Psychology: Introduction

Psychology: Introduction

Ironically enough, despite the title, psychology needs no introduction. Psychology is well known not only in academia, but also in the popular media. Indeed, several shows depict psychological drama, aside from the movie genre itself. But what is psychology? Often times, in trying to define a concept, it is convenient to start with the contrary, or with what the concept is not. For example, psychology is not psychoanalysis, although we will devote the next paragraph to explaining what psychoanalysis is, and also why undergraduate psychology students continue to be taught psychoanalytical theories.

The famous psychoanalytical couch has imprinted in many a mind as a traditional view of psychology, even though it corresponds much more closely to psychoanalysis, in particular to the paradigm of free association. Free association, pioneered by the founder of the psychoanalytic school of thought – Austrian physician Sigmund Freud – in which patients or clients, depending on the point of view one is willing to take, talk about anything and everything that comes into their mind, uncensored and unrestricted.

On the modern scientific side, psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour. However, since psychology has often been criticized as being a pseudoscience, many universities today focus on elements of hard and applied sciences which can be found in some fields of psychology, which remains defined as a social science or a behavioural science. To illustrate, most psychology undergraduates must complete introductory level courses in neuroscience, a field also called neurobiology, and the understanding and comprehension of which demands a great deal of knowledge of biology, physics and chemistry.

Why study psychology? Indeed, many individuals embark on the scholarly adventure out of pure curiosity and to gain better insight into their own personal world. Interestingly, when one states that he or she is a psychology student (or graduate) many people assumed that they will be analyzed by the person, however, this depicts only a partial picture of psychological research, which centres mostly on behavioural studies, statistics and peer-reviewed academic articles published in journal – the vast body of knowledge and theoretical constructs which composes psychological theory.

Psychoanalysis Couch. Illustration: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

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