Why is Psychology important?

This profession offers numerous tools and techniques to improve people's quality of life.

Everyone has a rough idea of what psychologists (at least clinical psychologists) do. However, in general the role of psychology in our society tends to be minimized, limiting it to the treatment of mental disorders.The fact is that psychology's contributions are many and varied.

Since psychology studies the behavior of people as a whole, the utilities derived from the knowledge acquired by this science can be applied to many fields. If you are interested in knowing why psychology is so importantis so important, this article may be very useful to you.

Psychology and its applications

Psychology is usually defined as the study of human behavior and mental processes. This definition may vary according to the theoretical orientation or field of application; for example, the object of study can easily be extended to nonhuman animals, as is the case in comparative psychology and ethology.

Psychological research is often included in what is known as "psychology". within what is known as "basic psychology", dedicated to obtaining knowledge aboutThe most well known application of psychology is in the field of the human mind, which is dedicated to obtaining knowledge about processes such as perception, memory or reasoning, which influence any type of human behavior.

The best known application of psychology is its clinical aspect, which aims to help solve mental and behavioral problems to improve the quality of life of people. Community psychology has similar objectives to clinical psychology but has a more macro focus, working with large population groups rather than individuals.

Other well-known branches of this science are educational psychology are educational psychology, which analyzes learning with the aim of enhancing it, and organizational psychology, which applies the theories developed by social psychology to the professional field. Forensic psychology, on the other hand, focuses on psychological evaluation to support judicial processes, and sports psychology aims to improve sports performance.

Why is psychology important?

Because of the breadth of the field of psychology, its importance depends largely on the specific application to which we refer.. However, in this section we will reflect on the relevance of psychology at a general level, emphasizing some of its key contributions.

1. To understand living beings

Psychological theories are fundamental for explaining the behavior of animals, especially people: any activity produced in a human society is susceptible to be analyzed from the point of view of psychology since it always involves psychology since it will always involve the participation of basic mental processes. In relation to the study of human groups, social psychology is particularly important.

The analysis of behavior is not only interesting in itself for a large number of people, but it also makes it possible to apply the knowledge acquired to many different fields, especially within the social and natural sciences, such as medicine, sociology, sociology, sociology, psychology and psychology. medicine, sociology, economics, history, political science, social psychologydemography, linguistics, veterinary medicine or zoology.

2. To increase the quality of life

Many people consider that the ultimate goal of psychology is to increase the well-being and quality of life of others.. Although other professionals have different conceptions, the truth is that service to others has been a central aspect in the development of psychology and continues to be so today.

Obviously, psychology is useful to enhance mental health and personal growth, but the benefits of this science are not limited to the psyche. Health psychology, for example, seeks physical well-being and disease prevention through the acquisition of healthy behavioral habits, a key aspect that medicine tends to neglect.

3. To improve relationships

The knowledge derived from psychological science is very important for the improvement of human relations. Thus, it is psychologists who are are best qualified to improve the social skills of shy people, to mediate in cases of divorce or to intervene shy people, to mediate in divorce cases or to intervene in mobbing and bullying, among other functions.

4. To enhance professional performance

In today's society, performance and productivity are extremely valuable at the professional level, and more and more people are realizing that having psychologists in their work team clearly enhances results. Human resources, organizational psychology and sports psychology are good examples of this role. are good examples of this role.

5. To develop cognition

Psychology has proposed many techniques to improve cognitive abilities such as logical reasoning such as logical reasoning, memory or problem solving. We speak of "metaknowledge" to refer to knowledge about one's own learning processes; understanding how our mental processes work is very important to improve them.

6. To increase creativity

Psychology enhances creativity for several reasons. Not only does it allow us to analyze the artistic process at a deep level, but understanding people's behavior and mental functioning is a very important aid in creating meaningful works with realistic characters.

7. To solve specific problems

Both clinical psychology and other branches of this science have often focused on solving everyday problems. In this sense, we believe that the following deserve special mention problem-solving techniques such as those proposed by D'Zurilla and Nezuwhich determine a series of useful steps to face any complex situation.

8. To change the world

After all, many of us would like society to be more benevolent towards its members. Although institutions tend to ignore psychology out of ignorance or conflicting interests, if the contributions of our science to individual well-being and collective functioning were taken more into account, the world would undoubtedly be a better place.