Week 1 Discussion

Educational Psychology

Educational psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with basics of how people learn. Overall, it attempts understanding the relationship between teaching, learning and human development using various psychological concepts and research methods (Berliner, 2006). More precisely, Guy Lefrancois (1994) has defined Educational Psychology as a study of human behavior in an educational setting. In this regard, it includes topics such as assessment, teaching strategies, creativity, intelligence, individual differences, motivation, learning behaviors, human development, thinking, and motivation. For this reason, the researchers and practitioners have developed a number of concepts and theories within the domain of Educational Psychology describing how humans develop over time, how they learn different things, and how they must be taught for effective learning. Primarily, theories develop through research. Therefore, research becomes the basis of Educational Psychology. The Division of Educational Psychology provides a nurturing environment for the researchers and practitioners with interest in learners and teachers’ psychology in an educational setting to present and publish papers about their work.

Society for Personality and Social Psychology

Social Psychology serves almost the same purpose as Educational Psychology, i.e., seeking to understand the consequential, meaningful social behaviors of life. However, it is not limited to an educational setting. All of the fields of Cognitive-, Biological-, and Developmental Psychology provide the foundations of Social and Personality Psychology. Overall, Social Psychology specializes in the study of how people develop over time, i.e., how various aspects of a situation can change what people will do, on average (Allport & Allport, 1921). Personality Psychology specializes in how people differ from each other on psychological basis. It also works on characterizing and measuring these differences (Brown, 2014). The Society for Personality and Social Psychology seeks to advance the theory, research and practice in the domain of Personality and Social Psychology. In this regard, it employs members in private industry or government and academia concerning how people affect and are being affected by others in the physical and social environments.

References

Allport, F. H., & Allport, G. W. (1921). Personality Traits: Their Classification and Measurement. The Journal of Abnormal Psychology and Social Psychology, 16(1), 6.

Berliner, D.C. (2006). Educational psychology: Search for essence throughout a century of influence. In P. Alexander & P. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Inc. Publishers

Brown, R. (2014). Against my better judgment: An intimate memoir of an eminent gay psychologist. Routledge.

Lefrancois, G.R. (1994). Psychology for teaching (8th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company