THE CONCEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction

Psychology as a branch of knowledge is devoted to the study of behaviour of human beings and animals. To this end, the relevance of psychology cannot be doubted, more importantly that the well trained teachers will need it to understand the behaviour of his/her students in relation to the learning process. Ability to understand various techniques of carrying out investigation in the field of psychology will equally assist the teachers in resolving emergent educational problems. All the points mentioned above are the focus of this article.

Definition of Psychology

Psychology affects every facet of our lives. A human being usually exhibits moods of joy and anger, have different learning ability and interact differently. When all these happen, we are eager in finding the circumstances that are surrounding these actions and make judgment in our own way. Psychology provides clues to these phenomena in a more scientific way. Therefore psychology is a science subject which seeks to comprehend, predict and control the behaviour of man and lower animals. As the society is getting more complex, psychology assumes a vital position in solving human problems.

Psychologist uses scientific methods to understand why people behave the way they do and develop principles and theories about them. Psychology is premised on logical ways for knowing, explaining, controlling and improving behaviour. Psychologists attempt to find answers to 

1. how human beings and animals receive stimuli from their environment and their perceptions about such stimuli
2. how organisms learn and remember experiences
3. how they differ in their characteristics and
4. cope with various problems in life in order to understand the complex nature of organism and to contribute to better standard of living of organisms.

Methods of Investigation in Psychology

Survey Method

This is one of the most widely used techniques in psychology. It is a method of field observation. In this method, the researcher uses questionnaire or interview to obtain data from his/her respondents. The survey method  is very important because the questions that are asked can be very pertinent to genuine problems and the responses can be got from the persons affected by the problems. The problem of this method is that the respondents may be biased when giving their responses.

Test Method

Test is one of the methods used to elicit responses from the subjects. It is used to collect information about respondent’s abilities, interests, attitudes and accomplishments.We can use test to seek information from a large number of people within a short time. Test method is more objective and therefore provides accurate data than questionnaire or interview.

Observational Method

This is the careful study of human and animal’s behaviour and record your findings simultaneously. In observing organism behaviour, the researcher needs to be highly skillful so that he/she can observe and record accurately in order to avoid subjective report. One of the disadvantages of this method is that the subject may decide not to show his/her true behaviour, if he/she knows that he/she is being studied.

Experimental Method

This is a method in which the investigator makes use of both the main and control subjects in his/her findings. In this case, the researcher attempts to give special treatment to the experimental subject or group. i.e. the organism which is being studied is taken to undergo certain laboratory procedures and conditions, while the control subject or group is not put under any special treatment or condition. It only provides a baseline against which to compare the experimental group.

Case Histories Method

This is a technique in which the researchers collect data about the respondents through the existing scientific biographies or case histories of the respondents. In this case, histories of the individual are critically looked into so as to find out about certain problem or behaviour in that person. This method is usually good in studying people with abnormal behaviour.

Longitudinal Method

This type of method makes the investigator to do an extensive study of the subject, through time, with measurements made at periodic intervals. This method does not depend upon the memories of those interviewed at a later date. The problem with the method is that if the respondent disappears or dies before the conclusion of the investigation, the investigator may not have a conclusive report.