Page 7 - History of Psychology

Chapter

Research 2

Methods of

Psychology

Definition and Scope of Psychology, Research Methods in Psychology

Psychology is a term that comes from the Greek "Psyche" which means soul or life
force, while "Logos" which means science. Literally psychology is the study of the
psyche or also called the science of the soul, and the soul is manifested in human
behavior and activities.

The scope of psychology is that there are various schools that discuss psychology
itself, such as structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, cognitive, humanism,
psychoanalysis, and so on. Each school also tries to define psychology and
specifically discusses related to personality, development, social, abnormal and

others. The purpose of the ongoing development carried out by psychology is to
explain how psychology can theoretically be explained and how psychology as an
application can be of real use in people's lives and as a science.

Psychology itself has the following functions:
1. Descriptive: how psychology describes its formal object completely, correctly
and clearly.
2. Explanation: how psychology explains the roots, causes, and processes of
behavior.
3. Predictive: how psychology makes predictions that can happen in the future
regarding human behavior.
4. Control: how psychology directs human behavior to things that are expected
and avoid things that are not expected.

To continue to be able to carry out its function, psychology needs to be
developed through various studies. Psychological research is research that
analyzes human behavior and provides solutions to problems related to various
psychological disorders. There are two kinds of research methods in psychology in
general, namely: philosophical research and empirical research.

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