Psychology

Psi (),), Greek letter commonly associated with psychology.

The psychology (also psychology, less frequently used) (literally 'study or treatise on the soul'; from Classical Greek ψυχή, transliterated psykhé , 'psyche', 'soul', 'mental activity', and λογία, logy, 'treatise' or 'study') is, at the same time, a profession, an academic discipline and a para-science that deals with the study and analysis of the behavior and mental processes of individuals and human groups in different situations, whose field of study covers all aspects of human experience and It does so for research, teaching and labor purposes, among others. Today, psychology is not a unitary science, since there are various psychological perspectives, which correspond to approaches, currents or schools, each of which has its own conceptual and methodological systems. Among them, there may be coincidences or, on the contrary, clear incompatibilities; this variety gives rise to multiple meanings and approaches. Some currents define themselves in an exclusive way, that is, as the only way to achieve solid knowledge or scientific and effective intervention in psychology (for example, Watsonian behaviorism or Freudian psychoanalysis), although over time, their followers have become increasingly permeable to the influences of other schools. For their part, approaches such as in humanism they consider that the scientific method is not adequate to investigate behavior; others, such as behaviorism, use it for observable behaviors that can be objectively measured. Finally, there are currents —such as applied psychology or cognitive-behavioral therapies— that integrate various elements from other schools to the extent that they are useful for their purposes. purposes, generally, the intervention (clinical, educational, in organizations, etc.).

Through its various approaches, psychology explores concepts such as perception, attention, motivation, emotion, brain function, intelligence, thought, personality, personal relationships, consciousness and unconsciousness. Psychology employs quantitative and qualitative empirical research methods to analyze behavior. Other types of qualitative and mixed methods can also be found, especially in the clinical or consulting field. While psychological knowledge is frequently used in the evaluation or treatment of psychopathologies, in recent decades psychologists are also being employed in the human resources departments of organizations, in areas related to child development and aging, sports, the media, the world of law and forensic science. Although most psychologists are professionally involved in therapeutic activities (clinical, consulting, education), a part is also engaged in research, from universities, on a wide range of topics related to human behavior and thought.

The areas of study of psychology present relationships of a certain complexity. Physiological psychology, for example, studies the functioning of the brain and the nervous system, while experimental psychology applies laboratory techniques to study topics such as perception or memory.

Etymology

The Greek word ψυχή (psykhé) means «soul», «mind», «breath», «life», «cold wind», «icy breath» and was represented symbolically with a butterfly, while -λογία (-logia) describes "speech" or "discourse", "treatise", "doctrine", etc.; therefore, psychology literally means "study of the soul" and denotes the "study of the mind".

The word psychology was used for the first time in Latin by the poet and Christian humanist Marko Marulić, in his book Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae at the end of the 15th century. or at the beginning of the 16th century, and later in the work of a German author, Rudolf Göckel, who published the text Psychologia hoc est de hominis perfectione, anima, ortu (Marburg, 1590). Some consider that this word comes from a scholarly translation of the book De Anima by Aristotle.

The term spread through the Protestant Reformation in Germany and the writings of Philippe Melanchthon, and the term is also found in French, for example in the text Psichologie ou traicté de l'apparition des esprits , by Noël Taillepied (1588). Regarding the English language, the first known reference to psychology appeared in the work of Steven Blankaart, in 1694.

The term did not gain popularity in the Enlightenment sphere until its use by the German philosopher Christian Wolff, who used it in his works Psychologia empirica (1732) and Psychologia rationalis (1734).

Scientific field

Different psychological schools, theories and systems have focused their efforts on various areas, ranging from approaches that focus exclusively on observable behavior (behaviourism), through those that deal with internal processes such as thinking, reasoning, memory, etc. (such as cognitivism) or orientations that emphasize human relations and postmodern humanist thought and communication based on systems theory, to psychological systems that focus on unconscious processes (such as psychoanalysis or analytical psychology). The scope of the theories encompasses areas or fields ranging from the study of child development to evolutionary psychology to how human beings feel, perceive, or think; how they learn to adapt to the environment that surrounds them or resolve conflicts.

For some authors, such as those of the Anglo-Saxon academic current of Behavioural sciences, the field of research and action of scientific psychology is exclusively human behavior, distinguishing only three areas: behavioral science, cognitive science and neuroscience.

As a scientific discipline, it records personality interactions in three dimensions: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. It is a matter of controversy whether other dimensions (such as moral, social and spiritual, including religious beliefs) of human experience are or are not part of the field of psychology, as well as to what extent the approach to such aspects can be considered scientific.

Research Methods in Psychology

Regarding the methodology used, psychology has traditionally followed two research options:

• Psychology understood as a basic or experimental science, framed in the positivist paradigm, and which uses a quantitative scientific method, through the contrasting of hypothesis, with quantifiable variables in experimental contexts, and also appealing to other areas of scientific study to better exemplify their concepts. The methods used in this perspective are the following: correlational research, experimental research, naturalistic observation, case study, survey. The first laboratory of study of experimental psychology was founded in 1879 by German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt.
• It has been attempted to understand the psychological phenomenon in its real complexity, from a broader but less rigorous perspective, through the use of qualitative research methodologies that enrich the description and interpretation of processes that, through the quantifiable classical experimentation, are more difficult to cover, especially in clinical areas. Unlike the naturalistic experimental method, the research of sociocultural approach does not deal with the study of isolated, experimentally produced or analyzed specific processes, but rather seeks an explanation of the phenomena in their real dimension, assuming the reality of the subject as a complex scenario of integrated and interrelated processes, both in the individual and in their sociocultural world, and with a historical-biographic perspective, in the understanding that no process can still be isolated and irreversible.

Scientific Organizations in Psychology

Psychologists are usually organized locally in professional associations and also in scientific associations, which can be local, national, continental and world-wide. In the case of professional associations, these fulfill a normative function, since in many countries psychologists are required to have an authorization to practice their profession, which is interchangeably called license, tuition or registration, among other forms. There is no international professional college; When a psychologist needs to practice his professional activity in a country other than the one in which he obtained his degree, he must revalidate his degree and obtain a new license.

The International Union of Psychological Science (IUPSyS) is the entity that represents psychology in the world, bringing together the national committees that represent the Psychological Associations of each country. One of the most important associations of psychologists is the American Psychological Association (APA), which has published standards for the preparation and publication of scientific papers that are widely disseminated and used in various fields of science. In Latin America, the Inter-American Psychological Society stands out (SIP) In 2002, the Latin American Union of Psychological Entities (ULAPSI) was founded, with the purpose of generating a scientific and professional community of psychologists in this region, in order to generate conceptual and practical alternatives that correspond to the great needs and the cultural diversity of these countries; it aims for a psychology with social commitment and to combat the traditional scientific colonialism to dialogue critically with the well-known European, Asian and North American psychologists.

Chronology of psychological schools and currents

Without intending to be exhaustive, we can list the following as the main schools or trends in the history of psychology. that there are always antecedents and confluences of authors, thoughts and contributions that do not always make the task of the historian of psychology easy.

• Associationism, Herbart, 1776-1841
• 1879, experimental psychology, Wundt
• 1890, functionalist psychology, William James (James Rowland Angell, 1907)
• 1898, Structuralism, Edward Titchener
• 1896, psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud
• 1911, applied psychology, Hugo Münsterberg
• 1913, conductism, John Broadus Watson
• 1927, historical-cultural psychology, Lev Vygotski
• 1940, Gestalt therapy, Fritz Perls
• 1953, behavioral therapy, Lindsley, Skinner and Solomon
• 1954, rational emotive behavioral therapy, Albert Ellis
• 1955, constructivism, Jean Piaget and George Kelly
• 1960, cognitive therapy, Aaron T. Beck
• 1962, Humanist Psychology, American Association of Humanist Psychology
• 1967, cognitive psychology, Ulric Neisser
• 1973, neuropsychology, Alexander Luria
• 1986, Connectionism, PDP Research Group
• 1990, positive psychology, Martin Seligman
• 1992, evolutionary psychology, Barkow, Cosmides and Tooby.

Psychological currents and schools

Associationism

Associationism is an epistemological current that precursor of the approaches underlying a good part of the psychological currents that emerged in the XX century. It constitutes a psychological principle that affirms that we know everything through the senses, and the following question arises: "so, where do complex ideas come from, which are not directly felt?" The answer to this question provides us with the first principle of Association:

"The complex ideas come from the association of others simpler. »

Experimental psychology

Functionalism

Functionalism is a current focused on studying the mind through its functions, and not so much its possible structures. That is, how we interact as individuals with our environment and how we develop in the environment. An example that illustrates this current is the function of the heart. Tacitly, the importance of this organ lies in pumping blood throughout the body so that it works correctly, regardless of whether it is made of metal or plastic.

Structuralism

Psychoanalysis

This section is an extract of Psychoanalysis.[chuckles]edit]

Freud and other psychoanalysts in 1922. From left to right sitting: Sigmund Freud, Sándor Ferenczi and Hanns Sachs. Standing: Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Max Eitingon and Ernest Jones.

The psychoanalysis (from the Greek psykhé], 'alma' or 'mente', and φνάλυσις [análysis], 'analysis', in the sense of examination or study) is a therapeutic and research technique founded around 1896 by the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. From psychoanalysis, several schools of deep psychology or dynamic and analytical orientation have been developed. The theory has also influenced many other psychological and therapy schools, not necessarily psychoanalytic.

Psychoanalysis aims to research and treat emotional problems from the point of view of the person’s childhood, the interpretation of dreams, failed acts and the technique of free association, among others.

Freud's interest in the treatment of individuals who manifested abnormal behavior by extracting his findings from clinical observation, a technique that claims against that of experimentation. Freud believed that powerful biological impulses, mainly of a sexual nature, influenced human behavior. He believed that these tendencies were unconscious and that they created conflicts between the individual and social norms. Freud's work arose in part of Josef Breuer's clinical work and others. Subsequently, psychoanalysis developed in different directions, mainly from Freud students, some of them in opposition to the Freudian postulates, as in the case of Alfred Adler and that of the collaborator of that, Carl Gustav Jung, as well as neo-freudian thinkers, such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Harry Stack Sullivan.

Psychoanalysis is a controversial discipline and its effectiveness as treatment has been questioned. It has been largely replaced in the mid-centuryXX. by the similar but wider psychodynamic psychotherapy, although it retains a prominent influence within psychiatry. Psychoanalytic concepts are also widely used outside the therapeutic field, in areas such as psychoanalytic literary criticism, as well as in the analysis of cinema, fairy tales, philosophical perspectives such as funudomarxism and other cultural phenomena.

Applied psychology

Behaviourism

North American behavioral psychology was forged as a naturalistic discipline inspired by physics (as opposed to the psychology founded by Wundt, who in 1879 created the first laboratory in Germany); It is characterized by collecting facts about objectively observed behavior, and systematically organizing them, developing theories for their description, without being too interested in their explanation. These behaviorist theories are based on the scientific method, and seek to know the conditions that determine the behavior of any animal, following the cause-effect scheme, and sometimes allow the prediction of behavior and the possibility of intervening in them. It is a psychology that is more oriented towards technological production.

One of the most important proponents of behaviorism was Burrhus Frederic Skinner, who wrote several highly controversial papers about different psychological techniques for behavior modification. One of his main techniques was operant conditioning, a form of learning as a result of reinforcing stimuli from the environment. The purpose of Skinner's theories was to create a society in complete harmony.

Most of the studies are done in humans. However, it is common for experimental psychology to carry out studies of animal behavior, both as a subject of study in itself (animal cognition, ethology), and to establish means of comparison between species (comparative psychology), a point that is often controversial., due to the evident limitations derived from the extrapolation of the data obtained from one species to another. Computer technology is another of the methodologies used to develop models of behavior and make verifications and predictions.

Gestalt psychology

The emergence (in Germany) of Gestalt, as a psychological theory, completes the panorama of Central European psychology, along with structuralism and functionalism, which were born towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the XX, and particularly, together with psychoanalysis.^{[citation required]}

With strong emphasis on Kantian transcendental idealism, Gestalt will refer the organization of perception in the subject to a structuring framework of the real a priori, that is, regardless of experience.

The notion of Gestalt is introduced by Christian Von Ehrenfels in 1890, as «form», «structure» (that means, precisely, the word Gestalt in German), upon discovering that the same melody it could be played on different notes, while the same notes in a different order gave rise to a different tune. Since the tune is given to perception, it happens that the structural totality, that is, the form, is provided by the subject.

According to Kurt Koffka (1935), the application of Gestalt means:

"determine that parts of nature belong to all functional, to discover their position in them, their degree of relative independence and the articulation of large all in sub-alls"

The fundamental formula of the Gestalt theory can be expressed as follows:

"There are all whose behavior is not intended by their individual elements, but where the processes are determined by the intrinsic nature at all."

It is the hope of Gestalt theory to determine the nature of such wholes.

Cognitivism

Cognitive psychology is a school of psychology that deals with the study of cognition, that is, the mental processes involved in knowledge. It defines itself as heir to the science founded by Wundt (Leipzig, 1879) and is focused on the problem of the mind and mental processes. Its object of study is the mechanisms of knowledge elaboration, from perception, memory and learning, to the formation of concepts and logical reasoning. The "cognitive" refers to the act of knowing, in its actions of storing, retrieving, recognizing, understanding, organizing and using the information received through the senses. Methodologically, rather than experimentation (such as behaviorism), he has relied on models, also computational and computerized, to explain the various cognitive processes that are of interest to him. Cognitivist research in the fields of judgment and decision making have had a great impact on other disciplines such as economics (see Daniel Kahneman, 2006).

Humanistic psychology

Humanistic psychology is a current within psychology that emerged in the sixties of the XX century. This school emphasizes nonverbal experience and altered states of consciousness as a means of realizing our full human potential. It arises as a reaction to behaviorism and psychoanalysis and the global consideration of the person is proposed, based on the emphasis on its existential aspects (freedom, knowledge, responsibility, historicity). He criticizes the positioning of psychology as a natural science, because this would reduce the human being to only quantifiable variables and also criticizes, in the case of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, the excessive focus on the negative and pathological aspects of people. One of the most important humanist theorists, Abraham Maslow, called this movement "the third force", because it was a critical proposal, but at the same time integrating the two (apparently opposed) theories of psychology of the time: behaviorism. and psychoanalysis.

Psychobiology

Psychobiology or biopsychology is the study of mental and behavioral processes in animals, including humans, from a biological perspective. It is considered predominantly a biological science and secondarily a social science. Psychobiology is not limited to describing behavior, but tries to explain it in neurobiological terms.

According to Pinel and Barnes (2021), psychobiology includes the following subdisciplines: physiological psychology, psychopharmacology, neuropsychology, psychophysiology, cognitive neuroscience, and comparative psychology (animal cognition). It deals with studying how genetic, ecological and epigenetic factors interact determining the properties of perception, consciousness, memory, learning, mating, stress, psychopathology, attachment and other psychological processes in different species.

Psychobiologists study processes and functions such as color perception in birds, memory in mollusks and fish, or emotions in humans, among others.

Basic psychology

Basic psychology is the part of psychology whose fundamental function is the collection and structured organization of new knowledge about the foundations of action of basic psychological processes, such as perception, attention, memory, language, learning, reasoning and problem solving. On the other hand, applied psychology (see below) seeks to solve practical problems through the application and transformation to different contexts of the knowledge generated by basic psychology.

Psychology, by addressing the human individual, constitutes an intermediate field of study between «the biological» and «the social». The biological is presented as a substrate of the psychic system. Progressively, and to the extent that the understanding of the functioning of the brain and mind has advanced, the contributions of neurobiology have been incorporated into psychological research through neuropsychology and cognitive neurosciences, Theory of Human Sciences.

Psychological functions

Traditionally, these functions have been studied by cognitive psychology, and different models have been proposed for each one that explain their basic mechanisms. But, at least in its definition, the following can be described:

• Attention: understood as the mechanism by which the human being makes certain contents of his mind aware above others, which are kept at a lower level of consciousness. The study of attention has developed models to explain how an organism directs this process of conscious focus of several objects simultaneously or sequentially. One of the main questions in the study of care is about the usefulness of this mechanism and its relation to the study of learning and consciousness.

• Perception: understood as the way in which the body and mind cooperate to establish the consciousness of an external world. Some of the questions in the study of perception are: what is the mental structure that determines the nature of our experience?, how do we manage to determine the relationships between the perceived elements?, how do we discriminate between the different elements to name or classify them?, how does this capacity develop during the life cycle?, etc.

• Memory: process by which an individual retains and stores information, so that it can then be used. It allows the organism to be independent of the immediate environment (i.e. from the existing information at the time) and to relate different contents. The study of memory has tried to understand how the information is codified, in which it is stored, and how it recovers to be used.

• Thinking: can be defined as the set of cognitive processes that allow the organism to develop the information perceived or stored in the memory. This area has classically involved the study of reasoning and problem solving.

• Language: It can be defined as a representative system of signs and rules for their combination, which constitutes a symbolic form of specific communication among humans. In relation to this topic, research has revolved around questions such as: what kind of rules are set for the management of language, how language develops in the course of the life cycle, what differences between human language and communication in other species, what relationship exists between language and thought.

• Learning: Learning has been defined by psychology as a change in behavior, not attributable to the effect of internal or contextual temporary substances or states. The ability to "learn" allows the organism to expand its repertoire of basic responses, being the human nervous system particularly endowed with remarkable plasticity to generate changes and learn new behaviors.

Learning is a psychological metaprocess in which language, thought, memory, attention, etc. are involved. It is for psychology one of the main areas of study and application, responding to one of the so-called central concepts of the discipline: the generation of change in individual and collective systems. This defines behavioral learning processes and cognitive learning processes, depending on whether they imply a change in behavior or a change in thought.

Psychology of learning

The psychology of learning deals with the study of the processes that produce relatively permanent changes in the behavior of the individual (learning). It is one of the most developed areas and its study has made it possible to elucidate some of the fundamental processes involved in learning as a complete process:

• vicar learning
• classic conditioning
• operational condition
• habituation
• awareness-raising

There are basically two theories that explain both human and animal learning: behaviorism and constructivism (see constructivism), also known as cognitivism. They differ in the initial assumptions that they consider to be true and that they use as the basis of their theories. In behaviorism, two principles are considered:

• The principle of teaming, which states that animal and human learning processes are the same.
• The principle of fidelity, according to which the sensory records are faithful copy of reality. A principle of empirical origin. (see empiricism).

Constructivists, on the other hand, deny both principles and include cognitive, socio-cultural and emotional factors as determinants of behavior. Among them, the Piagetians (followers of the teachings of Jean Piaget) stand out, who speak of the principle of assimilation-accommodation as a determinant of learning, according to which each individual assimilates new knowledge according to their cognitive structure, accommodating it to previous knowledge, which would explain why different people learn different things from the same stimuli.^{[citation needed]}

The psychology of learning is of great importance in education. Teachers and pedagogues must consider aspects as important as the motivation, interests, expectations and needs of students.^{[citation required]}

Evolutionary or developmental psychology

Its purpose is the psychological study of the different stages of growth and development of the human being, as stated by Arnold Gesell. It seeks to understand the way in which people perceive, understand and act in the world and how all of this changes with age (whether due to maturation or learning). This subject is also known by the name of "psychology of the life cycle", since it studies psychological changes throughout people's lives. That would be, therefore, the object of study of developmental psychology.

Developmental psychology is interested in explaining the changes that take place in people over time, that is, with age. Within this area the focus of attention can be on physical, intellectual or cognitive, emotional, sexual, social, moral development.

Following Erik Erikson, those changes that occur in people throughout life can be explained through factors that are faced by couples: continuity versus discontinuity, heredity versus the environment, and the normativity versus ideography. Also the context in which the subjects develop allows us to better understand their evolution; Thus, it is necessary to highlight the historical, socioeconomic, cultural and even ethnic context, to name the most important. Finally, development must be understood as a continuous, global process endowed with great flexibility.

Throughout the last century there have been various currents and theoretical models that have contributed their discoveries and research to explain the phenomenon of change. In general, each of these models has its own explanations, sometimes contradictory, to those presented from other theories. This diversity of explanatory paradigms enriches the understanding of the phenomenon of development. Among the most significant of these models it is necessary to cite psychoanalysis, Jean Piaget's genetic psychology, Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural model, learning theories, the information processing model, and more recently, the ecological and ethological models..

Researchers studying children use a number of unique methods of inquiry to engage children in predesigned experimental tasks. These tasks often resemble games and activities that are entertaining for children, and at the same time useful from a scientific point of view. In addition to the study of children's behavior, developmental psychologists also study individuals in other vital stages, and mainly, the moments in which transitions between one stage and another occur (for example, puberty, or late adolescence).

Psychopathology or psychology of abnormality

Psychopathology is the branch of psychology that describes the events that occur in visible or non-explicit behavior in various behavioral disorders and mental disorders, the development and consequences of these behaviors and psychic conditions, both from a phenomenological-classifying vision, as circumscribed to a particular theory or current.

Psychology of art

It is the field of psychology that studies the phenomena of artistic creation and perception, from a psychological point of view. In collaboration with aesthetics and art criticism, he uses psychological theories and methods for the analysis of phenomena and artistic productions. The research is carried out in several directions: analysis of the creative process, of artistic products, of the relationships between the artist and the work, and between the work and the user. Art psychology uses the results of basic psychological research, including experimental techniques, comparative results, and clinical investigations; addresses the areas of study that refer to cognitive processes such as imagination, memory, language and creativity. Contributions such as those of Gustav Theodor Fechner, Sigmund Freud, the Gestalt school (within which the development of Rudolph Arnheim stands out), Lev Vygotsky and Howard Gardner have been crucial in the development of this discipline.

Psychology of personality

During the 20th century, psychologists, like experts in other fields of science, were concerned with extend existing conceptions, especially in medicine, about the types of physical build and their relationships with behavioral dispositions. Based on this knowledge, various models of personality factors and tests were designed to determine the set of traits that characterized a person. Today, personality is understood as an organized set of traits, that is, behaviors that are relatively permanent and stable over time, that characterize an individual.

The study of personality is still current and is configured around three valid models: the clinical, the correlational and the experimental. The clinical model gives priority to the in-depth study of individuals. The correlational model seeks to explore individual differences through survey-type studies in large population samples. The experimental model seeks to establish cause-effect relationships from the manipulation of variables. Although there are different positions regarding the level of scientificity of each model, currently each one of them brings together a set of theories that are very useful for the applied work of the psychologist.

One of the predominant models is the so-called five-factor model of personality: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness.

Applied psychology

Applied or professional psychology brings together the different aspects of psychology that have a direct application in solving problems and optimizing human processes for professional purposes (hence its name as professional psychology).

Much of the knowledge of applied psychology comes from basic psychology, however it should be noted that professional application constantly generates new conceptual and/or procedural knowledge that often achieves independence from the basic knowledge that gave rise to it.

The best-known aspects in the field of applied psychology are clinical, educational, organizational and community (often called social or social-community ); but there are also other branches of growing development.

Clinical Psychology

It deals with the investigation of the mental functions of people who suffer suffering, not only derived from a mental disorder but also disorders of orientation of the development of human potentialities. You can use the various psychological tests that have been created as support, but keep in mind that a test never replaces the source of knowledge, which is the interview.^{[citation required]}

Educational Psychology

Psychology student providing an educational psychology workshop for primary students.

Educational psychology is the area of psychology dedicated to the study of learning phenomena and techniques to improve human teaching within educational centers; includes the analysis of ways of learning and teaching.

Through the study of educational psychology, we seek to know the factors that have intervened in the development of potentialities or those that hinder them.

Child or child-adolescent psychology

It is the study of the behavior of children from birth to adolescence, which includes their physical, cognitive, motor, linguistic, perceptual, social, and emotional characteristics.

Child psychologists try to explain the similarities and differences among children, as well as their behavior and development. They also develop methods to treat social, emotional and learning problems, applying therapies in private practices and in schools, hospitals and other institutions.

The two critical questions for child psychologists are: first, to determine how environmental variables (parental behavior, for example) and biological characteristics (such as genetic predispositions) interact and influence behavior; and second, understanding how the various changes in behavior are interrelated.

Social Psychology

Social psychology investigates the interaction of human beings, especially in groups and social situations, and emphasizes the influence of social situations on human behavior. Social psychology tries to understand the social world, while being interested in human interaction from three points of view: psychological, social and symbolic. Many social processes involve relationships between people, or the linking of people to society and its institutions, or the symbolic presence of society in the mind of the individual. Psychosocial knowledge is applied in areas such as forms of interpersonal attraction, international relations, minority group discrimination, advertising, prejudice, fanaticism, etc. The importance of the social matrix in the explanation of human behavior requires an examination of the notions of socialization and human culture, as well as social thought: perception (knowledge of people), attribution (knowing the causes of one's own behavior and that of others).) and cognition (knowledge of “social reality”).

Industrial or organizational psychology

The psychology of work and organizations, sometimes also called occupational psychology or organizational psychology, derives from what was initially called industrial psychology (and is still called that way, especially in the academic field). However, the subsequent incorporation of new elements, coming from the area of study of social psychology and applied to organizations, marks a difference that is not only terminological, but also conceptual. While organizational psychology emphasizes a systemic or structural approach, emphasizing the relationships and processes of the organization's dynamics, while operating with a broader idea of organization, which includes non-labor or business institutions (schools, hospitals, etc.), the approach to the subject of work or labor psychology deals with all psychological aspects of human work (such as ergonomics, job analysis, or personnel selection), but putting Emphasis on individual behavior, on the way in which the individual acts in his work context, on the character of his individual relationship with the business organization in which he works.

The name «work and organizational psychology» aspires to encompass both approaches, and its purpose is the study and optimization of human behavior in organizations, mainly in work, professional and business contexts (industrial or not).), but also in other institutional spheres. This area of psychology constitutes, along with clinical psychology and educational psychology, one of the three major fields of application of this science of human behavior.

Community Psychology

They work with the inhabitants of an urban or rural community to study their human and material resources, helping them meet vital needs such as health, education, housing, sanitation, food, work, sports, recreation and others.

Health psychology

The set of scientific, educational and professional contributions that the different psychological disciplines make to the promotion and maintenance of health, to the prevention and treatment in the specialty, to the identification of the etiological correlates and diagnoses of health, the disease and related dysfunctions.

Emergency Psychology

He is dedicated to the design of interventions in populations that have suffered disasters, either recently or immediately, to lessen the emotional consequences.

Forensic Psychology

Comprehends a wide range of practices that mainly involve capacity assessments of defendants, reports to judges, lawyers and testimony in court on specific topics. Among them is criminal psychology, consisting of estimating a psychological profile of a hypothetical individual, which facilitates the apprehension of any criminal, taking into account aspects, behaviors and evidence of the suspect, it is known as criminal psychology.

Sports psychology

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines sport psychology as "the scientific study of psychological factors associated with participation and performance in sport." Its main objectives are to support athletes to increase their performance and understand the role of sport in health.

Psychologist training

Students using a "Skynner Box" at the former Laboratory of Experimental Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of San Marcos. Lima, Peru, 1999.

The term psychologist has two general meanings, on the one hand it is a person who has a professional degree in Psychology and who exercises the same practice, for this he must have the academic degree of Degree/Graduate in Psychology and having registered with the College of Psychologists of the jurisdiction where he/she practices. In any case, it should be added that tuition is not compulsory in all countries, but voluntary. This is determined by the particular laws of each country. Likewise, in other countries such as Chile, some psychology schools offer students the option of receiving only the "professional degree" of psychologist accredited by a professional practice, and not necessarily the "academic degree" of a graduate in psychology, which implies for their accreditation of the preparation of a degree thesis.

In another sense, a psychologist is understood as any person who studies human behavior in its different fields from a scientific approach. Hence, important figures such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Carl Rogers, Alfred Adler, Jean Piaget, Wilhem Wundt or Eric Berne, who come from areas as diverse as medicine, biology and physics, are considered the fathers of psychology and that their status as psychologists be recognized within the union.

In almost all the countries of the world there are faculties or schools of Psychology in the main universities, both public and private. In universities that do not have a faculty of psychology, this degree is usually attached to the faculties of social sciences, humanities, and human sciences, depending on the country, the institution, and the orientation of the training.

The study of psychology is especially widespread in Europe and North America; In Latin America it is growing widely, being especially developed in South America, where countries like Argentina, Chile and Brazil are recognized worldwide for their contributions to theory, especially in the area of Psychoanalysis. Another area of study developed in Latin America is social psychology and its community application, where countries like El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Mexico have produced several of the most important theorists in this field.

Although each program of instruction in psychology varies according to the institution that offers it, in general terms psychologists should have training in:

Substantive-psychological area

• history of psychology
• Psychological theories (psychoanalysis, behaviorism, humanistic psychology, cognitivism, Gestalt psychology, etc.)
• basic psychological processes: learning, memory, intelligence, perception, emotion, motivation, thought, reasoning, language, etc.
• Biological bases of behavior: general biology and physiology; neuroanatomy and neurophysiology; neuropsychology; psychopharmacology.
• evolutionary psychology and human development
• psychopathology or psychology of abnormality: psychiatry elements, psychological assessment and diagnosis
• (ethical) psychological

Methodological and research area

• design and management of projective and psychometric exploration techniques;
• research methodology: statistics applied to psychology; quantitative methods of research; qualitative methods of research; mathematical models of psychological processes;
• Experimental psychology.

Applied area

• psychology of work and organizations (includes employment, work, industrial and organisational psychology)
• Clinical psychology
• Community psychology
• Educational psychology
• forensic psychology
• Social psychology
• rumor psychology

Complementary area

• Anthropology
• Epistemology
• Linguistics
• Logical
• Sociology
• Theory of Human Sciences
• Neuroeconomy

To these aspects is added training in basic sciences and applied sciences, in accordance with the structure and objectives of each professional study center that teaches the degree.

Psychology has a wide field of applications, as many as there are human facts. Psychologists frequently opt for specialization in an area of their choice (more than 60 percent of them are dedicated to the clinic), or one that represents higher labor salaries, or a larger field of work (industrial-organizational). Currently, the trend is more towards the interdisciplinary integration of the different fields and with related careers, in search of an understanding of the complexity of the individual, of his existence and his psychic life that allows studying, investigating, theorizing, and intervening in a more adequate, more effective, and more real way, in the problems that afflict humanity in its eternal evolution through the experience of itself and of others.

Differences between psychology and psychiatry

Psychology and psychiatry can be confused because one of the branches of psychology, clinical psychology, addresses the phenomenon of mental health in the same way as psychiatry. Psychiatric psychotherapy has also further blurred the boundaries between psychiatry and psychology. The fundamental differences lie in the training received and the use of drugs for treatment.

Other meanings of psychology

Dictionaries such as the Dictionary of the Spanish language of the Royal Spanish Academy include other meanings of the term psychology, in addition to those already developed in this article, which are not addressed centrally in it or that are not explicitly mentioned:

• « Way of feeling an individual or a collectivity».
• "Capacity to know and understand a person's psychology."
• «Synthesis of the spiritual and moral characters of a people or a nation».