Psychology

Psychology has captivated me recently. I believe psychology is a phenomenal, intriguing subject that acts as a step-by-step manual on how to become best friends with your brain. Understanding different people’s thought processes can be game-changing when working in various fields like medicine, business, teaching but also useful to form a stronger bond with yourself.

I got introduced to the subject through, ‘The Little Book of Psychology’. It was a brilliant explanation on a few popular studies completed by famous psychologists and the impact it had on the modern field today. I despise long books particularly because they appear daunting and more energy is drained longing for its end than actually reading it -- however, this book kept me hooked from start to end. It taught me about famous psychologists like, Wilhelm Wundt, who can be defined as the father of psychology, and was responsible for distinguishing psychology from biology and philosophy. He created the scientific method as the study of human behaviour. 

Sigmund Freud, had also engraved his mark in psychology when he had a theory called the psychodynamic approach. He believed that psychological traits must be passed to the offspring, along with physical traits. He claimed there were three main internal forces that drove our emotions/thoughts: Id, Superego, Ego. Id focuses on the unconcious mind and the behavioural and instinctual urges that we are born with and remain with throughout our lives. The superego stores the rules and morals that have been instilled by our parents and teachers around us. It develops as we grow older and move through society. The Ego is the mediate that considers the demands of the Superego and Id -- connects them. An example would be the act of smoking. Your Id attemps to persuade you to pick up the cigarette and light it. Then, your superego reprimands you and warns you that the act is harmful for your body and can spiral into several negative consequences. Then, your ego takes both sides of the argument and decides to leave the cigarette and not smoke or become a chainsmoker. 

Carl Jung is also a frequently talked psychologist in this book. He was a student of Freud and he developed many of Freud’s works to a further extent. He created the theory of collective unconciousness which is when an amalgam of minds refuse to accept a certain reality or fact and adamantly believe it is incorrect or does not exist. He created ‘archetypes’ which are images and themes derived from the collective unconcious and by understanding these archetypes, we can better understand ourselves. The archetypes include the persona, the shadow, the anima, the self and the hero. 

Ivan Pavlov is also a famous psychologist who created the behavioural approach. He understood that our current behaviours are experiences from the past and tried to understand the required conditions for a specific stimulus. He was responsible for the famous dog-buzzer experiment where the dog is seen to instantly salivate at the sight of food. Pavlov begins to introduce a buzzer which is played and then followed by the food. After repetition, he noticed the dog began to salivate just by noticing and hearing the buzzer. This was a massive step in psychology. There were also other theories that followed like systematic desensitization, operant conditioning, etc. 

“Psychology has a long past but only a short history” - Hemann Ebbinghaus. 

As I’m moving to 11th grade, I have been contemplating which subjects I feel committed enough to pursue. However, I find psychology a strong contender as I find the way people interact and behave with each other fascinating. It’s important to understand and appreciate your brain for every small thing it does, because while you are aware of that one thing, it does a million other things you are unconscious of.