Saturday, January 06, 2007

Psychology

Psychology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. Psychology also refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including problems of individuals' daily lives and the treatment of mental illness.

Psychology differs from the other social sciences — anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology — in seeking to explain the mental processes and behavior of individuals. Psychology differs from biology and neuroscience in that it is primarily concerned with the interaction of mental processes and behavior on a systemic level, as opposed to studying the biological or neural processes themselves. In contrast, the subfield of neuropsychology studies the actual neural processes and how they relate to the mental effects they subjectively produce. Biological psychology is the scientific study of the biological bases of behavior and mental states.

The word psychology comes from the ancient Greek ψυχή psyche ("soul," "mind") and -λογία -ology ("study").