Psychology is...

"The science of behavior and mental processes." - Meyer's AP Psychology book.

That's a pretty broad definition for a book about psychology, but it certainly gets to the point. Psychology is the study of the mind, and why we behave the way we do. One important part of this definition is the labeling of psychology as a science. In the past, I have heard that psychology isn't really a science, and people have complained about the "frivolity" of the subject. However, it is crucial that psychology be recognized as a science in order to truly understand why we do the things we do.

According to various sources, there are four primary goals of psychology. These consist of:

To Describe:
The initial goal of psychology is describe behavior present in humans and animals (psychology applies to animals too!) This enables psychologists to better understand and classify different types of behavior, and gives us a deeper understanding into what is considered normal and what is abnormal.

To Explain:
After observing enough behavior to describe it, the next logical step is to explain the behavior. Rather than just acknowledge that the behavior happens, psychologists seek to explain why it happens.

To Predict:
After describing and explaining the behavior, psychologists aim to predict the behavior patterns in humans and other animals. If they can successfully predict behavior, than they have a understanding over the parts of our brains or other influences that cause us to think and act the way we do.

To Change:
This is the goal that many people think of when they think of psychologists: people who want to help you change in some way. Psychology seeks to change abnormal behavior in humans, and influence positive changes.

What is Psychology?

The first thing I notice about the word psychology is how difficult it is to spell. Does the "y" go before the "s" or after, and how many c's and h's are there exactly? Other than that, growing up, I always knew of psychiatrists as my father. When I was in kindergarten, we would have a surprise parent guest reader every week. Before the parent came in, the teacher would tell our class three facts about the parent, and we had to guess if it was ours or not. This time, the first two facts sounded a lot like my dad, but the third fact was "I help people with their feelings and how to understand them for my job." I put my hand down, because I didn't think that my dad did that for a living. Surprise, surprise, my dad walked through the door, and I got my first real understanding of psychiatry/psychology.

Now that I've grown up (a little bit), I see psychology as the study of the mind. However, it is not solely about the different mental illnesses that one can have, it's also about personality and how different parts of the brain correlate to different emotions and functions. I've heard a lot of about right-brained and left-brained people, and I believe that relates to psychology as well, though I'm not sure on the specific details surrounding it yet. I also remember being as old as a freshman and hearing the stereotype that you have to be "crazy" to go to a psychologist. I used to think this for a while, but now I realize that psychologists are there to help people. I've been through some rough periods in my life that I'm not ashamed to talk about, and that I don't feel should be hidden. At the beginning of this year, someone very close to me passed away, and I went to a psychologist to help sort through my emotions. It helped me, and I think that it's the right decision for some people. That may be a bit off-topic, but I think it's important to study what psychologists do with their knowledge of the brain as well.

I first asked my friend who took Psychology last year what it was and she replied with "I'd define it as the study of why we do the things we do." This is a very succinct, simple way of putting it, which broadens the field in my mind and makes it all the more interesting.

I then asked my dad (a psychiatrist) what psychology is, and he said: "The study of the mind, thoughts, actions, emotions, personality, stress management. I'm smaaarrrttt." I laughed at the ending, but I think it really shows that psychology can be a very broad field, and one that I am excited to learn more about.

What is the opposite of "critical thinking"? Based on your answer, what type of thinking do people do more of and why?

Critical thinking is the logical type of thinking: where one thinks through every portion of a problem or question and attempts to see every possible outcome. I think of critical thinking as the reasonable, emotion-free type of thinking. So, the opposite of critical thinking is choosing what to do or say based solely on emotion, or even jumping to an answer or conclusion without working your way through the separate parts of the issue.

People do different types of thinking depending on their age groups. The pre-frontal cortex, which assists in critical thinking, doesn't fully develop until one is 25. This causes a lot of teenagers to act more based on emotion rather than logic. Once someone matures and their pre-frontal cortex develops completely, they are much more likely to use critical thinking in their everyday lives.

I know personally, teenagers can often be incapable of critical thinking. We realize that we should be thinking everything through and trying out every option, but it's often difficult to ignore those emotions that swell up and make you do something out of anger, jealousy, sadness, or even laziness. I personally cannot wait until I can push my emotions aside in order to be able to fully process an issue, as I know I have made many rash decisions that led to problems that could have easily been prevented.