Monthly Archives: August 2023

All About The Different Areas Of Psychology

Posted on by

One of the most common questions that most of the psychology students that are new to the field ask is that what psychology is. In simple terms psychology is defined as an applied and academic field that deals with the study of human mind and behavior. Researches in psychology aims in understanding the thought, emotion and even behavior; the fields in which psychology is applied are the mental health treatment, performance enhancement areas, self help, ergonomics and even many other fields that affect health and daily life. The word psychology owes its roots to the Greek word psyche which means soul or mind. Psychology has evolved partially from philosophy and biology, and these date as far as the early Greek thinkers like that of Aristotle and even Socrates. It has been observed that the field and study of psychology dates has its roots since Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological lab in Leipzig in Germany. The research studies conducted by the Wundt included the school of thought called as structuralism which involved the study of structures that have composed the structures that composed the mind. This categorization involved the analysis of the sensation and the feeling through the usage of introspection, which is considered as a highly subjective matter. He believed that the individuals who are trained really well can accurately identify the mental processes that are accompanied by the feelings, sensations and even thoughts.

Areas of psychology

Psychology is one of the broadest and diverse fields. There are number of different subfields and specialty areas have emerged. The below mentioned areas have emerged as one of the most dynamic sub fields of the research sub fields within psychology:

1.Abnormal psychology is defined as the study of abnormal behavior and psychopathology. This specialty area focuses on the research and the treatment of different varieties of mental disorders and this area is also linked to the psychotherapy and even clinical psychology. The health professionals make the usage of the diagnostic and statistical manual of the mental disorders so as to diagnose the different applications of mental disorders.
2.Biological Psychology is also referred as biopsychology; this studies in detail how the different biological processes have an influence on the mind and the behavior. This kind of psychology aims at closely linking to the neurosciences and it also utilizes the different tools like MRI and PET scans so as to examine the brain injuries and even the brain abnormalities.
3.Clinical psychology, another important area of psychology mainly focuses on the assessment, diagnosis and even the treatment of the mental disorders.
4.Another important area of psychology is referred as the cognitive psychology that mainly aims to study the human though processes and cognitions. The experts in this field mainly study on the topics like attention, memory, perception, decision making and language acquisition.
5.The branch of psychology that deals with the study of animal behavior is called as comparative psychology; the knowledge about the animal behavior can lead to a deeper insight and understanding of human psychology.

Your Mental And Emotional Health Needs Exercise To Remain Healthy

Posted on by

We are all aware of the benefits of proper exercise on the health of our body. We know it tones our muscles, burns fat, helps circulation, and reduces our disease risk. But what about the benefits exercise has on our mental health?

While the majority of fitness research efforts focus on the physical and health benefits of exercise, there is a growing body of work demonstrating that exercise promotes mental and emotional health as well.

Firstly exercise makes you feel good. When you exercise (with some effort of course) there are a cocktail of hormones released that stay in your system for some time after you finish lifting your mood and banishing any trace of any negative feelings.

Some of the exercise benefits that can make life so much better are:

By reducing stress hormones (cortisol), which are linked to depression
By restoring sleeping and eating patterns, raising energy levels
By releasing endorphins, the ‘feel good’ hormones
Getting in better physical shape improves self-esteem
Manage feelings of anxiety, sadness, tension and anger
Improves blood flow to brain, cut Alzheimer’s risk by 40 percent
Great alternative treatment for depression

Our mental health is important and its health does not lie with taking antidepressants. Prescriptions for antidepressants have increased by 33 per cent in the last six years with a third of the adult population taking a mood altering drug. Yet research shows that physical activity has the same effect as chemically addictive antidepressants and unlike these drugs has no negative side effects.

It is so much better for your health to avoid using drugs if possible as they can interfere with brain biochemistry. Our knowledge of how drugs affect the brain is in its infancy. Proper exercise will give you an instant feel good boost, unlike drugs that can take weeks to kick in.

It gives cause for concern when doctors are so freely writing out prescriptions for these unnecessary drugs. The same prescription pad could be used for a much healthier alternative – exercise. But then there would not be any money to be made with a recommendation like that.

Attitudes need to change so that people take some responsibility for their own health and wellbeing and stop being doctor and drug dependent. There are much healthier options available that address the cause of the problem not just mask it, and that is exercise.

Take some time out for a proper exercise program and discover how you can feel joy and pleasure just being in your own body. Don’t say no to exercise say no to something else.
Exercise is not a task or punishment and vigorous movement is something the human body needs to maintain wellness and can be viewed as a preventative that can help prevent physical, mental and emotional conditions.

You don’t have to spend hours to gain these benefits; just a couple of sessions each week of strength training exercise will make you feel fantastic. Just make sure you get some help from a fitness professional so you can be reaping the most benefits from your program and enjoy life to the fullest.