Psychology & Educational Psychology - Meaning, Definition, Scope & Significance

 Psychology & Educational Psychology

What Is Psychology?

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. It is a multifaceted discipline and includes many sub-fields of study such areas as human development, sports, health, clinical, social behavior and cognitive processes.

Meaning Of Psychology:

The word Psychology has its origin from two Greek words ‘Psyche’ and ‘Logos’, ‘psyche’ means ‘soul’ and ‘logos’ means ‘study’. Thus literally, Psychology means ‘the study of soul’ or ‘science of soul’.

Definition of Psychology

The first definition of the Psychology was the study of the soul

Few other definitions include:

•  “Psychology is the study of human behaviour, its causes and conditions” – William Mc Dougall
• “Psychology is the study of human behaviour and human relationships” – L.D. Crow and Alice Crow
• “Psychology may be most satisfactorily defined as the science of human behaviour” - Walter Bowers Pillsbury
• "Psychology is the study of human nature" - L.F. Boring  
• " Psychology is the science of activities of the individual in relation to the environment"- Woodworth
• "Psychology is the science which deals with the mutual interaction between an organism and environment" - Murphy 

Some of the more recent definitions of Psychology, in chronological order, are as follows:  

·      "Psychology is the science of human and animal behaviour. It includes the application of this science to human problems". (Morgan et al., 1986)  

·      "The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes". (Feldman,1996)

·      "The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism’s physical state, mental state and external environment" (Tavris and Wade, 1997)  

·     "Psychology is all about human behaviour, about mental processes, and about the context in which behaviour and mental processes occur". (Das, 1998)  

·      "The science of behaviour and mental processes". (Lahey,1998)

·      "The science of behaviour and cognitive processes". (Baron, 1999)

·      "Scientific study of behaviour and mind". (Nairne, 2003)

·      "A science in which behavioural and other evidence is used to understand the internal processes leading people (and members of other species) to behave as they do". (Eysenck, 2004)  

·      "The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes". (Ciccarelli & Meyer,2006; Coon & Mitterer, 2007, 2008)  

·      "The science that studies behaviour and mental processes".(Rathus,2008)

Educational Psychology

Educational psychology is a branch of psychology.

Educational Psychology = Education + Psychology 

• Branch of psychology in which the findings of psychology are applied in the field of education.
• It aims in socializing human and modifying their behaviour.
• It is an applied science of the recent developments
• It is a means to achieve the completion of education.
• Simply it can be said as  scientific study of human behaviour in educational setting

Nature of Educational Psychology:

•       To give understanding of the nature, aims and purposes of education
•      To give a knowledge of the nature of the child
•      To give a knowledge of the growth and development of children
•     To assist in the better adjustment of children and to help them to prevent maladjustment
•      To present the principles and techniques of learning and teaching
•    To give understanding of the scientific methods and procedures
•    To give training in methods of measuring abilities and achievement in school subjects
•    To study the educational significance and control of emotions and
•    To give an understanding of the principles and techniques of correct training.

Scope of Educational Psychology:

‘Scope’ means, ‘the limits of a particular subject in the field of its operation’, that is , ‘ what is to be included in its study’.

Scope of educational Psychology covers under 5 major headings, which includes

1.  The Learner ( Student)

2.  The Learning Process

3.  The Learning Situation

4.  The Learning Experience

5.   The Teacher

1.The Learner:

·      The principles of educational psychology teaches the need and the methodology of understanding the pupil.

·      It includes aspects like, natural and inborn abilities and capabilities of the individual and their measurements, individual differences and their approaches,the overt and covert, conscious and unconscious behaviour of learner,the characteristics of his personal growth and development of all stages from childhood to adulthood.

2.The Learning Process:

·      The learning process deals with the nature of learning and how it takes place.

It is concerned with the nature and principles of learning, methods of learning, improvement of memory, development of concepts and methods of effective learning. 

It contains topics such as laws, principles and theories of learning; remembering and forgetting, perceiving, concept formation,thinking, reasoning process, problem solving,transfer of training Ways and Means of effective learning etc.

3.The Learning Situation:

·      It deals with the environment factors and learning situations which come midway between the learner and the teacher. 

The classroom environment should create congenial relations between the teacher and the pupil. 

Topics like classroom climate and group dynamics techniques and aids which facilitate learning, evaluation techniques and practices,guidance and counselling etc.. which helps in smooth functioning of teaching learning process. 

There should be social relationship among teacher and learner.

4.The Learning Experience:

·      Educational psychology decides the method of offering educational experiences to pupils by selecting the learning experiences. 

By describing the learners characteristics, what teaching aids are appropriate for the particular subject can be decided. 

It’s a just the techniques of teaching. It also helps in deciding what learning situation should be provided by the teacher to the learner according to his mental and physical age, his previous knowledge and interest levels.

·      For example, If we are teaching about computer, we do it by bringing components to the classroom or by taking peoples to the manufacturing unit to do it.

5.The teacher:

·      Educational psychology emphasise the need of knowing the self for a teacher and understanding the pupil to play his role properly in the process of education. 

It throws light on the essential personality traits, interests, aptitudes, the characteristics of effective teaching, etc. so as to inspire, help, teacher handle the stress, conflict and anxiety by giving insight into their own personality.

Significance of educational psychology:

·      Educational psychology is a systematic study of the behaviour of students and teachers in teaching learning process.

·      It is a branch of psychology which deals with the teaching and learning. 

It includes regular activities like jumping, running, walking, and affective activities like happiness, sadness, anger, etc. 

It includes conscious, subconscious and unconscious activities. 

It covers overt and covert behaviour. It includes the behaviour of human beings and animals. 

It is the positive developing science of behaviour. 

It includes prediction, modifiability, purposive and purposeful behaviour. 

It employs scientific methods to modify the behaviour of individual in relation to the environment.

·      Educational psychology is helpful to classroom teacher in every step of teaching learning process.

1.To know the learners and their character

·      The teacher can understand the child in different ways

·      The teacher can understand the interests, attitudes, attitudes and other acquired and innate capacities of the child.

·      The teacher can study physical, intellectual, emotional, social and aesthetic needs.

·      The teacher can study the level of aspiration.

·      The teacher can study child's conscious,unconscious, motivational and group behaviour.

·      The teacher can study his conflicts, desires and other aspects of mental health.

   2. To select and organise the subject matter:

·      The teacher can select and articulate the subject matter to suit the abilities, conveniences and practical needs of the students.

   3. To know the technique of teaching- learning process:

·      The teacher can know when, where and how to teach a given topic or a unit. The students also know when, where and how to learn. This helps better interaction and understanding.

  4. To arrange learning situation or environment:

·      Learning situation helps the students to tone up the classrooms. 

Congenial atmosphere like adequate ventilation, light suitable furniture, white washing, cleanliness, friendly and sympathetic attitude, adequate interest, motivation, etc.

  5. To Acquaint with the mechanism of heredity and environment:

·      The teacher can impress upon the importance of the innate ability of the student. 

It helps him to provide suitable environment for better learning. 

He can balance the hereditary factors and the environmental forces.

  6. To help in maintaining discipline:

·      By knowing his students he can understand their motivation, attitudes, abilities and aspirations. He can adjust his teaching to suit their needs, to create intrinsic discipline.

  7. To help in rendering guidance services:

·      The abnormality of the student can be studied and guidance may be given for better adjustment.

By giving proper guidance to normal and gifted children, their personality development will flourish further.

  8. To help in providing motivation:

·      Teacher can’t teach anyone who is not interested.Hence the teacher has to depend on the assistant of educational psychology for the techniques of motivation.

  9. To help designing curriculum:

·      A curriculum has to cover the needs and aspirations of the pupils. Only the knowledge of educational psychology will help a teacher to design a desired curriculum.

  10. Evaluation and assessment:

·      The teacher can monitor classroom tests and results can be announced periodically which will serve as a feedback. 

  11. To help in solving classroom problems:

·      The teacher can arrange group activities. He can attend to mental health in the class. He can sublimate the interests towards accepted goals.

  12. To know the teacher himself:

·      At first the teacher has to understand himself, his strength and weakness. Educational Psychology helps him to achieve this.Thus he can adjust his learning to the needs and requirements of the students for better interaction.

Thus, educational psychology is helpful to the classroom and teacher for the better, interpersonal relationship between the teacher and the student.