Understanding the purpose and study of Psychology

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of human mind and behaviour. The study of
psychology describe us about how human mind think, feel, and respond. It also tells us about the
human experiences by focusing on mind through consciousness, reasoning, and memory and
through language to mental health and personality. Therefore, anything an individual do is
relevant to this subject. Psychology allows person to understand about how mind and body
correlates and work altogether. This information can enhance the way of living by dealing with
emotional or work stress and help in decision-making. It also give assistance to manage time and
in setting and achieving goals. The study impact human health in positive sense by treating
mental illness of patients. It can diagnose problems and supported in medicine development
(Owlcation).

The study of psychology, enable psychologists to deal with the real life problems. The discipline
of psychology contains the analysis of human behaviour and its approaches towards social,
cognitive and biological systems. However, also include implementation of this understanding to
relevant situations. Profession of psychology not only requires elementary education but also
need to expand and polish analytical thinking skills. Psychologists may vary in their types.
Psychologists can be classified as organizational, clinical, and educational psychologists etc.

Organizational psychologists work in public organizations or may work privately as a

professional of human resource to solve organizational problems. Whereas, clinical
psychologists are known to work in hospitals or in their own clinics. They treat people by using
different psychological techniques rather than prescribing medicines to patients for their mental
illness. In addition, educational psychologists serve in educational institutions. Some
psychologists would like to work as a researcher or teacher. However, sport psychologists work
for teams to motivate team members to increase their performance at an individual level.
Psychologists can also work in government agencies and research industries. Psychologists treat
people when they came across with (About psychology, 2019)

 Anxiety and phobias

 Depression and stress
 Insomnia
 Relationship problems
 Personal grooming
 Disorder in eating habits and in controlling weight
 For autism
 For addictive and compulsive behaviour
There are several reasons to study Psychology. Some of them are as follows:
Indicate Behavioral change: All humans are different from each other and hence react
differently. Therefore, it is interesting to know about the person’s different behaviour. For eg:
According to Bystander apathy, people in a group are less likely interested to help a victim as
compared to an individual.
To understand Kick-ass experiments: Many scientific studies were proving to be unethical
in their early days. For eg: Stanford prison experiment. This was a social psychology
experiment, attempted to test psychological effects of torture given by the prison officers to
the prisoners.
Acquire research skills: To gain firsthand knowledge of human behaviour, a person should
be capable of doing research. For this purpose, psychologists use unique scientific methods.
Deals with mental illness and its treatment: Psychology deals with the mental illness and
explore for the options for treatment.
Deals with insight of people’s behaviour: Psychology deals with all aspects of human
behaviour. How a person can influence another person’s behaviour (Owlcation).

Various Approaches to Psychology:

An approach is a point of view, which is based on beliefs or assumptions about human nature.
Approach determines the important aspects to study and which scientific method would be
suitable for pursuing the study. An approach may consist of numerous theories but all of them
share common assumptions. There are five major approaches in psychology, which are:

1) Psychodynamic Approach
2) Cognitive Approach
3) Biological Approach
 4) Behavioral Approach
5) Humanistic Approach

Main features of the three major psychological perspectives:

1) Cognitive Approach:
Cognitive approach in Psychology is referred as human experimental psychology because it
accounts human mind as an information processor. This perspective evolved due to
disappointment from behavioral approach. As behavioral approach mainly focused on apparent
behaviour rather than inner behaviour. In addition, improved experimental methods and
comparison between computer and human in information processing is mainly the reason behind
the establishment of this approach. Cognitive psychology introduces a mediational process,
which occurs between stimulus and response. Mediational process could be perception, attention
and memory etc. Unlike, behavioral approach which only measures visible behaviour because
they believe that internal behaviour cannot be measured, the cognitive approach measures
internal behaviour through different experiments. For this purpose, Psychologists who worked on
cognitive perspective consider meditational events as an important factor in studying behaviour.
Cognitive approach use information-processing approach as adopted by computers.

2) Biological Approach:

In view of biological approach all human feelings, thoughts, and behaviour occurs due to a
biological event. This major perspective includes the study of hormones, brain, immune system,
genetics brain and nervous system. The biological perspective support the reason that allover
behaviour of a person is adopted by his/her parents and it is known as evolutionary function.
Psychologists of this perspective reveal behaviour in neurological terms such as structure and
physiology of brain and how it controls behaviour. Biological psychologists worked on abnormal
behaviour and explained the reasons behind it. Such findings helped psychiatrists in the
identification of mental illness and in developing the relevant drugs. While some psychologists
argued that, this would only treat symptoms not the basic cause. Therefore, biological
psychologists plays an important role in making a clear picture of factors that are involved in the
way of behaving for health psychologists to further work on it (McLeod, S.A., 2013).
3) Humanistic Approach:

Humanistic approach also known as holism because it considers the whole individual for study.
Psychologists of humanistic approach not only consider the human behaviour through
observations but also consider the personal opinion of individual under observation. They
believe that a person’s behaviour is the real image of his/her own thoughts and feelings. The
humanistic approach believes that the every human being is distinct and independent from each
other. This approach is of a viewpoint that all individuals are liable to their success and
happiness. According to this perspective, humans have the ability of self-realization, which
enable us to gain highest possibilities of life. Because humanistic approach regards an individual
and his experiences for studying behaviour, marked as an inappropriate method of scientific
research (McLeod, S.A., 2013).

Ethical Implications of Research in Psychology:

There are some rules and regulations to conduct research known as ethics. Around the world,
these rules and regulations are regarded as code of conduct for psychologists. Most common
associations are APA “American Psychological Association” and BPS “British Psychological
Society”. APA is implemented in US and Canada. While BPS is in operation in UK. The purpose
of these ethics is to support reputation and prestige of participants, psychologists, and
psychology. However, there are some issues regarding ethical code of conduct. To conduct
research in a justified manner, research should review and approved by ethics committee or
institutional review board. It includes:

 To conduct non routine research: IEC (Institutional Ethics Committee)

 To conduct routine research: DEC (Department Ethics Committee)
 To conduct externally regulated research: EEC (External Ethics Committee)
Above mentioned committees review research proposals and evaluate benefits and risks in the
proposed research work. Identified risks and benefits could be psychological or physical.
Researchers may be asked to make changes in research design of the study before approval.
Some common issues related to ethics are as follows:

1) Approval of Participants: Researchers should take consent of participants involved in the

study. Saying “yes” to investigators would not enough. Participants should be fully aware of
 what the study involves in general and what information does it requires for the research
work. A practicable psychologist must aware of this rule and must obtain their permission
prior to do research. Code of conduct includes:

 Purpose of the research

 Research design

 If there any benefits or risks associated to the participant, he/she must be informed. Risk
does not only refer to physical harm but also to psychological harm.

 Advantage of research to society as well as to participant as an individual.

 Time period of the research

 Additional contact number should be given to participant so they can contact with the
researcher in case of an emergency or to solve any query.

 Confidentiality of participants and right to withdraw from the study at any time without any
consequences (BPS, 2010).

2) Cross-examine: Participants should be informed fully that at the end of research, he/she
could discuss about the findings and procedure of the study with the concerned
psychologists. Debriefing should be given as soon as possible and psychologists should
ensure that it is understood by participants. Main purpose of debriefing is to eliminate any
misunderstanding or concerns of participants about the research and to left them with the
sense of knowledge, dignity and perception that time is not wasted (Harris, 1998).

3) Participants Protection: Investigators make sure that the participants would not get any
type of discomfort. They should be given physical and mental protection. It means that the
participant must not be frightened, offended or embarrass. It is advised to researchers that
the ratio of risk or harm must not be greater than the risks; an individual has gone through
his/her life. If children, an elderly, and disabled person, who relates to vulnerable group is
involved in the study, special care should be given to them. For eg: If students are
participants so they should be given brief explanation about the research topic, as they easily
get tired of reading and understanding the main theme of the topic. In some cases, researcher
fails to give accurate information about the possible risks, so for this reason therapeutic
 debriefing should be given to participants that have been disturbed by the research
methodology. For eg: Zimbardo’s prisoners study.

4) Deception: When participants are misguided about the aims and objectives of research.
There are two types of deception, which are as follows:
i) Intentional misleading. For eg: Using assistants to take part in research as a participant to
achieve desired outcome (staged manipulation).
ii) Betrayal by omission. For eg: Fail to disclose information about the study or creating
uncertainty.
The researcher should avoid misleading the participants about the research work unless an
expert of the field would review it. In some cases, there is no chance to eliminate the factor
of deception. Only in those types of cases deception can be approved but with the consent of
expert and in low proportion. For eg: In case of Milgram’s study of obedience. In that case,
Participants were fooled about that the learners were given electric shocks. However, in
reality, all the learners were accomplice of the researcher Milgram. Therefore, to avoid any
distress to participants, researcher should consult with the group of experts that how much
proportion of deception is suitable for the research and participants. During debriefing if the
participants are discomforted, the study would be unacceptable. This means that the
participant’s consent was taken through deception and he/she don’t know about the actual
research work. In order to avoid this situation, data of the research should be revealed at the
beginning of the study. Some psychologists claimed that the deception could not be justified
ever because:
i) Ignorance of code of conduct of approval of participants.
ii) Misguide and create suspect about the profession of psychology.

5) Confidentiality: Participants information should be kept confidential unless they give

permission to declare it openly. If something found, that should be disclosed for eg: any
criminal act that should be revealed. However, the researcher has no authority to uncover
such acts. Researcher should understand their responsibility for the participants versus to the
responsibility towards society.

6) Elimination from Research: Participants have the right to terminate research at any point
of disappointment or when they get distressed. Researcher should tell the participants that
they have the liberty to withdraw from the study. The participants must not be pressurized
by the investigator to complete the research work if they are unwilling to do so. For eg:
Milgram’s research. In most of the cases, participants have paid and worried about the
payment if they discontinue. Therefore, they should given an opportunity to quit even at the
last moment (McLeod, S.A., 2015).
References:
 About psychology, 2019, The University of Queenland Australia, School of Psychology.
Available at [https://psychology.uq.edu.au/about/about-psychology]
 Harris, B. (1988). Key words: A history of debriefing in social psychology. In J. Morawski
(Ed.), The rise of experimentation in American psychology (pp. 188-212). New York: Oxford
University Press.
 McLeod, S.A. (2013). Psychology perspectives, Simply psychology. Available at:
[https://www.simplypsychology.org/perspective.html]
 McLeod, S. A. (2015, January 14). Psychology research ethics. Simply Psychology.
Available at:[ https://www.simplypsychology.org/Ethics.html]
 Owlcation. Available at:
[https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/Psychology-and-its-Importance].
 The British Psychological Society. (2010). Code of Human Research Ethics. Available at:
[www.bps.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/code_of_human_research_ethics.pdf]