Summary Assignment II

Summary Assignment II

Introduction

Psychology is considered as a complex discipline; it can be defined as a science which is in continuous change, being redefined with new and regenerated long-standing concepts and notions. Psychology is rooted in different perspectives. Psychology has undergone changes over the last several years. The purpose of this paper is to examine different key terms and concepts of psychology including: major areas of psychology, major psychological disorders, psychotherapy and its types, ways to measure human personality, and the brain and nervous system.

Discussion

Major Areas of Psychology

The major areas of psychology are described as under:

Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology is the discipline of psychology, which studies progressive behavioral changes from birth until death in an individual. Life span development studies the entire life span of an individual. From birth through death, it reflects the progress of ageing, considering the psychological, biological and social perspectives. The normal development of a child can be determined by a psychologist by means of determining the progress of child via specific developmental indicators. Certain abilities or skills can serve as developmental milestones that are developed by a child within a certain age span.

Cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology is one of the disciplines of psychology that is concerned with mental processes, i.e., perception, thinking, learning, and memory. Due to the sharp difference of the perspectives, cognitive psychology is often associated with behaviorism.

Behavioral psychology

Behavioral psychology is a subject field of psychology which concentrates upon the study and variation of behaviors of people, including their thoughts, emotions and actions. Also termed as behaviorism, this branch depends upon the concept that emotional and mental illnesses can be improved via behavior-modification techniques.

Social psychology

Social psychology is one of the subject areas of psychology that endeavors to comprehend human behavior in social interactions. Individuals are studied in the social context in social psychology. Social psychology implies how people see themselves as part of society and how a group is influenced by our behavior and vice versa. Social psychology is related to how and why individuals feel, think, and perform the things they do relying on the circumstances they are in. Social psychology is an essential discipline of psychology, which helps to understand how, in different situations, an individual can appear like a completely different person.

Social psychology, from three significant perspectives, studies behavior. The first perspective is how we perceive others and ourselves, the second perspective implies how our behavior is influenced by others, and the third one is how our behavior is influenced by group and social dynamics. How we perceive ourselves in various features can be explained as how we look at or consider ourselves and how we assess ourselves to be able to sort out challenges and tasks set before us. How we value or judge ourselves or our self-worth's sense is our self-esteem. Our sense that the objectives set before can be accomplished by us is our self-efficacy. Our thoughts and internal perceptions, and our communications with others influence our self-efficacy and self-esteem.

Personality

Personality is basically the aggregate of experiences ...