Scope of application of Psychology in different fields

Scope of application of Psychology in different fields with suitable example.

Psychology is the study of mind and behavior. It is an academic discipline and an applied science which seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and researching specific cases. The subject-matter of our science is, then, the Soul or Mind. The psychologist investigates those phenomena which we call sensations, perceptions, thoughts, volitions, and emotions; he analyzes them, classifies them, and seeks to reduce them to the smallest number of fundamental activities. He studies the nature of their exercise and the laws which govern their operations, and he endeavours to enunciate a body of general truths which will accurately describe their chief and most characteristic features.

Psychologists explore concepts such as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships, including psychological resilience, family resilience, and other areas. Psychologists of diverse orientations also consider the unconscious mind. Psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and co-relational relationships between psychosocial variables. By many accounts psychology ultimately aims to benefit society.

Psychology encompasses many subfields and includes different approaches to the study of mental processes and behavior.

• Mental testing: It is a routine phenomenon for people of all ages in Western societies. It aspires to criteria including standardization of procedure, consistency of results, output of an interpretable score, statistical norms describing population outcomes, and, ideally, effective prediction of behavior and life outcomes outside of testing situations.
•  Mental health care: a specially trained therapist develops a close relationship with the patient, who discusses wishes, dreams, social relationships, and other aspects of mental life. He seeks to uncover repressed material and to understand why the patient creates defenses against certain thoughts and feelings. In which deep unconscious feelings in a patient reorient themselves and become manifest in relation to the therapist.
• Educational: how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations.
• Work: study of scientific management techniques for improving workplace efficiency.
• Military and intelligence: one role for psychologists in the military is to evaluate and counsel soldiers and other personnel.
• Health, well-being, and social change: Psychologists in the field of public health use a wide variety of interventions to influence human behavior. These range from public relations campaigns and outreach to governmental laws and policies. Psychologists study the composite influence of all these different tools in an effort to influence whole populations of people.

Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of cognition

“Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of cognition that explains how mental processes are organised and function.” Explain.

The term "cognition" refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and hallucinations, etc. It is apparent that cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do; that every psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon. But although cognitive psychology is concerned with all human activity rather than some fraction of it, the concern is from a particular point of view. Cognitive psychologists are often heavily involved in running psychological experiments involving human participants, with the goal of gathering information related to how the human mind takes in, processes, and acts upon inputs received from the outside world. The human brain is an amazing and powerful tool. It allows us to learn, see, remember, hear, perceive, understand and create language. Sometimes, the human brain also fails us.

Cognitive psychologist’s studies how people acquire, perceive, store and process information. This work can range from exploring how we learn language to understanding the interplay between cognition and emotion. New technologies like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allow researchers to see a picture of the brain at work — helping them to understand how a brain reacts to a particular stimulus or how differences in brain structure can affect a person’s health, personality or cognitive functioning. The main focus of cognitive psychologists is on the mental processes that affect behavior. Mental process or mental function is terms often used interchangeably for all the things that individuals can do with their minds. These include perception, memory, thinking, volition, and emotion.

A specific instance of engaging in a cognitive process is a mental event. The event of perceiving something is, of course, different from the entire process, or in other words, an instance of perceiving is different from the ability that makes those instances possible. The Cognitive Approach in psychology is a relatively modern approach to human behavior that focuses on how we think, with the belief that such thought processes affect the way in which we behave. The cognitive approach attempts to apply a scientific approach to human behavior, which is reductionist in that it doesn't necessarily take into account such differences.

National road safety and Ebola outbreak

“National road safety authority is proposed to be set up”

The Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2014 envisions proposes to set up the Motor Vehicle Regulation & Road Safety Authority of India, an independent agency for vehicle regulation and road safety which would be legally empowered and accountable to Parliament to providing a framework for safer, faster, cost-effective and inclusive movement of passengers and freight in India. The proposed bill empowers the Union government to set up a National Road Safety and Vehicle Regulation Authority of India as "a body corporate". The authority would not just advise the state and central government on road safety, vehicle design and testing matters, but will also have the power to enforce the provisions of the new Act. It also gives centre the power to increase the fine, period of imprisonment, suspension of driving license, etc., without the Parliament nod. bill aims to reduce fatalities in road accidents by two lakh in the first five years. According to government estimates, over 4,90,383 accidents occur every year in India, of which 25% are fatal. The ministry is also trying to formulate a policy alongside to address the issue of pollution by older vehicles.

The National  Road safety authority shall provide  technical  advice  and  assistance  to  the Central Government,  and advise  the  Central  Government  and  the  State  Governments  on administration of the provisions relating to safety as contained in this Act. It advise  the  State  Government,  urban  local  bodies, municipalities, panchayati  raj  institutions  on matters  relating  to  or  arising  out  of  traffic management on  roads  and  the use of motor vehicles  for  the purposes of ensuring road safety. Issue guidelines for establishing and operating  trauma facilities and Para- medical  facilities  for  dealing  with  traffic  related  injuries  on  roads  and highways.

The National Authority regulates to provide the  standards  for  the  design,  construction,  operation  and maintenance  of motor  vehicles,  its  parts,  trailers,  semi-trailers,  mobile  machinery. These  standards  for  the  design  and  construction  of  passenger  transport vehicles  for  promoting  the  safety  and  comfort  of  the  passengers  and drivers of such vehicles, including for bus body. The road safety authority will also monitor the enforcement of fuel efficiency norms. In consultation with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, it will issue regulations for necessary improvements in engine efficiency. It might also regulate, recommend and monitor issues related to the manufacture, maintenance, registration, licensing and working of drivers, maintenance and standards of road safety, control of traffic, public-private partnership schemes and promotion of new technologies.  

“World health organization declared an end to Ebola out break”

The most widespread epidemic of Ebola virus disease (commonly known as "Ebola") in history began in Guinea on December 2013 and continued with significant loss of life for over two years. Ebola virus disease was first described in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo; this is the first Ebola outbreak to occur in the West African subcontinent. The outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013 and then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Small outbreaks occurred in Nigeria and Mal, and isolated cases occurred in Senegal, the United Kingdom and Sardinia. The World Health Organization (WHO) and respective governments have reported a total of 28,638 suspected cases and 11,315 deaths, though the WHO believes that this substantially understates the magnitude of the outbreak. The WHO has also cautioned that further small outbreaks of the disease may occur in the future, and vigilance should be maintained.

This is the first Ebola outbreak to reach epidemic proportions; past outbreaks were brought under control within a few weeks. Extreme poverty, a dysfunctional healthcare system, a mistrust of government officials after years of armed conflict, and the delay in responding to the outbreak for several months all contributed to the failure to control the epidemic. Other factors included local burial customs of washing the body after death and the spread to densely populated cities. A study published in December 2014 found that transmission of the Ebola virus occurs principally within families, in hospitals and at funerals. The data showed that the third person in any transmission chain often knew both the first and second person. The authors estimated that between 17 percent and 70 percent of cases in West Africa were unreported – far fewer than had been estimated in prior projections. The study concluded that the epidemic would not be as difficult to control as feared if rapid, vigorous contact tracing and quarantines were employed.

The WHO announced "an extremely promising development" in the search for an effective vaccine for Ebola disease. While the vaccine has shown 100% efficacy in individuals, more conclusive evidence is needed on its capacity to protect populations through herd immunity. After substantial progress in reducing the scale of the epidemic, the WHO held a meeting to work out a "Comprehensive care plan for Ebola survivors" and identify research needed to optimize clinical care and social well-being. Saying "the Ebola outbreak has decimated families, health systems, economies, and social structures", the WHO called the aftermath "an emergency within an emergency." Of special concern is recent research that shows some Ebola survivors experience so-called Post-Ebola Syndrome, with symptoms so severe that survivors may require medical care for months and even years.