Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Psychology |
PsychologyNoun1. The science of mental life. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "psychology" was first used: 1653. (references) |
Etymology: Psychology \Psy*chol"o*gy\, plural noun. Psychologies. [Psycho- -logy: compare to the French expression psychologie. See Psychical.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Aerospace | The science which studies the functions of the mind, such as sensation, perception, memory, through, and, more broadly, the behavior of an organism in relation to its environment. (references) |
Health | The science dealing with the study of mental processes and behavior in man and animals. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Psychology differs from sociology, anthropology, economics, and political science, in part, by studying the behavior of individuals (alone or in groups) rather than the behavior of the groups or aggregates themselves. While psychological questions were asked in antiquity (c.f., Aristotle's De Memoria et Reminiscentia or "On Memory and Recollection"), psychology emerged as a separate discipline only recently. The first person to call himself a "psychologist", Wilhelm Wundt, opened the first psychological laboratory in 1879.
The root of the word psychology (psyche) means "soul" or "spirit" in Greek, and psychology was sometimes considered a study of the soul (in a religious sense of this term), though its emergence 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. Experimental psychology, as introduced by Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 at Leipzig University in Germany, did not contain any religious implications. In the 1890s, Sigmund Freud invented and utilized a therapeutic method of uncovering repressed wishes, known as psychoanalysis. Since then, psychology typically considered primarily behavior (e.g., the behaviorism of John B. Watson and later psychologists), the mind (i.e., cognitive psychology), or both. Today it would be rare to find someone who considered psychology the study of immaterial minds, let alone souls. However, there are many psychologists who believe in the soul and bring spirituality into their psychological work. Of course, like all sciences that have broken off from philosophy, purely philosophical questions about the mind are still studied by philosophers; the name of the philosophical subdiscipline which studies those questions is philosophy of mind or philosophical psychology.
Experimental psychology, the field founded by Wilhelm Wundt and William James, focuses on general and basic questions concerning behavior, mental states, or both, including theories of pathology which are also important to clinical psychology.
Humanistic psychology emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It stresses a phenomenological view of human experience and seeks to understand human beings and their behavior by conducting qualitative research. The humanistic approach has its roots in existentialist thought (see Heidegger, Nietzsche, Sartre and Kierkegaard). The founding theorists behind this school of thought are Abraham Maslow who presented a hierarchy of human needs, Carl Rogers who created and developed client centered therapy, and Fritz and Laura Perls who helped create and develop ‘gestalt therapy’.
Clinical and counseling psychology both focus on understanding and treatment of behavioral or mental problems. Psychiatry is the medical field specializing in mental health issues, thereby overlapping with clinical psychology. Clinical and counselling psychologists often work in co-operation with psychiatrists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and 'lay' counselors. Psychiatrists are often involved in providing psycho-pharmacological care including antidepressant, antianxiety, antipsychotic and mood-stabilizing medication. Services aimed at mental or behavioral problems are also often provided by traditional healers and religious counselors. Fields such as neuroscience, political science, media studies and gender studies have also come to be seen as closely related to psychology.
Applied psychology is a more general term, referring not just to clinical applications but also to education, counseling, industry/organizational psychology, ergonomics, (and so on, please list if you can think of some).
Divisions and Approaches in Psychology (these might be overlapping, of course)
Topics in psychology
Major Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Schools of Thought
See List of psychologists
Some related disciplines:
For a full list of topics, please see the list of psychological topics.External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Psychology."
Synonym: PsychologySynonym: psychological science (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Intellect | Metaphysics; psychics, psychology; ideology; mental philosophy, moral philosophy; philosophy of the mind; pneumatology, phrenology; craniology, cranioscopy. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I have a degree in psychology, it goes with the turf Games are fun. (Basic Instinct; writing credit: Joe Eszterhas) Use reverse psychology. (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) This calls for a delicate blend of psychology and extreme violence. (The Young Ones; writing credit: Ben Elton; Rik Mayall) It would take hours to explain the psychology of this event, so I'll just simplify. (Malcolm in the Middle; writing credit: Daniel Frenette) And think how the whole psychology of the thing's been screwed up from the outset. (Seven Days in May; writing credit: Fletcher Knebel; Charles W. Bailey II) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Animals and Psychology (1965) Social Psychology (1995) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Photographed at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1909. He was an early American leader in the field of Psychology. Credit: NAVY. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Edward Blishen | Education is not a discipline at all. Half vocational, half an emptiness dressed up in garments borrowed from philosophy, psychology, literature. |
Friedrich Nietzsche | Idleness is the parent of psychology. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Sigmund Freud, who greatly influenced the field of psychology, believed dreaming was a "safety valve" for unconscious desires. (references) | |
Psychology professionals warn against the tendency to assume that all characteristics of a child with Fragile X stem directly from the Fragile X syndrome. (references) | ||
Playroom personnel are often trained professionals with backgrounds in psychology, special education, childhood development, social work, nursing, or recreational therapy. (references) | ||
Business | The self-help titles, which originated in the US, (diet, psychology, fitness, relationships etc.) are always listed in the best seller lists. (references) | |
As well as fiction and children's books, consumer subjects include art, biography, cookery, health, history, psychology, religion, sports, and travel. (references) | ||
In education JVs or BCCs, the local partner can be very important in providing information on local conditions and customs, as well as insight into the learning psychology of students. (references) | ||
Economic History | Venezuela | Foreign capital is therefore restricted to a maximum of 19.9 percent in enterprises engaged in radio, television, Spanish-language newspapers, and professional services subject to licensing legislation (e.g., law, architecture, engineering, medicine, veterinary medicine, odontology, bioanalysis, economics, public accounting, psychology, pharmacy, and management). (references) |
Women | Pakistan | A survey of rural females by the National Institute of Psychology found that 42 percent of parents cited "no financial benefit" as the reason they kept their daughters from attending school, and sent their sons instead. (references) |
Worker Rights | Lithuania | The Pedagogic Psychology Center of the Education Ministry conducts preventive work among potential victims of sexual abuse and trafficking. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | WRATH, n. Anger of a superior quality and degree, appropriate to exalted characters and momentous occasions; as, "the wrath of God," "the day of wrath," etc. Amongst the ancients the wrath of kings was deemed sacred, for it could usually command the agency of some god for its fit manifestation, as could also that of a priest. The Greeks before Troy were so harried by Apollo that they jumped out of the frying-pan of the wrath of Cryses into the fire of the wrath of Achilles, though Agamemnon, the sole offender, was neither fried nor roasted. A similar noted immunity was that of David when he incurred the wrath of Yahveh by numbering his people, seventy thousand of whom paid the penalty with their lives. God is now Love, and a director of the census performs his work without apprehension of disaster. X X in our alphabet being a needless letter has an added invincibility to the attacks of the spelling reformers, and like them, will doubtless last as long as the language. X is the sacred symbol of ten dollars, and in such words as Xmas, Xn, etc., stands for Christ, not, as is popular supposed, because it represents a cross, but because the corresponding letter in the Greek alphabet is the initial of his name -- Xristos. If it represented a cross it would stand for St. Andrew, who "testified" upon one of that shape. In the algebra of psychology x stands for Woman's mind. Words beginning with X are Grecian and will not be defined in this standard English dictionary. Y |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Psychology" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.35% of the time. "Psychology" is used about 2,447 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.35% | 2,431 | 3,690 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.49% | 12 | 101,599 |
| Noun (common) | 0.16% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 2,447 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "psychology": abnormal psychology ♦ Adolescent Psychology ♦ animal psychology ♦ applied psychology ♦ Archetypal psychology ♦ behavioristic psychology ♦ behaviouristic psychology ♦ Biodynamic psychology ♦ Buddhist psychology ♦ Child Psychology ♦ Christian psychology ♦ clinical psychology ♦ cognitive psychology ♦ Color psychology ♦ comparative psychology ♦ Criminal Psychology ♦ department of psychology ♦ depth psychology ♦ developmental psychology ♦ differential psychology ♦ Eastern psychology ♦ educational psychology ♦ engineering psychology ♦ experimental psychology ♦ genetic psychology ♦ gestalt psychology ♦ good psychology ♦ Hand psychology ♦ industrial psychology ♦ labour psychology ♦ mass psychology ♦ occupational psychology ♦ physiological psychology ♦ Process psychology ♦ psychology department ♦ Psychology of evil ♦ psychology of learning ♦ psychology of work ♦ Religion and Psychology ♦ Sacred psychology ♦ Schizophrenic Psychology ♦ Self Psychology ♦ social psychology ♦ Spiritual psychology ♦ Transpersonal psychology. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "psychology": psychology-manipulators. | |
Ending with "psychology": ego-psychology. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "psychology"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | psikologji (psychics). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | سيكولوجيا, علم النفس, العلم النفسي. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | психология. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 心理學 , 心理学. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | psychologie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | psykologi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | psychologie, zielkunde. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | psikologio. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | معرفه النفس , معرفه الروح , روان شناسی . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | psykologia, sielutiede. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | psychologie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Psychologie, Seelenkunde (psychics). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ψυχολογία. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | פסיכולו'י". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | pszichológia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Irish | síceolaíocht, aigneolaíocht. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | psicologia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | サイクロイド歯車 (cyclocytidine, cycloidal gear teeth, cyclometer, cyclon, cyclosporine, cyclotron, psychedelic, psycho, psychoanalysis, psychodrama, psychogalvanometer, psychokinesis, psychological, psychosomatics, psychotherapist, psychotherapy, Saigon), 心理学 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | し"りがく, サイコロジー . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 심리학 (Psychological). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | shicklaage. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ychologypsay psicologia (psychics). (various references) psihologie (psychic), tratat de psihologie, mentalitate (conception, habit of mind, idea, line of thought). (various references) психология (psychics). (various references) psihologija (psychics). (various references) psicología. (various references) psykologi. (various references) psikoloji, psíkolojí, ruhbilim, ruh hali (frame of mind, habit of mind, humor, humour, inward, mood, spirit, state of mind, temper, tone). (various references) психіка, психологія. (various references) tâm lý tâm lý học khái luận về tâm lý, hệ tâm lý. (various references) seicoleg, meddyleg, eneideg. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | psykhe-. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "psychology": metapsychology, neuropsychology, parapsychology. (additional references) | |
| |
"Psychology" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: phsychology, phychology, pschology, pshycology, psichology, psycholgy, psychologie, psychologly, psycology, psyschology, pyschology. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "psychology" (pronounced sīkÄ"lujē) |
| 7 | -ī k Ä" l u j ē | mycology. |
| 6 | -k Ä" l u j ē | ecology, gynecology, oncology, pharmacology, toxicology. |
| 5 | -Ä" l u j ē | anesthesiology, anthology, anthropology, apology, archaeology, archeology, astrology, bacteriology, biology, biotechnology, cardiology, chronology, cosmetology, criminology, cytology, dendrochronology, dermatology, doxology, embryology, endocrinology, entomology, epidemiology, epistemology, ethnology, ethology, etiology, etymology, genealogy, geology, geomorphology, gerontology, graphology, histology, Hymnology, ideology, immunology, kinesiology, limnology, meteorology, methodology, microbiology, micropaleontology, mineralogy, morphology, mythology, neurology, numerology, ontology, ophthalmology, ornithology, otology, paleontology, pathology, penology, petrology, physiology, Pomology, radiology, rheumatology, seismology, serology, sociology, terminology, theology, urology, virology, zoology. |
| 4 | -l u j ē | analogy, cosmology, elegy, eulogy, trilogy. |
| 3 | -u j ē | prodigy, strategy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-g-h-l-o-o-p-s-y-y" | |
-1 letter: phycology. | |
-4 letters: cholos, choosy, cohogs, cologs, glyphs, golosh, poshly, psycho, school, sylphy. | |
-5 letters: cholo, chops, clogs, clops, cloys, cohog, cohos, colog, cools, cooly, coops, coyly, glops, glyph, goops, goopy, goosy, gypsy, hooly, hoops, hypos, lochs, locos, logos, loops, loopy, ology, ploys, polos, polys, pooch, poohs, pools, psych, scoop, shool, shyly, sloop, sophy, spool. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-g-h-l-o-o-p-s-y-y" | |
+3 letters: ecophysiology, psychobiology. | |
+4 letters: metapsychology, parapsychology, phytosociology. | |
+5 letters: neuropsychology, physiologically, psychologically, psychopathology. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
