Psychology of everyday life

When the word ″psychology″ is mentioned, most people immediately start to think about mental illnesses. Today psychologists are mainly associated with healthcare professionals. The word ″psychoanalysis″ makes people panic. The reason for this is quite simple: watching movies and television, reading books and magazines, generally makes people think psychology is dealing with mentally ill and non-normal individuals. The fact is that psychology field is much wider than just diagnoses and treatments. You probably use psychology in your everyday life. Moreover, if you do not, it has probably been used on you.

What if I ask you to name psychologists you know? Who would they be? I guess you may think about Freud, Jung or even Frasier. These people represent the modern day psychology. Nevertheless, I am going to surprise you with a great number of unique approaches modern era study of mind and behavior has.

Modern day psychology

As the time changes, the science of psychology changes as well. Today the study of mind and behavior is generally subdivided into seven main schools. All of them are working for the benefit of health and well-being of everyone. The comparison of these seven schools is helpful if you want to understand what the modern day psychology is and how we can use it in our daily life.

Biopsychology studies specific mechanisms in our body and its influence on our mind and behavior. In other words, biopsychology deals with nerves, neurotransmitters, and other biological processes.

Behavioral psychology, as you may guess, is focused on behaviors. It is widely used while dealing with mood disorders or problems in childhood and adolescence.

Cognitive psychology is aimed to study the relations in between our thoughts and our actions. It mainly deals with such aspects of our life as memory, thinking, language, beliefs, knowledge, and motivations.

Evolutionary psychology is focused on the influence of evolution on specific psychological processes. For example, it deals with such phenomenon as natural selection.

Cross-cultural psychology studies the influence of human culture on the way a person thinks and acts. It gives people a better understanding of how cultures impact our behavior, family, education, career and other psychological areas.

Psychodynamic psychology studies the unconscious mind, early childhood experiences, and interpersonal relationships. This approach was founded by Sigmund Freud to analyze and study human thought processes, response patterns, and influences.

Humanistic psychology studies the impact of motivations on thoughts and behavior. This exact approach was created in 1950's to deal with ordinary, mentally healthy individuals.

In recent years industrial/organizational psychology, health psychology, counseling psychology, school psychology, forensic psychology, and community psychology have emerged. This means the field of science becomes wider and wider from day to day. Nowadays we can surely say that psychology used nearly in every sphere. Ordinary people use it in their daily life as well.

Where do we use psychology?

Sometimes people use psychology consciously with the aim to make their everyday life better. Look at the adverts! Business world uses psychology to make potential buyers to buy the product they advertise. Such adverts use your emotional state to gain profit.

Sometimes psychology is used by people who have no clue they are doing so. For example, the sounds you make to let the person know you are listening to what s/he says is a widely used psychological technique. The same we can say about words repeated back to the speaker. This helps a person you are talking to feel more comfortable.

Whether you know you are using psychological methods or you don't - they have become an essential tool in our daily life.

Psychological tips and tricks for everyday life

With the help of different psychological methods, people can accomplish their goals. For example, psychology is used in detecting lies. Here are more examples of how psychological methods can be used:

• Repeating tactic makes people pursue your goals as if they were their own;
• Long-onset smile is an effective way to look more attractive and trustworthy;
• Environmental psychologists say that if you want to have a refreshing weekend, you should stay at home;
• If you want to improve your life, stay away from the crowd opinion.

There are many more methods to improve your life. It means psychology is not detained by the scientific sphere. You can use various psychological methods even without knowing it. This is the main secret of everyday psychology. Learn more about the different methods used in psychology to improve your life and it will change rapidly.