HUMAN

DEVELOPMENT AND
LEARNING
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INTRODUCTION
1.1 Psychology- Meaning and Nature
Psychology is derived from two Greek words “psyche” means soul or mind and “logy” mean
study.
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior, according to the American Psychological
Association. It is the study of the mind, how it works, and how it affects behavior.
Psychology further investigate and try to explain different kinds of problems such as individual
differences in intelligence and personality, frustration as well as conflicts, the acquisition of
knowledge as well as learning, the group behavior as well as in the diagnosis and treatment or
behavior disorders.

1.2 Types of Psychology:

1. Clinical Psychology

This branch of psychology deals with scientific ways of handling psychological problems. Also
called counselling psychology or psychotherapy, it focuses on the prevention, understanding
and cure of psychological issues by way of psycho-therapeutic treatment.
Some of the more common disorders that might be treated include substance abuse,
depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.
2. Bio psychology
This branch of psychology analyze how the brain and neurotransmitters influencing our
thoughts, feelings and behaviors. It combines neuroscience and the study of psychology.

3. Educational Psychology

Educational psychology is the scientific study of human behaviour in an educational setting.

It deals with issues such as learning disorders, young behaviors, and so on. These studies
focus primarily on the different developmental stages of children and teenagers.

4. Cognitive Psychology

The branch of psychology that focus on the way people process information. It refers to the
study of mind and how we think. It deals with mental processes, such as thoughts, memory
and problem solving, is called cognitive psychology. In essence, it is concerned with the
perception and problem-solving capability of the brain.
 5. Forensic Psychology

It investigate legal issues and psychological variables involved in criminal behaviour. The
application of psychology to law making, law enforcement, the examination of witnesses,
and the treatment of the criminal is the job of the forensic psychologist. Also known as legal
psychology.

6. Social Psychology

It uses scientific methods to understand and explain how thoughts, feelings and behaviour
of an individuals are influenced by the presence of other human being.

7. Industrial Psychology

This branch of psychology addresses practical problems in the workplace through the
application of psychological principles. Industrial psychologists also called organizational
psychologists. These are employed by companies to administer tests which measure
employee aptitudes or skills in hiring and placement.

8. Health Psychology

This branch of psychology observes how behaviour, biology and social context
influence illness and health. Health psychologists generally work alongside other medical
professionals in clinical settings.

9. Environmental Psychology

Environmental psychologists work to understand the underlying causes of behaviour by

environment. It focus upon the relationship between people and their physical environment.

10. Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology is a branch of psychology that attempts to explain the

development of humans from childhood to adulthood. Such as; human growth, physical,
emotional, intellectual, social, perceptual and personality development.

1.3 Methods of Educational Psychology

1. Introspection
Introspection means to see with in one self or self-observation. To understand one’s
own mental health and the state of mind.
Advantages:
 i. It is an easy method and needs no equipment
ii. It makes a base for other methods such as experimental and observation method
Disadvantages:
i. This method is subjective in nature and lacks scientific objectivity
ii. Introspection cannot be employed on children and insane propel.

2. Observation
It is one of the most popular of methods used in psychology for collection of data. This method
is also called the method of ‘objective observation’ as against introspection which is a method
of self-observation. The individual’s behaviour is observed by somebody other than that
person himself. The behaviour observed may be expressed in the form of bodily changes,
bodily action, gestures, facial expression and speech.

Example:

The psychologist may sit down and take notes of the behaviour of a subject under particular
conditions. The method was used widely by child psychologists who would prepare running
records of all that the child did during a certain period and in a certain situation.These
observations enabled them to make certain generalizations about human behaviour in general.

Advantages:

1. This type of observation is a natural and normal way of knowing the external world
But also the mind of the subject
2. This method is objective in nature and free form personal bias and prejudice.
3. Through this method we can observe as many children as we like.
4. This method is quite suitable for children and abnormal person who cannot be
examined through introspection.
5. This can be used anytime and anywhere.

Disadvantages:

1. This process is not reliable. We can only guess about the mental state of the individual
on the basis of overt behaviour which may or may not be true.
2. Observation is subject to two types of errors, sampling error and observer error. The first
error occurs because of inadequacies of selecting situation to be observed. The observer
error may be due to knowledge and background of the situation to be observed. Because
 some time the observer is not familiar with the total situation and hence he may commit
error
3. Clinical method

This method is primarily used to collect detailed information on the behaviour problems of
maladjusted and deviant cases. The main objective of this method is to study individual case or
cases of group to detect and diagnose their specific problem and to suggest therapeutic
measures to rehabilitate them in their environment.

It involves the following steps;

1. Interview
2. Information gathering
3. A hypothesis formulate
4. Diagnoses are made
5. Planned a treatment

4. Case study
Case study is in-depth study of the subject. It is the in-depth analysis of a person, group, or
phenomenon. A variety of techniques are employed including personal interviews, psychometric
tests, direct observation, and archival records.
5. Scientific or experimental method
This method has been developed in psychology by the continuous efforts by psychologists to
make objective and scientific study of human behaviour. One of the major contributions of the
behaviorism is the development of experimental method to understand, control and predict
behaviour. It is the most precise, planned systematic observation. The experimental method
uses a systematic procedure called experimental design.
The lay out or design of the experimental method is as follows:

1. Selecting a research topic

2. Formulating hypotheses
3. Selecting an appropriate design
4. Collect data
5. Analyzing and interpreting data
6. Discussion and conclusions
Experiments may be conducted in a laboratory or in the classroom or anywhere else in the
community. Experimentation involves comparison between behaviour of a control group and
that of an experimental group.
Advantages:
1. This method is the most systematic procedure of solving problems. It provides reliable
information.
2. It provides objective and precise information about the problems.
3. It give observer easy approach to the mind of an individual.
4. It provides innovative ideas for the further experimentation.
5. It enable us to control and direct human behaviour.
6. It is applicable in educational, individual and social problems

Disadvantages:

1. It is arranged in a laboratory like situation. This situation is artificially arranged.

Behaviour is a natural phenomenon and it may change under artificial environment.
2. This method is time consuming and costly. Moreover it requires specialized
knowledge and skills.
3. Psychologists have criticized the fact that mostly the experiments have conducted on
rats, cats and dogs. The results are conducted and then applied on human beings.
4. It sometimes interferes with the very thing that we are trying to observe.