Psychology remains to be one large and diverse field of study with wide applications in spheres such as the media, political arena, internet, sports, and schools. In everyday life, people apply psychology to explain and study behavior and the underlying psychological and mental processes. It applies the knowledge accumulated to solve practical problems. Psychology has dual existence as both a science and a profession. Being a science, psychology puts emphasis on behavior matters that relate to mental and psychological processes and does not confine only to human behavior. Psychology also focuses on mental processes like thoughts, feelings, and wishes that accompany human behavior (Weiten, Dunn, & Hammer, 2011).
In addition, psychology includes the study of physiological behavior that underlies behavior. Thus, psychologists try to figure out the bodily processes that include hormonal secretions, and genetic makeup, and neural impulses. Psychology has a highly practical side especially in clinical psychology that focuses on treating and diagnosing psychological disorders. In a nutshell, psychology plays a critical role in understanding day-to-day life and answering questions that arise each day.
In order for psychology to impact life, it follows some guiding principles and theories. Theories include the systematic principles that explain how independent facts link with each other. Across the various psychological schools of structuralism, functionalism, psychodynamic, behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, cognitive, biological, evolutionary, and existential and humanistic psychology, theories play a fundamental role in the effective study (Weiten, Dunn, & Hammer, 2011). The methods of study include descriptive research method that yields descriptions of behavior like naturalistic observation, laboratory observation, survey research that uses questionnaires, and interviews. Another method of study is the experimental method meant to find the causes of behavior or a problem under study. This involves designing experiments to test hypotheses. This is done by measuring and testing the relationship that exists between two or more variables under study. Other methods used include the correlational methods that seek to discover the relationships between the variables under investigation.