3.1.1 Psychology and educational psychology: meaning, history, scope and schools

Explained

1. How the definition changed and why.

• Behaviour = every activity of an organism: mental (thinking, reasoning, imagining) and bodily (movements).
• Stimulus = whatever in the surroundings arouses an activity; response = the activity it arouses.
• Overt behaviour can be seen and measured; covert behaviour is the hidden mental activity before a response.
• Because it studies behaviour, psychology is a behavioural science.
• Literal meaning: psyche + logos = science of the soul. APPSC 2019 asked "the meaning of the word psychology" with no "soul" option and keyed science of mind: pick "mind" when "soul" is absent.

2. The four goals of psychology.

3. Psychology and its neighbours.

• Philosophy: psychology grew out of it; linked to epistemology (nature of knowing).
• Logic: psychology is a positive science (how we actually think); logic is a normative science (how we ought to think). Psychology studies mental processes; logic studies mental products (concepts, judgements, inferences).
• Sociology: social psychology is the meeting ground.
• Physiology: psychology and physiology both left their mark; psychology broke away from philosophy and physiology in the last quarter of the 19th century.
• Because it applies to almost every field, one BRAOU book calls psychology the "psychotic octopus".
• Classic issues: nature vs nurture (heredity vs environment), conscious vs unconscious, observable behaviour vs inner processes, free will vs determinism, individual differences vs universal laws.

4. Branches (fields) of psychology. APPSC 2019 asked two of these.

5. History in dates.

• Ebbinghaus: psychology has a long past but only a short history.
• Aristotle's De Anima ("On the soul") is the oldest treatise on psychology; he also first stated the laws of association (contiguity).
• Roots of the new psychology: three philosophical trends, critical empiricism (Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant), associationism and scientific materialism (La Mettrie, "L'Homme machine": man as a machine); plus physiology, evolution, measurement and laboratories.
• Nativism vs empiricism: are some ideas inborn, or do all come from experience?
• After the Renaissance, science replaced extensive inquiry with intensive inquiry (study each small part in detail).
• Around 1900 the centre of psychology moved from Europe to the USA.

6. The schools in more detail. A school is a group of psychologists sharing a leader and a common view, usually formed in protest against an earlier view.

• Structuralism (Wundt, Titchener): the structure of consciousness; three elements, sensations, images, feelings; only method introspection by trained subjects; dominant about 1890–1920; failed because introspection was subjective and the scope narrow.
• Functionalism (William James, Dewey, Angell, Carr): the function of the mind, how it helps us adapt; mind is a continuous stream of consciousness; influenced by Darwin; Carr added motivation; Dewey linked it to education.
• Behaviourism (Watson): rejected consciousness and introspection; studies only observable stimulus–response behaviour, so its followers are S–R psychologists; the mind is a "black box"; model: Pavlov's conditioned reflex; uses animals and measurement; Watson claimed that, given healthy infants, training alone could make any of them any kind of specialist (environment is everything); B.F. Skinner took it further (operant conditioning).
• Gestalt (Wertheimer, Köhler, Koffka; APPSC 2019: "all of the given options"): German word for whole, form or pattern; the whole is more than the sum of its parts; also called holistic psychology; learning by insight; greatest influence on perception and personality.
• Psychoanalysis (Freud): most of the mind is unconscious, like an iceberg; behaviour comes from unconscious motives and conflicts (APPSC 2019) and early childhood experience; methods free association and dream analysis; id, ego, superego; neo-Freudians who broke away: Jung, Adler, Karen Horney. Thinkers who spoke of the unconscious before Freud: Aquinas, Schopenhauer, Herbart.
• Humanistic (Maslow, Rogers): the third force after behaviourism and psychoanalysis; human nature is good, people have free will; highest need self-actualisation (Maslow's hierarchy of needs); Rogers: client-centred therapy.
• Cognitive (Ebbinghaus, Bartlett, Piaget, Neisser): how we perceive, remember and think; the mind compared to a computer (information processing).
• Hormic (William McDougall): behaviour is purposive, driven by instincts.
• Today: most psychologists are eclectic (take the best from every school). Positive psychology (Martin Seligman) studies strengths such as optimism.

7. Educational psychology: meaning and definitions. The applied branch of psychology that studies the behaviour of the learner in relation to the teaching–learning process; called "the science and technology of education".

8. Nature of educational psychology (BRAOU lists six).

• A science: uses objective methods.
• A natural science: collects data and reaches conclusions like the physical and biological sciences.
• A social science: studies people in groups.
• A positive science, not a normative one: describes what is, does not lay down what ought to be.
• An applied science: applies general psychology to education.
• A developing (growing) science: knowledge keeps expanding with research.
• Aims: to understand, predict and control behaviour in learning situations.
• W.A. Kelly (1941) listed nine functions: knowing the child, the aims, scientific methods, principles of learning and teaching, measurement, growth, adjustment, emotions, training.

9. Scope of educational psychology. Five key factors: the learner, learning experiences, the learning process, the learning situation, the teacher. Also: growth and development, heredity and environment, individual differences, intelligence, personality, measurement and evaluation, guidance and counselling, mental health, special learners. It is narrower than general psychology (behaviour in educational settings only).

10. Education and psychology.

• Education (philosophy) sets the aims; psychology shows whether they can be reached and how (methods, stages, motivation).
• Its biggest discovery for schools: individual differences, which ended teaching all pupils in one uniform way.
• Contributions: a child-centred, flexible curriculum; play-way, project, heuristic and Montessori methods; graded textbooks; a timetable that puts difficult subjects early, before fatigue; discipline for problem and gifted children; new evaluation tools; helping adjustment and preventing maladjustment.

11. Titles at a glance.

12. Neurotransmitters (APPSC 2025). Dopamine: pleasure and reward; serotonin: mood and sleep; endorphins: relieve pain; GABA: calms (inhibits) nerve activity; acetylcholine: memory and muscle movement.