According to Boyack and Klavans, Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behaviour. Psychologists actively study and understand mental processes, brain functions, and behaviour. The field of psychology is considered a “Hub Science” with strong connections to the medical sciences, social sciences, and education.

Psychology is the scientific study of human and non-humans’ general mind and behaviour. It includes an extensive study of conscious and unconscious phenomena involving feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, cutting across the boundaries between the natural and social sciences. The primary aim of physiologists is to seek an understanding of the emergent properties of the brain, therefore linking the discipline to neuroscience. As a social science, psychology aims to understand the behavioural difference between individuals and groups. The word was coined from the first letter of the Greek word psyche.

Psychology is the link between neuroscience and social psychology, applying both the experimental science of the brain and the behavioral study of humans and their societal interaction. All these and more are blended into the major to make it a stand-out social science.

Why Study Psychology?

 Psychology as a major examines the science of human behaviour and mental processes that, in a way, causes those behaviours. This includes the study of the mind, the brain, and humans under neuroscience research and social interactions, including social psychology and art therapy. The major touches on many different areas of our behavioural lives, including social, cognitive, abnormal, personality and developmental aspects.

Although psychology is often applied to assessing and treating mental health problems, it can also be directed towards understanding and solving problems in several spheres of human environmental activity. Psychology helps students develop a broad understanding of general human behaviour and the skills to understand and interpret research findings concerning these behaviours. The psychology course outline includes courses in related fields such as cognitive, personality, behavioural and neural studies, learning, social, developmental and clinical psychology. The coursework emphasizes the basic behavioural science discipline’s fundamental concepts and scientific research methods. One of the benefits of Psychology is how it encourages students to expand their learning experience outside the classroom by encouraging, conducting and analyzing laboratory and field research, as well as participating in internships to help broaden their horizons.

Benefits of Studying Psychology 

Psychology is a self and societal beneficial course that provides its students with influence values that helps them better understand their behaviours and those around them, allowing them to manage and manipulate them. This helps graduates of the course easily study and manipulate people’s behaviours and even provides insights into what exactly could be the reason behind these behaviours. This is one of the reasons Psychology majors are highly sought after in various industries. Some of the other beneficial values it impacts on students include;

Critical Evaluation 

Psychology teaches Students how to assess and determine if evidence for a phenomenon is really what it appears to be by identifying pitfalls of a particular line of action. This can be applied in day-to-day human interaction or even during research and thorough investigation.

Better Understanding 

One of the key objectives of Psychology as a course is to decipher the nature of man. Understanding human behaviour will help you in your daily life and eventually lead to better navigating your interactions with others and how to handle different characters in different situations. It also improves your communication and conflict management skills.

Key transferable skills

While studying Psychology, you will be exposed to practical and analytical transferable skills, from effective communication and conflict management to critical thinking and human management skills embedded in the curriculum. You will also refine your research, writing and time management through the course practicals. Reading and interpreting data are Al’s other skills you will build through statistical analysis and numeracy. All of these abilities are valued by private industries, firms, corporate bodies and even government agencies, as well as being valuable in our daily life interactions.

Career Opportunities in Psychology 

A psychology degree is a great way to venture into a career in both the science and arts fields. It equips students with a broad range of skills and opens up opportunities for graduates to venture into many areas of life. As a lifelong skill, psychology gives graduates a forever gift that will be treasured through time; whether you decide to use it now or apply it later in life, it will always be a part of you, and man will always need to understand himself better.

As a social science, psychology is directly and indirectly connected to many career paths and provides interesting, time-efficient and high-paying careers in different industries. Some of these careers include;

• Clinical Psychologist 
• Sports and Exercise Psychologist
• Career Adviser
• Neuroscientist
• Counselling Psychologist 
• Life Coach 
• Psychotherapist 
• Market Researcher
• Forensic Scientist
• Social worker
• Psychiatrist 

There is no doubt that psychology is a forever-needed course and is not threatened by modern world development and technology, as man’s full concept and nature can never be truly understood. This is why psychologists work tirelessly to at least under as much as possible. Therefore, the psychology industry gap is waiting to be filled and tapped by the next psychology major, which may just be you.