What is psychology?

Well, you could say: everything is psychology! Or psychology is everything.

The traditional idea of psychology is where the psychologist is sitting and asking the client (who is sitting (or even more (stereo(typical): lying) on the couch) questions about thoughts and feelings. This is a traditional view of therapy. Yes, that is psychology. But psychology is so much more. And actually, it not often the case anymore that a therapy sessions will take place like that. Not even every psychologist has a couch in their office.

Psychology can be defined as: “the scientific study of mental behavior and the human mind, and the professional application of such knowledge toward the greater good”. Or more in short you could say: Psychology is the scientific study of how people act, think, and feel.

It is actually quite new compared to other sciences but in the last years we did found out a lot about this interesting subject and we are increasing our knowledge as we speak. And we are still building towards more.

There are different sub disciplines within psychology. The example of the therapy session mentioned before belongs to clinical psychology, the most known form of psychology. But there is also social psychology, what focuses more on groups and the influence of the context and/or society on human behaviour. Or what to think of the psychological tactics that are used in the commercial field to get people to buy the new product. Or the psychological part of experiencing a natural disaster, like with the hurricanes in 2017 on St. Maarten. You can find psychology on different levels in and around you!