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Definition of Educational Psychology

Psychology is defined as the science of the mind and behavior. Educational psychology is the branch of psychology that deals with teaching and learning processes and how they affect student behavior and development. The document discusses definitions of psychology, educational psychology, education, and learning provided by various psychologists. It outlines the scope of educational psychology, including understanding students, learning experiences, and aims like conducting experiments to improve curriculum, understanding student behavior, testing intelligence, and more. Measurement of behavior involves establishing tests to analyze psychological aspects while maintaining honesty.

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477 views

Definition of Educational Psychology

Psychology is defined as the science of the mind and behavior. Educational psychology is the branch of psychology that deals with teaching and learning processes and how they affect student behavior and development. The document discusses definitions of psychology, educational psychology, education, and learning provided by various psychologists. It outlines the scope of educational psychology, including understanding students, learning experiences, and aims like conducting experiments to improve curriculum, understanding student behavior, testing intelligence, and more. Measurement of behavior involves establishing tests to analyze psychological aspects while maintaining honesty.

Uploaded by

Areeba asghar
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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EDU-508 EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

B. ED WEEKEND PROGRAMME
2ND SEMESTER SECTION ‘’B’’
BY MS HINA Z’
What does Psychology mean?
The word, ‘Psychology’ is derived from two Greek words, ‘Psyche’ and ‘Logos’. Psyche means
‘soul’ and ‘Logos’ means ‘science’. Thus, psychology was first defined as the ‘science of soul”.

Definition
❖ The sum of the actions, traits, attitudes, thoughts, mental states, etc. of a person or group
(Robert Emmons).
❖ Psychology is the summary of a person's characteristics including how they think, feel or
behave (Herbart T, J. (1891).
❖ R. S. Woodworth defines psychology as the
“Science of activities of the individual.”
❖ “The branch of metaphysics that studies the soul, the mind, and the relationship of life and
mind to the functions of the body.”
According to earlier psychologists, the function of psychology was to study the nature, origin and
destiny of the human soul. But soul is something metaphysical. It cannot be seen, observed and
touched and we cannot make scientific experiments on soul.
In the 18th century, psychology was understood as the ‘Science of Mind’. William James (1892)
defined psychology as the science of mental processes. But the word ‘mind ‘is also quite
ambiguous as there was confusion regarding the nature and functions of mind.
Modern psychologists defined psychology as the “Science of Consciousness”. James Sully (1884)
defined psychology as the “Science of the Inner World”. Wilhelm Wundt (1892) defined
psychology as the science which studies the “internal experiences. But there are three levels of
consciousness – conscious, subconscious and the unconscious and so this definition also was not
accepted by some.
Thus, psychology first lost its soul, then its mind and then its consciousness. At present only its
behaviour exists. William McDugall (1905) defined psychology as the “Science of Behaviour”,
W.B. Pillsbury (1911) and J.B. Watson (1912) also defined psychology as the science of
behavior.
Behavior generally means overt activities which can observed and measured scientifically. But
one’s behavior is always influenced by his experiences. So, when we study one’s behavior, we
must also study his experiences.
❖ Psychology should, therefore, be defined as a “science of behaviour and experiences (B.F.
Skinner).
❖ Conclusion

Psychological phenomena are complex, and making predictions about them is difficult because
they are multiply determined at different levels of explanation. Research has found that people
are frequently unaware of the causes of their own behaviors.

There are a variety of available career choices within psychology that provide employment in
many different areas of interest.
What is Educational Psychology?
What is Psychology?
The word psychology is the combination of two Greek words psyche (Soul, mind, self and logy
(study, investigate). In simple words psychology investigate, the mental process, and its
manifestations in social relations of men and animals. In this background psychology has great
importance in order to get more and more insight about human mind and the logic behind his /
her behavior in social relations.
What is Education?
It is a process where skill & information, are transferred to next generation, in order to develop a
person mentally, emotionally and technically to be a happy and valuable character in the social
order. If both the above paragraphs are combined it will be cleared to us that education which is
an important social and human activity has close link with psychology.
Definitions: The following are definitions of education psychology by well-known psychologists
❖ Educational psychology is that branch of psychology which deals with teaching and
learning and also covers the entire range and behavior of the personality as related to
education.” Skinner
❖ “While general psychology is pure science, educational psychology is its application in
the field of education with the aim of socializing an individual and modifying his
behavior.” Anderson
❖ “It is the systematic study of the educational growth and development of a child.”
Stephen
❖ “It is the science of education.” E.A. Peel
❖ “It is the study of those facts and principles of psychology which helps to explains and
improves the process of education.” Walter B. Kolesink
Education by all means is an attempt to mould and shape the behaviour of the pupil. It aims to
produce desirable changes in him for the all-round development of his personality.
For example, teachers might give out tokens that can be exchanged for desirable items such as
candy and toys to reward good behavior. By understanding how children think at different stages
of development, educational psychologists can better understand what children are capable of at
each point of their growth.
In Conclusion, Educational Psychology is very important to teachers and it should be highly
embraced for effective performance in schools. Teachers are now able to understand different
students and pupils in the learning environment. Educational Psychology helps in Cognitive
perspectives whereby teachers are able to understand individual characteristic, abilities and
challenges that emerge from disposition of learning and development.

SCOPE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY


The scope of educational psychology is ever-growing due to constantly researches in this field.
The following factors will indicate the scope of educational psychology:
1. The Learner. The subject-matter of educational
psychology is knitted around the learner.
Therefore, the need of knowing the learner and the
techniques of knowing him well. The topics
include the innate abilities and capacities of the
individuals, individual differences and their
measurements.
Example: the overt, covert, conscious as well as
unconscious behaviour of the learner, the
characteristics of his growth and development and
each stage beginning from childhood to adulthood.
2. The Learning Experiences. Educational
Psychology helps in deciding what learning
experiences are desirable, at what stage of the growth and development of the learner, so that
these experiences can be acquired with a greater ease and satisfaction.
Example: My Best Learning Experience was in my sixth-grade science class. It was a typical
science environment with black science-like lab tables put into rows and everybody had a lab
partner. The room was lined with animals-mostly snakes and their prey, fish, and every now and
then a rattling bird.
I remember coming into class that day and noticing a tray on every other lab table. I hated these
days! Of course, it meant we were to work in groups of four and I was as introverted and shy as
ever. I also hated having to delegate or be delegated the different roles we had to take in this scene.
I wandered quietly over and sat down nervously at my seat. I needed something to distract me
while the other kids filed in to so I opened my backpack and pulled out a notebook to look busy
doing something.
My teacher called us together and told us two things- “Work in groups of four and use all of the
materials provided to make it work.” That’s it. Nothing else. No explanation. No expectations.
Just- here you go. Mortified. I was completely lost in what was going on. No structure or

Aims and Objectives of Educational Psychology

Objectives of Educational Psychology


Educational psychology aims to achieve a set of objectives that help in the development of the
educational process, including:
• To conduct experiments to obtain the best curriculum in various fields.
• To understand and interpret the behavior of the learner.
• To conduct various tests to find out the students' intelligence.
• To provide enrichment activities and programs to strengthen intelligence and stimulate the
brain.
• To achieve interaction and responsiveness between students and the surrounding
environment of teachers and school.
• To work on the formulation of the various skills of teachers in a way that allows them to
benefit more.
• To Adopt a sound scientific methodology to determine the trends and habits of learners
and the educational process.
• To familiarize children with good habits and attitudes.
• To study the basic principles and conditions of learning.
Measurement of behavior is done by establishing experimental and analytical tests that measure
several psychological aspects and require the maintenance of honesty and consistency in the
preparation of these tests.

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