PSYCHOLOGY: A BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE || NOTES || MBSE ||

 

                              CAPTER-I 

 PSYCHOLOGY: A BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE

What is psychology?
The word, ‘Psychology’ is derived from two Greek words, ‘Psyche’ and ‘Logos’. Psyche means ‘soul’ and ‘Logos’ means ‘science / Study’. Thus psychology was first defined as the ‘science of soul”. (Psychology is the study of mind and behaviour).

What are the scientific roots/concepts of Psychology?
The roots of Psychology could be traced back in philosophy and science. When physiologists of the late nineteenth century began to use scientific methods to study mind, later on Psychology became an independent scientific discipline.

Psychology as a science of soul: Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle considered psychology as a science of soul

Psychology as a science of mind: In the 18^th century, psychology was understood as the ‘Science of Mind’. German philosopher Emmanuel Kant who defined Psychology as the science of the mind. William James (1892) defined psychology as the science of mental processes.

Psychology as a science of mind: In the 18^th century, psychology was understood as the ‘Science of Mind’. German philosopher Emmanuel Kant who defined Psychology as the science of the mind. William James (1892) defined psychology as the science of mental processes  

Psychology as a “science of consciousness: Modern psychologists defined psychology as the “Science of Consciousness”. James Sully (1884) defined psychology as the “Science of the Inner World.

Psychology as a science of behaviour: William Mc Dugall (1905) defined psychology as the “Science of Behaviour”, W.B. Pillsbury (1911) and J.B. Watson (1912) also defined psychology as the science of behavior.

Expert Views (Definition)
B.F. Skinner defined, “Psychology is the science of behaviour and experience.”

Crow and Crow, “Psychology is the study of human behaviour and human relationships.”

William Mc Dougall, “Psychology is the science which aims to give us better understanding and control of Educational Psychology the behaviour of the organism as a whole.”

Kurt Koffka, “Psychology is the scientific study of the behaviour of living creatures in their contact with the outer world.”

 

What is meant by the term education?

Source:examplaning

Definition of Education by Different Authors

Education is the process of training man to fulfill his aim by exercising all the faculties to the fullest extent as a member of society. Aristotle

Education is every interaction that happens is every association that occurs between adults with children is a field or a state where the educational work in progress. M.J. Langeveld

Education efforts that are deliberately chosen to influence and assist children with the aim of improving knowledge, physical and morals that can gradually deliver the child to the highest goal. In order for the child to live a happy, and all what dilakukanya(he did) be beneficial to himself and society. Prof. H. Mahmud Yunus

Education means the bringing out of the ideas of universal validity which are latent in the mind of every man. Socrates

Education is a combination of growth and human development with social legacy. Kohnstamm and Gunning (1995)

Education is the formation of conscience. Education is a process of self-formation and self-determination ethically, conformed conscience. Stella van Petten Henderson

Education is all one with growing; it has no end beyond itself. (Education is everything along with growth; education itself has no final destination behind him). John Dewey (1978)

In the broadest sense, education is the device by which a social group continued existence renew yourself, and defend his ideas. H.H Horne

 Relationship between psychology and education

The meaning and nature of educational psychology can be best studied when we understand the relationship between Psychology and Education. Psychology is the study of behaviour whereas education is modification of its behavior.

• Psychology and Education both are related to Human Behavior 

• Psychology achieves the main aims of education.

• The problems of Education and Psychology are same.

• Close relationship between Teacher and Psychologist

Eg. “A Teacher want to teach Tamil to Ajay, should want to know both Tamil and Ajay”.

Define Educational Psychology (Expert views)
Educational psychology is one of the branches of psychology to study the behaviour of the learner in relation to his education. It’s one of the branches of applied psychology which deals with the application of psychological findings in the field of education.
According to Crow and Crow: Educational Psychology describes and explains the learning experiences of an individual from birth through old age.
Skinner: defines Educational Psychology as that branch of Psychology which deals with teaching and learning.
Stephen: Educational Psychology is the systematic study of the educational growth and development of a child.
Judd: Educational Psychology is the Science which explains the changes that take place in individuals as they pass through the various stages of development.
Peel: Educational Psychology is the science of Education.

Ausubel: “Educational psychology is an amalgam of all branches”

What are the objectives of Educational Psychology? (Optional)
The general objectives of educational psychology are:
•  To develop a scientific and problem-solving attitude.
•  To train in thinking psychologically about educational problems.
Teaching Objectives of Educational Psychology:
•  To provide teachers with some basic skills related to teaching ·
•  To help teachers to understand the scientific knowledge
•  With the help of psychology, the teacher learns to modify the behavior of the students.
 
 Nature of educational psychology?
The nature of educational psychology is regarded as scientific because it is organized, systematic and universally accepted.
The following are the important characteristics of the nature of educational psychology:
 i. Educational Psychology is a science: It has its objectives of understanding, explaining, predicting and control of facts. It also aims at understanding, predicting and controlling human behaviour.
ii. Educational Psychology is a natural science: It deals with the study of an organized and systematic body of knowledge concerning human behaviour of all kinds.
iii. Educational psychology is a social science: Like the sociologist, anthropologist, economist or political scientist, the educational psychologist studies human beings and their sociability.
iv. Educational psychology is a positive science: Educational psychology studies the child's behaviour as it is, not, as it ought to be. So it is a positive science.
v. Educational psychology is an applied science: It is the application of psychological principles in the field of education.                    
By applying the principles and techniques of psychology, it tries to study the behaviour and experiences of the pupils.

vi. Educational psychology is a developing or growing science: It is concerned with new and ever new researches. As research findings accumulate, educational psychologists get better insight into the child’s nature and behavior.

 Scope of educational psychology?

Scope of educational psychology is ever growing due to constantly researches in this field.

            The following factors will indicate the scope of educational psychology: 

           Human Behaviour: It studies human behaviour in the educational context. Psychology is the study of behaviour and education aims at modification of behaviour. Hence the influence of Educational Psychology has to be reflected in all aspects of education.

          Growth and development: It studies the Growth and Development of the child. How a child passes through the various stages of growth and what are the characteristics of each stage are included in the study of educational psychology. Growth and development is the overall development of a person, physical and mental development.

         The Learner: Educational psychology involves the study of how people learn, including teaching methods, instructional processes, and individual differences in learning. The goal is to understand how people learn and retain new information.

            The Learning Experiences: Learning experience refers to any interaction, course, program, or other experience in which learning takes place.

               Learning experiences can be classified into two broad categories – Direct experiences and Indirect experiences.

            Learning process: Educational Psychology apply psychological science to improve the learning process and promote educational success for all students.

           Learning Situation or Environment. Learning environment refers to the sum total of the surroundings in which individual interact in such a way that meaningful learning is resulted. Topics like classroom, evaluation, techniques and practices, guidance and counselling etc.

           The Teacher/Intelligence: A teacher or a tutor needs to understand the nature of the study. The scope of Psychology in education includes the study of the nature of intelligence as well as its measurement.

            Individual Difference: Each individual is different from the other. This is a fundamental fact of human life. An education psychologist studies the nature of intelligence as well as its measurement.

           This is a very important scope of psychology in education.

           Heredity and Environment:  Knowledge of heredity and environment helps the teacher to know the varying needs and abilities of the children. It helps to provide proper guidance to his children in the field of educational, vocational and personal.

             Providing Guidance and Counselling: Education is nothing but providing guidance to the growing child.

                    We can conclude by saying that Educational Psychology is narrower in scope than general psychology. While general psychology deals with the behaviour of the individual in a general way, educational psychology in concerned with the behaviour of the learner in an educational setting.

 How does education psychology prove helpful for a teacher?
Teacher is like a philosopher who guides his student. He is responsible to be aware about growth and development of the students. It is educational psychology which enables the teacher to use various techniques. 
  The importance of educational psychology and teachers has the following points:

• Educational Psychology helps teacher to know that how learning takes place.

• It enables a teacher that how learning process should be initiated, how to motivate, how to memorize or learn.
• It helps teachers to guide the students in right direction..
• It helps a teacher to adjust his methodologies of learning to the nature / demand of the learner.
• It helps a teacher that how to solve the learning problems of a student.
• It helps a teacher that how to evaluate a students that whether the purpose of teaching & learning has been achieved
• Understanding the Child
• Understanding Individual Differences
• Making use of Child’s Instincts
• Providing Knowledge about the Laws of Learning
• Provides Knowledge of Heredity and Environment forces
• Provides Knowledge of Potentialities
• Formulation of Attainable Goals
• Provides Guidance and counselling
Therefore, it is important to study the factors that affect the success or failure of the educational process and the extent to which it achieves its objectives.