Psychology

Psychology (Classical Greek: psyche = "soul" or "mind", logos = "study of") is an academic and applied field involving the study of behavior, mind and thought and the neurological bases of behavior. 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. It is largely concerned with humans, although the behavior and mental processes of animals can also be part of psychology research, either as a subject in its own right (e.g. animal cognition and ethology), or somewhat more controversially, as a way of gaining an insight into human psychology by means of comparison (including comparative psychology). Psychology is commonly defined as the science of behaviour and mental processes. Although its name derives from Greek "psyche", psychology does not scientifically study the soul, since no evidence exists to show such a thing exists.

Topics in psychology

Although in principle, psychology aims to explain all aspects of thought and behaviour, some topics have generated particular interest, either due to their perceived importance, their ease of study or popularity. Many of the concepts studied by professional psychology stem from the day-to-day psychology used by most people and learnt through experience. This is known as folk psychology to distinguish it from psychological knowledge developed through formal study and investigation. The extent to which folk psychology should be used as a basis for understanding human experience is controversial, although theories that are based on everyday notions of the mind have been among some of the most successful.

Related Topics:
Folk psychology - Experience

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Among the main topics psychology studies, there are:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Addiction
• Anti-social behaviour
• Attention
• Attitude
• Brain and nervous system function
• Brain injury
• Child development
• Cognition
• Communication
• Conditioning
• Conformity
• Consciousness
• Crime
• Cyberpsychology
• Decision making
• Emotion
• Ergonomics
• Executive function
• Experimental analysis of behavior
• Face perception
• Group dynamics
• Human computer interaction
• Language and language acquisition
• Learning
• Memory
• Mental illness
• Motivation
• Perception
• Personality
• Problem solving
• Program evaluation
• Psychological testing
• Psychopathology
• Psychopharmacology
• Psychotherapy
• Reasoning and decision making
• Rehabilitation
• Reinforcement
• Research methods
• Sensory experience
• Sexuality and gender role
• Social cognition
• Social influence
• Vision

For a comprehensive list of psychological topics on wikipedia, please see the list of psychological topics.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~