psychology

American  

[sahy-kol-uh-jee] / saɪˈkɒl ə dʒi /

noun

• psychologies
  plural

1. the science of the mind or of mental states and processes.

2. the science of human and animal behavior.

3. the sum or characteristics of the mental states and processes of a person or class of persons, or of the mental states and processes involved in a field of activity.

   the psychology of a soldier; the psychology of politics.

4. mental ploys or strategy.

   He used psychology on his parents to get a larger allowance.

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psychology British  

/ saɪˈkɒlədʒɪ /

noun

1. the scientific study of all forms of human and animal behaviour, sometimes concerned with the methods through which behaviour can be modified See also analytical psychology clinical psychology comparative psychology educational psychology experimental psychology

2. informal the mental make-up or structure of an individual that causes him or her to think or act in the way he or she does

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psychology Scientific  

/ sī-kŏl′ə-jē /

1. The scientific study of mental processes and behavior.

2. The behavioral and cognitive characteristics of a specific individual, group, activity, or circumstance.

3. ◆ Clinical psychology ◆ is the application of psychological knowledge to the diagnosis and treatment of patients.

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psychology Cultural  

1. The science dealing with mental phenomena and processes. Psychologists study emotions, perception, intelligence, consciousness, and the relationship between these phenomena and processes and the work of the glands and muscles. Psychologists are also interested in diseased or disordered mental states, and some psychologists provide therapy for individuals. In the United States, however, psychologists, unlike psychiatrists, are not medical doctors. (See psychiatry.)

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Usage

What is psychology? Psychology is the study of the mind, mental processes, and behaviors of humans and animals. The term psychology is used to describe many specific areas of study. Generally, psychology is interested in the brain and, more specifically, why we think the way we do. Because the mind is so complex, psychology is a very wide field with many subdivisions and branches of study. A few of the major areas of psychology include:

• clinical psychology, which involves diagnosing and treating personality and behavior disorders;
• cognitive psychology, which studies mental processes such as memory, language, and perception; and
• developmental psychology, which studies how our mental processes change as we age and experience more of life.

Both psychiatry and neuroscience are often confused with psychology. Like psychology, psychiatry also diagnoses and treats mental disorders but treatments are different. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who can prescribe medicine for mental illnesses. A psychologist doesn’t often have a medical degree and instead treats patients with counseling and therapy, a process known as psychotherapy. On the other hand, neuroscience is focused on the actual neurons, tissues, and synapses that physically make up the brain as an organ, rather than with how we think about things, as psychology is. Even if they don’t know the specifics, most people are aware that psychology is a study of the mind and thinking. For this reason, the word psychology is often used to refer generally to a person’s thought process or mental state, as in In order to really know what happens during war, you need to understand a soldier’s psychology.

Discover More

The two main divisions of psychology are individual or personality psychology and social psychology; social psychology deals with the mental processes of groups.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• prepsychology
  noun
• psychologist
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• psychologies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of psychology

From the New Latin word psȳchologia, dating back to 1675–85. See psycho-, -logy

Explanation

Psychology refers to the study of human behavior and the human mind, or the mental attitude of a group. Your parents will find it hard to understand the psychology of the teenager. Psychology is more than just an academic subject. The word refers to the complex mental workings and states a person, group or activity. Marketers use the psychology of consumer behavior to sell you things you don't need. Some self-help books teach you how use psychology - mental strategies and tricks - on someone in order to win arguments or get ahead.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

psychology psychologies

Singh enrolled in UC Santa Cruz in June 2024 and was a psychology major, according to Hernandez-Jason.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

He says all of this means a missed opportunity to address deep-rooted trauma some of which he feels is etched into the very geography and psychology of modern Ghana.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

If only the psychology of artificial intelligence were as verifiable as math.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Its findings could be useful in psychology, behavioral research, and the design of environments in which people regularly make choices.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 13, 2026

To understand our nature, history and psychology, we must get inside the heads of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

As for Mr. Oliver’s enthusiasm for psychotherapy, not all of us are able to spend long hours exploring the wounds that our unique psychologies or childhoods have inflicted on us.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026

Hunter is clearly interested in more than the catalytic effect of divergent psychologies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2024

Exhibiting all the storytelling skills that made her earlier books so readable and popular, Pulley also offers a piercing study of how a police state deforms individual psychologies, personal relationships and professional ethics.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 24, 2022

When the pubescent protagonists of the former issue idiotic declarations about the psychologies of the girls they obsess over, the movie makes it abundantly clear they have no idea what they’re talking about.

From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2021

How absurd it is to found codes of morality upon sermons or even the latest psychologies.

From The Glands Regulating Personality by Louis Berman M.D.

Related Words

• attitude
• medicine
• mindset
• therapy