and how they develop their sense of self. This
happens in eight distinct stages. I will only be discussing the ones that occur from birth to puberty.
Each developmental stage has two possible outcomes. According to the theory, successful
completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and successful interactions with others.
Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a reduced ability to complete further stages
and therefore a more unhealthy personality and sense of self. These stages, however, can be
resolved successfully at a later time.
The first stage is trust or mistrust. This stage begins from birth to one year, children begin to learn
the ability to trust others based upon the consistency of their caregiver. If trust develops successfully,
the child gains confidence and security in the world around him and is able to feel secure even when
threatened. Unsuccessful completion of this stage can result in an inability to trust, and therefore a
sense of fear about the inconsistent world. It may result in anxiety, heightened insecurities, and an
over feeling of mistrust in the world around them.
The next definable stage is autonomy or shame which begins between the ages of one and three,
children begin to assert their independence, by walking away from their mother, picking which toy
to play with, and making choices about what they like to wear, to eat,

Psychology Essay Questions

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