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Definition: Psychology from Encyclopedia of Alzheimer's Disease: With Directories of Research, Treatment and Care Facilities

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior.

psychology

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
science or study of the thought processes and behavior of humans and other animals in their interaction with the environment. Psychologists study processes of sense perception , thinking, learning , cognition, emotions and motivations , personality , abnormal behavior, interactions between individuals, and interactions with the environment. The field is closely allied with such disciplines as anthropology and sociology in its concerns with social and environmental influences on behavior; physics in its treatment of vision, hearing, and touch; and biology in the study of the physiological basis of behavior. In its earliest speculative period, psychological study was chiefly embodied in philosophical and theological discussions of the soul. The De anima of Aristotle is considered the first monument of psychology as such, centered around the belief that the heart was the basis for mental activity. The foundations of modern psychology were laid by 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes , …
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Full text Article Psychology

From World of Sociology, Gale
Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and experience. Through systematic observation and research, psychologists attempt to explain how and why human beings act and react to the world around them. The emergence of psychology as an independent scientific discipline rather than a branch…
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Full text Article psychology

From Collins Dictionary of Sociology
the scientific study of behaviour. This includes human and animal behaviour (see also ETHOLOGY ), but its particular concern is with mental events as revealed through behaviour, including introspection. As a separate discipline it has only existed since the late 19th-century, but in this time has…
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Full text Article psychology

From The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology
Psychology simply cannot be defined; indeed, it cannot even be easily characterized. Even if one were to frame a definition or characterization today, tomorrow would render the effort inadequate. Psychology is what scientists and philosophers of various persuasions have created to try to fulfil the…
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Full text Article PSYCHOLOGY

From The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics
Psychologists offer four explanations for moral behaviour (as they put it). It may be to please (or to avoid shocking) other members of our social group; it may be as a result of the promptings of our CONSCIENCE ; it may be because of a good upbringing, one that rewarded good behaviour and punished…
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Full text Article psychology

From Aesthetics A-Z
Psychology studies the experiences and behavior of organisms, primarily human beings. Insofar as art – its objects, its products, and the experiences it may involve – play an important role in human life, it is a legitimate object of psychological study. The concerns of art psychology, or empirical…
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Full text Article psychology

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
science or study of the thought processes and behavior of humans and other animals in their interaction with the environment. Psychologists study processes of sense perception , thinking, learning , cognition, emotions and motivations , personality , abnormal behavior, interactions between…
| 1,061 words
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Full text Article Psychology

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology
The modern meaning of psychology as the study of the mind and behavior emerged gradually as the scientific discipline formed in nineteenth-century Europe and found its way to the United States. The discipline's conceptual roots can be found in the experimental laboratories of physiologists, in the…
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Full text Article Psychology

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
abnormal psychology Adler, Alfred adolescence adulthood affective disorder Allport, Gordon W(illard) amnesia analytic psychology anxiety…
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Full text Article psychology

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Systematic study of human and animal behaviour. The first psychology laboratory was founded in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt at Leipzig, Germany. The subject includes diverse areas of study and application, among them the roles of instinct, heredity, environment, and culture; the processes of sensation, …
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Full text Article psychology

From Encyclopedia of Ethics
There is no settled literature linking psychology and ethics. There are a great many questions concerning what is sometimes called MORAL PSYCHOLOGY , for example (if one takes the notion generously) regarding such topics as WEAKNESS OF WILL ( akrasia ), freedom and compulsion, RESPONSIBILITY and…
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