What can one hope to achieve by learning about Psychology?

Firstly, we can hope to make better sense of the internal workings of our mind and gain a better understanding of ourselves. This in turn helps us live a better life for the rest of our days.

Secondly, with this understanding and skill, we can also better advise our friends and loved ones and counsel them in a manner that would be truly beneficial to them.

Thirdly, we can understand, predict and to an extent even control the behaviour of those around us. For instance we can help our friends quit a bad habit or as a teacher control the behaviour of our class to make them pay attention to what we are saying.

Fourthly, we can also teach others how to control behaviour and help themselves. For instance, teaching a young child a non-submissive behaviour can empower the child to curb any bullying behaviour from his peers.

What is Psychology?

Definitions tell us that it is the study of ‘mind and behaviour’ (APA definition) or of ‘behaviour and cognitive process’ (Baron) but this does not tell the lay person much and rather feels confusing. After all, one may ask, all behaviour emerges from the ‘mind’ or ‘cognitive process’ and why can we not just say the ‘study of mind’?To understand, we live in a world which is full of behaviour; we see it all around us every day. Human behaviour, animal behaviour, behaviour of nature in the form of climate, weather, earthquakes, storms, tornadoes etc. are a few examples of behaviour. How plants and crops react to external stimuli like weather conditions or specific fertilizers is also plant behaviour.

This behaviour is a subject of study because it affects us. The behaviour of the earth is studied by geologists, the behaviour of climate by climatologists, the behaviour of crops by agriculturists in a scientific manner so that we are able to understand, predict and maybe even control this behaviour. Similarly the behaviour of human beings and other animals is the subject of study for psychologists. We all are affected by human behaviour every day. What other people surrounding us do, affects us beneficially or unpleasantly. Some of their behaviours, we find ourselves capable of predicting and even controlling to an extent, for instance we know that at most times, pleasant and polite behaviour will attract politeness in return. Sometimes, however, we are taken aback and surprised by behaviour that is unexpected and may even seem irrational. Psychology is a branch of science which studies this behaviour and leads to greater understanding of the predictable as well as the seemingly irrational parts of human behaviour. Of course it seems irrational because most of us have not trained ourselves to understand behaviour.We also live in a world of our own feelings, thoughts, emotions, memories and desires. This may be called the world of our own private experience, our mind or our cognitive process. As we begin to observe ourselves, we find that here also, many occurrences are predictable, some may surprise you and some may even seem irrational to you. This is the second aspect of the study of psychology.Thirdly, we study the relationship between the first two, which may seem inherent to their study, but deserves to be mentioned separately. The connection between the internal workings of the human mind and his outward behaviour is quite complex. Our behaviour may express our emotions or it may express quite the opposite of what we actually feel, either consciously or sometimes even unconsciously so. Psychologists study the connections between behaviour and private experience and offer better comprehension of these inconsistencies. It must be remembered though that no one can learn about psychology in day or a week. Improving your understanding of human behaviour and experience involves hard work. There can be no instant realisation or eureka here. It can be accomplished just like any other skill is improved, by constant and disciplined practice.

About Blog

In all social sciences, theory can only be understood by relevant and relatable examples. The reason many students and teachers of social science fail miserably in understanding and explaining the concepts of social sciences is that they do not put enough effort into finding or creating good examples. Indeed it is not always a result of less effort but often because it is not easy to come up with them. Producing examples to explain psychology can be a daunting task. 

Theory is the body of a social science and examples and case studies are its soul. Without these, theory is a dead thing, waiting to be brought to life. Being able to parrot theory in class or regurgitating it on examination papers is not a test of understanding. Rather, in subjects like psychology, it often becomes a barrier to understanding. The feeling of ‘I know this’ needs to be overcome in order to actually understand. It shall be my humble effort, therefore, to try to give many examples which are fair and useful, to endeavour towards the ideal I have set above. For these examples I shall seek help from friends and teachers and also any readers who might accidentally chance upon this little blog. Please feel free to comment, supplement and criticise. This blog is an effort at self learning and understanding by the blogger, if anyone else learns or gains from it, all the merrier.