Psychology, Anthropology, and Philosophy.

In this post, the writer will discuss about the basic/general definition and understanding about Psychology, Anthropology, and Philosophy.

Psychology

According to the book A Student's Guide to Studying Psychology by Thomas M. Heffernan, Psychology is described as "the study of people" or "the study of the mind". It is also said in the book that psychology study both human and animal, but in the later time it is stated that the main purpose of psychology is "the scientific study of behavior and mental processes" (King 38).

What is meant by the term 'behavior' is everything that human do that can be directly observed. The examples are a baby crying, or a person shouting angrily. These actions are called behavior and can be seen with bare eyes, or without scientific process.

Whether the term 'mental process' is the thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of individuals experiences privately and cannot be observed directly. In here we can find the cognitive process and the feelings that one has. For example, what does the crying baby feels when the mother leaves the room, or the angry feeling a person experience when his motorcycle is robbed.

The perspectives in Psychology are:

• Psychoanalytic perspective
• Biological perspective
• Developmental perspective
• Humanistic perspective
• Behaviorism
• Cognitive perspective
• Social psychology

Anthropology

The word Anthropology comes from two Greek words: "anthropos" that stands for human and "logia" that stands for study. Anthropology itself studies the human diversity from around the world, and how they are linked with the different cultures.

The sub-divisions of Anthropology are:

• Sociocultural anthropology – the study of present-day cultures around the world
• Linguistic anthropology – the study of communication practices in present-day cultures around the world
• Archeology – learning about earlier cultures by examining the artifacts that they left behind
• Physical anthropology – learning about humans' biological aspects by examining their skeletal and other physical remains; it includes research on human evolution as well as forensic studies

Philosophy
The word 'philosophy' literally means "love of wisdom". Philosophy as an academic discipline itself is the study of the whole phenomenon of human life and thinking critically, and described in the basic concept. Those who study philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their answers to life’s most basic questions.
Philosophy seek to understand the following questions:

• Is there a God?
• What is truth?
• What is a person? What makes a person the same through time?
• Is the world strictly composed of matter?
• Do people have minds? If so, how is the mind related to the body?
• Do people have free wills?
• What is it for one event to cause another?

Information gathered from many sources:

• King,  Laura. The Science of Psychology: An Appreciative View, 2nd Edition. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2011. VitalBook file. ISBN 978-0-07-659377-4
• Heffernan, Thomas M. A Student's Guide to Studying Psychology, 3rd Edition. Psychology Press, 2005. ISBN 1-84169-394-4.
• "What is Anthropology?" in http://www.bu.edu/anthrop/about/what-is-anthropology/ (quoted at March 16th 2014)
• "What is Anthropology?" in https://anthropology.unt.edu/whatisanthropology.php (quoted at March 16th 2014)
• "What is Philosophy?" in http://philosophy.fsu.edu/Programs/Undergraduate-Program/What-is-Philosophy (quoted at March 16th 2014)
•  "What is Philosophy?" in https://www.york.ac.uk/philosophy/why-philosophy/ (quoted at March 16th 2014)