Scientific Psychology

“Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mind”. (Nairne, 2009). This is how Psychology is defined by James S. Nairne is his book, “Psychology 5th edition”. Psychology has often been misunderstood to be the process or act of analyzing the mind of someone who has an issue they are dealing with or a mental disorder that requires frequently scheduled hospital visits. We get the picture of someone lying on the couch spilling their guts, and a distinguished, very astute doctor sitting in a chair listening while taking notes. On the contrary, Scientific Psychology has done much to study the actions and thought process of normal and healthy minds, as to develop a base line, or a foundation on which to compare a mind that is unhealthy or challenged.

The study of the mind is a very crucial and detailed process. To understand the mind and how it operates, responds, and acts has been something scientist have poured much effort and resources into. Because the mind has no moving parts or pain receptors, it is difficult to gauge how it sends and responds to signals traveling through it to the body. There has been much progress in tracking events taking place inside the brain and how it reacts to sensation, thoughts and emotions. Today, scientist can study how a brain reacts to different things such as color, or how it responds during depression or seeing a vision. The invention of the computer has also helped scientist understand how information is carried in the brain, because the two are similar.

The study of behavior, which I think we all know how to do on some small scale, also gives us a great deal of information. How we react to situations, communicate and receive information, can tell psychologists a great deal about how we process information. As you watch someone in a situation, you can almost see what they are thinking as they respond. This type of information helps scientists uncover thought processes and plot responses based on given information.

Scientific Psychology and Psychologists have done much to improve life through their studies and research. In an ever-increasingly stressful world, people tend to buckle under the heavy loads and stresses of every day life. Knowing the causes and fixes for such events reduce stress and recovery time for those who are disabled mentally by it. As more and more documents and medical journals are written and published, doctors are able to have more information available to them when it comes to treating a patient. This increases the chances of recovery, and mental health.

I believe this type of study could be helpful in the church as well because it would allow ministerial staff to more effectively help people. As people come into our churches, they all usually come in with hurts, pain, bad past experiences, and even bad current experiences. With understanding of how people process information, react and respond in certain circumstances, we would be able to more effectively and more efficiently assist them and help them get back to right thinking, right actions, right living, and a right relationship with God. Knowledge is power, in the right hands it can do much good.