The Tasks of Psychology as a Science and Its Place in the System of Sciences

At the present time, psychology is one of the most dynamically developing and demanded sciences in various spheres of society. The tasks of psychology as a science require from it more and more involvement in the sphere of practical application of its achievements.

The main stages of the development of psychological science are as follows.

1. Pre-scientific (until the VI century BC). All ideas about the soul were based only on myths and religion.

2. Scientific (VI century BC - XVIII century AD). A strong influence on psychology was provided by philosophy. The main problems of the psychological science connected with the study of soul activity and cognition were outlined.

3. Associational (to the XVIII - XIX cc.). Psychology studies consciousness, which is based on feelings and ideas.

4. Experimental (the middle of the XIX-XX centuries). A methodological crisis of science has begun.

5. Methodological (10-30th of XX century). Science is divided into schools and subjects: there is structuralism, functionalism, gestalt psychology, etc. Psychoanalysis and other projective scientific methods are singled out.

6. Humanistic (1940-1960-ies.). The emphasis is not on the inner world and the essence of man.

7. Modern (from the second half of XX century). Methods of experimental studies of the psyche are being improved.

The tasks of psychology as a science can be defined as follows. Before modern psychology there are many theoretical and practical problems. The main thing is the study of the laws of the psyche and mental activity in development.

Psychology studies a huge number of areas and phenomena. These are the processes, state and individual properties of people who have varying degrees of complexity. Many of them have already been studied, and many continue to do psychological science today. It is designed to compare and integrate the accumulated knowledge, systematize and analyze them. The aim of science is to reveal the essence of the phenomena studied by it. The tasks of psychology as a science require it to identify the objective links between the natural and social properties of people, to study the correlation of biological and social characteristics and determinants in its development. This task is one of the most difficult.

At the beginning of its development, psychology for a long time was an exclusively theoretical discipline. Today, its task is to approach life and solve specific problems and problems that arise before man and society as a whole. It should become a practical science applicable in the fields of industry, education, public administration, culture, sports, medicine, etc. Psychology should strive to solve specific problems in many areas, defined by the "human factor".

Thus, the main tasks of psychology as a science can be reduced to the following: to learn to understand the essence of psychological phenomena, to understand their laws and to learn how to manage them, to introduce knowledge into the field of practical application, to create a theoretical basis for the practice of psychological service.

Psychology today is developing very rapidly, closely adjoining and interacting with other sciences. It is possible to determine the place of psychology among other sciences by considering it in relation to a whole complex of disciplines that intersect in the subject, tasks and goals.

Science itself occupies an intermediate position between other philosophical sciences (natural and social), affecting their separate areas. It integrates data from different sciences, representing a kind of model of human knowledge.

Psychology is closely related to the natural sciences. She actively uses experimental techniques in her studies. It is this science that has been developed many methods of statistical calculations. On the other hand, psychology is a humanitarian science, interwoven with all knowledge about a person. BG Ananiev defined the place of psychology among other sciences as the core of the system of all human sciences.

Interaction with other sciences is reflected in the diversity of the branches of psychology: psychology of personality (connection with anthropology), psychology of abnormal development, psychosomatics, pathopsychology (connection with psychiatry), neuropsychology (connection with anatomy and neurobiology), psychogenetics (connection with genetics), psycholinguistics With logopedia), judicial and criminal psychology (communication with jurisprudence), etc.