After reading this article you will learn about the relationship between psychology and other disciplines.
Psychology is connected not only with the sciences but also with other disciplines which are not generally regarded as sciences. For example, the relationship between psychology and philosophy is well known.
Modern psychology grew out of philosophy and philosophers have always influenced theories in psychology. Even today, this is quite true. Literature and art are the other fields of knowledge which are also related to psychology.
In recent years extensive investigations have been made into the role of psychological factors in the production of literary pieces -and works of art. Freud, Jung and several outstanding psychologists have tried to analyse the role of psychological factors like ego, motivation and personality in literary and artistic creations.
Architecture is yet another field which has begun to take into account psychological factors in designing buildings, town-planning etc. One may, therefore, say that the science of psychology has a very intimate relationship with almost every other discipline.
This is naturally so because psychology is the basic science which is directly concerned with the study of human behaviour and evolving of techniques and strategies to improve human behaviour. Most other disciplines are also concerned with human behaviour or products of human behaviour directly or indirectly. Hence, this intimate connection of psychology with other fields of knowledge is only natural.
The reader may start wondering that if psychology is so intimately related to other branches of knowledge and it has borrowed extensively from developments in other sciences, can we regard psychology as an independent discipline? The answer to this is strongly in the affirmative.
While psychology might have leaned very heavily on discoveries and developments in other fields, it has an identity of its own. While other disciplines may be concerned with different aspects of behaviour, psychology alone is concerned with behaviour in totality. Further, if it has borrowed from other subjects it has also contributed as much or more to the growth and development of other subjects. In fact, this trend is steadily on the increase.
This is particularly so when it comes to the question of application of scientific knowledge to action programmes. The reader can now appreciate the extensive and wide scope of psychology in a better light. It is no more a subject limited to philosophical speculations.
It is now considered as a science and to be more exact, a psycho-socio-biological science. While it is related to other branches of knowledge, at the same time it is independent; perhaps, much more extensive in its scope and far more deeper in its implications.