Meaning, Nature and Scope of Educational Psychology

What is Psychology?

Ø  The word, ‘Psychology’ is derived from two Greek words, ‘Psyche’ and ‘Logos’. Psyche means ‘soul’ and ‘Logos’ means ‘science’. Thus psychology was first defined as the ‘science of soul”.

 

a. Psychology as the Science of Soul: In ancient days, the Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle interpreted Psychology as the science of the soul and studied it as a branch of Philosophy. But soul is something metaphysical. It cannot be seen, observed and touched and we cannot make scientific experiments on soul

 

b. Psychology as the Science of the Mind:  It was the German philosopher Emmanuel Kant who defined Psychology as the science of the mind. William James (1892) defined psychology as the science of mental processes. But the word ‘mind’ is also quite ambiguous as there was confusion regarding the nature and functions of mind.

 

c. Psychology as the Science of Consciousness: Modern psychologists defined psychology as the “Science of Consciousness”. James Sully (1884) defined psychology as the “Science of the Inner World”. Wilhelm Wundt (1892) defined psychology as the science which studies the “internal experiences’. But there are three levels of consciousness – conscious, subconscious and the unconscious and so this definition also was not accepted by some.

 

d. Psychology as the Science of Behaviour: At the beginning of the 20th century, when psychologists attempted to develop psychology into a pure science, it came to be defined as the science of behaviour. The term behaviour was popularized by J.B. Watson. Other exponents are William Mc Dugall and W.B. Pillsbury. According to R.S. Woodworth, “First Psychology lost its soul, and then it lost its mind, and then lost its consciousness. It still has behaviour of a sort.”

Behaviour generally means overt activities which can be observed and measured scientifically. But one’s behaviour is always influenced by his experiences. So when we study one’s behaviour we must also study his experiences.

Behaviour is of two types:

a.       i. Overt

b.      ii. Covert

·     Psychology should, therefore, be defined as a “science of behaviour and experiences on human beings”                                                                           (B.F. Skinner)

·         According to Crow and Crow, “Psychology is the study of human behaviour and human relationship’”.

Different Branches of Psychology:

     

General Psychology

Physiological Psychology

Animal Psychology

Abnormal Psychology

Genetic Psychology

Social Psychology

Child Psychology

Para Psychology

Clinical Psychology

Industrial & Business Psychology

Criminal Psychology

Military Psychology

Youth Psychology

 

What is Education?

 

It is a process where skill & information, are transferred to next generation, in order to develop a person mentally, emotionally and technically to be a happy and valuable character in the social order.

 

What is Educational Psychology? 

If both the above paragraphs are combined it will be cleared to us that education which is an important social and human activity has close link with psychology.

Psychology gives insight and information, about the student mentality while education executes & acts in the specific direction to get the goals that the educational psychologists have set. In other words Educational psychology studies mental and behavior related issues scientifically, of those who are directly or indirectly concerned with education.

Educational psychology is that branch of psychology in which the findings of psychology are applied in the field of education. It is the scientific study of human behaviour in educational setting.

Thus educational psychology is a behavioural science with two main references– human behaviour and education.

In the words of E.A. Peel, “Educational Psychology is the science of Education”.

Educational Psychology concerned primarily with understanding the processes of teaching and learning that take place within formal environments and developing ways of improving those methods. It covers important topics like learning theories; teaching methods; motivation; cognitive, emotional, and moral development; and parent-child relationships etc.

In short, it is the scientific discipline that addresses the questions: “Why do some students learn more than others?” and “What can be done to improve that learning?”

 Nature of Educational Psychology:

Its nature is scientific as it has been accepted that it is a Science of Education. We can summarize the nature of Educational Psychology in the following ways:

1. Educational Psychology is a science. (Science is a branch of study concerned with observation of facts and establishment of verifiable general laws. Science employs certain objective methods for the collection of data. It has its objectives of understanding, explaining, predicting and control of facts.) Like any other science, educational psychology has also developed objective methods of collection of data. It also aims at understanding, predicting and controlling human behaviour.

2. Educational Psychology is a natural science. An educational psychologist conducts his investigations, gathers his data and reaches his conclusions in exactly the same manner as physicist or the biologist.

3. Educational psychology is a social science. Like the sociologist, anthropologist, economist or political scientist, the educational psychologist studies human beings and their sociability.

4. Educational psychology is a positive science. Normative science like Logic or Ethics deals with facts as they ought to be. A positive science deals with facts as they are or as they operate. Educational psychology studies the child’s behaviour as it is, not, as it ought to be. So it is a positive science.

5. Educational psychology is an applied science. It is the application of psychological principles in the field of education. By applying the principles and techniques of psychology, it tries to study the behaviour and experiences of the pupils. As a branch of psychology it is parallel to any other applied psychology. For example, educational psychology draws heavily facts from such areas as developmental psychology, clinical psychology, abnormal psychology and social psychology.

 Scope of Educational Psychology:

The scope of educational psychology is gaining greater importance in the educational field. Thus, more students are aiming to pursue this field of study. This makes it more important for aspirants as well as others to understand the scope of educational psychology. The following factors indicate the scope of educational psychology

 

Human Behavior: Psychology in education involves the study of human behaviour in educational situations. We all understand the psychology is the study of behaviour. Education, on the other hand, deals with the modification of behaviour. Hence, we can say that educational psychology penetrates in the whole of the education sector.

 

Growth and Development: How does a child pass through various stages of growth? This is studied by educational psychologists. The characteristics of each stage of growth are closely watched and studied. This helps in making reports and easy diagnosis of a few illness/ diseases.

 

Heredity and Environment: Heredity can affect a lot of things in a child, including the development and growth of the brain to learn and grasp new things. Along with this, the environment a child grows up in also plays a major part. Educational psychologists determine to what extend heredity and environment contribute towards the growth of the individual and how this knowledge can be used for bringing about the optimum development of the child.

 

Learning process: Learning is a major phenomenon in education. Educational psychologists study the law of learning. They study how learning as a process can take place in an effective and economical manner. Psychologists in education understand how a student reacts to learning in different situations

 

Personality: The scope of psychology in education extends to the personality of the student. It deals with the nature and development of an individual in an educational setup. Education has been described as an all-round development of the personality of a person.

 

Intelligence: It is very important for a teacher or a tutor to understand the nature of the study. The scope of Psychology in education includes the study of the nature of intelligence as well as its measurement.

 

Individual Difference: Each individual is different from the other. This is a fundamental fact of human life. An education psychologist studies the nature of intelligence as well as its measurement. This is a very important scope of psychology in education.

 

Guidance and Counseling: When you use the word education, it means providing guidance to a growing child. Thus, guidance forms an important scope of psychology in education. This is one of the most important fields of study in the subject. American Psychology Association has given five areas of guidance and counseling. They are:

 

a.       Human growth and development, including the effect of heredity and environment on various aspects of individual

b.      The nature of the learning process, factors influencing the learning process

c.       It includes many sub-topics, such as the mental health of the students and teachers character

d.      Measurement and evaluation, statistics

e.       Techniques and methods of Educational Psychology

 

We can conclude by saying that educational psychology is a narrower branch of psychology. Education is one of the primary needs of the modern man. Psychology has made way into every aspect of modern education to make it more systematic, scientific, useful, authentic, objective, and numerical. Strong methods have been applied at present for the understanding of the human mind and behaviour. It had helped in working out of the educational plan and program for the effective solution of the problems.

Stages of Development: A child is a growing organism with his own nature and characteristics of development in different stages. Without knowledge of such developmental characteristics, education cannot effective for individuals. Thus, educational psychology as a subject must have to make an in-depth study of the nature of the psychophysical development of the child in different stages.

 

Mental Measurement: In educational psychology, mental measurement provides a promising field of study at present. It is necessary to identify the human resources, capabilities, and talents for effective training and utilization of them. Objective measurement of mental abilities and intelligence of individuals is gaining more renown in educational psychology today.

Mental Hygiene: In the context of the increasing complexity of our social life, keeping mental health and hygiene appears to be a problem. Many of the evils of our social life are owing to mental illness caused due to a defective social environment. How to keep our mental health in this context is the common cause of concern today that comprises the study of educational psychology.

Study of the Unconscious Mind: It has been observed that many of the abnormal and undesirable behavior and activities of children are deeply rooted in the unconscious mind and its elements. So, the study of the nature and causes of their complexity and to normalize the situation covers became an interesting area of its study.

Methods of Learning: Educational psychology is responsible to enquire and examine the soundness of the different methods of teaching used in order to derive the economy and efficiency of child learning. It covers the study of the laws, principles, and methods of learning and remembering and in the formation of habits. The whole mechanism of child learning virtually constitutes the scope of educational psychology.