Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. It originated from philosophy as the study of the soul but has evolved through different phases focusing on the mind, consciousness, and ultimately behavior which is its current focus. Psychology uses scientific methods to study topics like human development, cognition, emotion, personality, mental health, and social behavior. It has both pure branches that focus on basic research and applied branches that aim to solve practical problems. The major branches include clinical, developmental, social, cognitive, and physiological psychology.

2. INTRODUCTION OF PSYCHOLOGY
• Psychology is an offspring of subject philosophy.
Psychology is a Greek word, ‘psychi’ and ‘logos’ and
‘Psychi’ means ‘souls’or ‘spirit’ and ‘logos’ means ‘study
of or knowledge of’ which means Psychology is the
study of soul or spirit. it comprises the following phases.

3. Phases in meaning of psychology
FIRST PHASE
(Science of soul)
SECOND PHASE
(Science of mind)
THRID PHASE
(Science of
consciousnes)
LAST PHASE
(Science of
Behavior)

4. • First phase: First phase is Psychology as the science of soul. Great
Philosophers such as Aristole,Democritus and Plato elucidated the
psychology as the study or science of soul. but the word soul could not be
explained in proper way. the meaning of psychology with reference to soul
was not accepted.
• Second phase: Second phase is Psychology as the science of mind.
Philosophers like Immanuel Kant, who was a German philosopher and
others, found fault with the psychology as a science of soul alternatively lead
by the stress on the mind. But they did not produce the absolute nature of
mind of an individual. As the concept given by them was not clear and
satisfied, so the term ‘psychology’ as the sience of mind was not accepted.
Phases in meaning of psychology

5. • Third phase: Third phase is the Psychology as the science of
consciousness. The term Psychology as the science of consciousness was
considered by Psychologist, like William James, Wilhelm Wundt, and others.
The word given by the psychologist meant awareness or alertness of
wakefulness. The meaning of psychology in terms of consciousness was also
rejected.
• Last phase: The last phase is science of behavior. American
Psychological Association recommends Psychology as a multifaceted
discipline and includes many sub-fields of study including the areas of human
development, sports, health, clinical, social behavior and cognitive
processes.

8. Definitions of Psychology
• “Psychology is the science which helps to understand and
control the behavior of any organism”
(William McDougall --- 1949)
• Psychology is the science of human and animal behavior; it
includes the application of behavioral science to human
problems.
Psychology is the science of human behavior.
(Walter Bwers Pillsbury---
1911)

9. Definitions of psychology
• “Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior”.
(Wikipidea.com)
• “Psychology is the science of mental life, both of its
phenomena are such things as we can feels, desires,
cognitions, reasoning and decisions”
(William James)

11. Nature of Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study and practical application of observable
behavior and mental processes of organisms. Psychology differs from other
social sciences such as: Sociology, History, or Economics, because psychology
specifically deals with the study of an individual. There has been a long
discussion among the scholars and psychologists on the acceptance of
psychology as a science and its nature as scientific.
The observation and concluding remarks of the famous authority N.L.
Munn may be cited as a solid evidence for this purpose. He writes "Psychology
is science and the properly trained psychologist is a scientific, or at least a
practitioner who uses scientific methods and information resulting from scientific
investigation."

12.  Like sciences, it has an organised and systematic body of knowledge, facts,
principles and theories which is subjected to change on the discovery of new
facts and emergence of new principles and theories.
 Like sciences, it believes in the cause and effect relationship. It declares that
every behaviour has its roots, the factor of its causes and development.
 Like sciences, it emphasizes the search for truth. It studies facts of behaviour
and describes the laws governing them.
 It adopts the method of systematic inquiry and scientific approach as used by
sciences.
 Like other sciences Psychology has its pure and applied aspects.
 With all such evidences, it can be safely concluded that it is an accepted
reality that Psychology is a science.
Nature of Psychology

13. Scope Of Psychology
The field of psychology can be understood by various
subfields of psychology making an attempt in meeting the
goals of psychology.
The scope of psychology has been expanded in various
fields in social sciences which is composed of Pure
science and Applied sciences.

14. Scope of psychology
The scope of psychology describes about the branches
and the in-depth knowledge about the subject matter it
deals with. Each branch considers a separate specialty.
The branches of Psychology can be classified into two
main divisions such as Pure Psychology and Applied
Psychology.

15. Branches of Pure and Applied Psychology

16. General Psychology:
Presents the basic and fundamental principles of human behaviour.
It explains How and Why of person’s behavior from a scientific
viewpoint.
its includes examples areas such as behavior, human growth and
development, emotions, motivation, learning, the senses,
perception, thinking processes, memory, intelligence, personality
theory, psychological testing, behavior ...
Branches of Pure Psychology

17. it deals with the behavior of individuals who are unusual.
it studies mental disorders, their causes and tretment
it decribes four aspects of the individual behavior (4D’s)
such as deviance, distress, dysfunction and danger.
• Deviance: Behavior that is deviant from the normal behavior and mostly
considers the cultural society at huge level.
• Distress: The individual’s behavior which may cause distress to the
individual, family members and society at huge level.
• Dsyfunction: A behavior which intrudes with the daily activities of the person
leading to the maladjustment.
• Danger: Individual’s behaviors may cause danger to himself or to other
members in the family or society.
Abnormal Psychology

18. This studies the effect of society on the thoughts, feelings
and actions of people.Our behaviour is not only the result
of just our personality and predisposition.
Social and environmental factors affect the way we think,
say and do. Social psychologists conduct experiments to
determine the effects of various groups, group pressures
and influence on behaviour.
Social Psychology:

19. Experimental Psychology
 This Branch of psychology studies the ways and means
of carrying out psychological experiments by using
scientific methods. Experimental psychologist do basic
research in an effort to discover and understand the
fundamental and general causes of behavior. They study
basic processes such as learning, memory, perception
and motivation.

20. Physiological psychology
 This branch of psychology decribes and explains biological
and physiological basis of behavior. it conerns the structure
and functions of sense organs, nervous system, muscles
and glands underlying all behavior. It emphasizes on the
influence of bodily factors on human behavior.
 One example of a physiological psychology experiment is
the use of brain imaging to study how stress affects heart
rate. This experiment would involve measuring heart rate
while someone is exposed to a stressor, such as a picture of
a snake.

21. Parapsychology
 Parapsychology deals with extra-sensory perceptions,
cause of rebirth, telepathy and allied problems.
 This branch of psychology describes and explains the
relation of physical environment particularly weather,
climate and soil with behavior.
Geopsychology

22.  It is the education psychology which deals with the
application of psychological theories, principles and
techniques with human behavior in relation to educational
situations. This field helps the teachers to teach, learners
to learn, administrator to administer and educational
person to plan and implement effectively.
 it helps to design educational system through learning
theories, motivation and personality.
Branches of Applied Psychology
Educational Psychology

23. Clinical Psychology
This is the largest subfield of psychology. This branch of
applied psychology describe the causes of mental illness,
abnormal behavior of a patient and suggests treatment
and effective adjustment of the affected person in society.

24. Industrial Psychology
 The private and public organizations apply psychology to management and
employee training, supervision of personnel, improve communication within
the organization, counselling employees and reduce industrial disputes.
 Thus we can say that in organizational and industrial sectors not only the
psychological effects of working attitude of the employees are considered but
also the physical aspects are given importance to make workers feel healthy.

25. Legal Psychology
 Legal psychology is a branch of applied psychoogy,
which tries to study the behavior of persons like clients,
criminals, witnesses, etc. with the help of application of
psychological principle and tecniques. The root cause of
crime, offence, dispute or any legal case can be properly
understood through the use of this branch of psychology.

26. Military psychology
Military psychology is a specialization within psychology that
applies psychological science to promote the readiness of military
members, organizations, and operations.
Military psychologists provide support to the military in many
ways, including through direct clinical care, consultation to military
commanders, teaching others and supporting military training, and
through research relevant to military operations and personnel.

27. Military psychology

28. Political psychology
 This branch of psychology relates itself with the use of
psychological principle and techniques in studying politics
and deriving political gains.
 Criminal psychology, also referred to as criminological
psychology, is the study of the views, thoughts, intentions,
actions and reactions of criminals and suspects.
Criminal psychology

29. REFRENCES:
Pychology for Nurses( Second Edition) by R Sreeven,
Textbook of Applied sociology and psychology for BSc Nursing Students,
Wikipedia.com,
SamarEducation.com AND
Study.com