significance of psychology to the nursing profession – Behavioral sciences explore the cognitive processes within organisms and the behavioral interactions between organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behavior through the study of the past, controlled and naturalistic observation of the present and disciplined scientific experimentation and modeling.
It attempts to accomplish legitimate, objective conclusions through rigorous formulations and observation. Generally, behavior science deals primarily with human action and often seeks to generalize about human behavior as it relates to society.
Importance/Significance of psychology to the nursing profession:
A. Understand the mind-body relationships:
- The understanding of psychology helps nurses to realize the relationship between the physiological and mental processes.
- From the beginning of psychology, philosophers and psychologists explained the relationship between mind and body.
- As this understanding will help nurses to deal with patients and understand how well the physiological process disturbed the psychological functions.
B. Enable to understand one’s own self:
- This implies that the knowledge of psychology will help nurses to understand their own behaviour and know their strengths and weaknesses.
- This insight will make them to control and attain self-discipline.
C. Understand individual differences:
- The knowledge of psychology will help nurses to understand the individual differences among the human behaviour, and enable them to provide effective services to different patients.
D. To deal with mentally disturbed patients:
- The understanding of abnormal psychology will help nurses to know the behaviour pattern of abnormal patients and handle them more effectively by applying the principles of psychology to modify their behaviour.
E. Enable nurses to make better adjustments:
- The knowledge of psychology will help nurses to make effective adjustments in the environment as it will make them happier and develop harmonious relationships with others, such as doctors and other nurses.
F. To provide effective counselling:
- Nurses also play the role of a counsellor.
- The knowledge of psychology will help the nurses to provide effective counselling for emotional disturbed patients
Methods of Psychology:
There are some major scientific methods used in psychology as the scientific study of behaviour. They are as follows:
1. Introspection method: Self-analysis of one’s own inner feelings.
2. Naturalistic observation method: Information is gathered by observing behaviour as it unfolds in natural settings.
3. Experimental method: Study behaviour by the use of controlled experimentation.
4. Clinical method: It is a case study approach in which psychologists study the problems and therapies in clinical settings for the diagnosis of mental disorders.
5. Correlational method: A non-experimental study designed to measure the degree of relationship between two or more variables or events.
6. Survey method: This method uses questionnaires to poll a large group of people.
Introspection Method
This is the oldest method for the study of behaviour, which was introduced by Wilhelm Wundt, the father of psychology. The word introspection is derived from two Latin words, intra meaning ‘within’ or ‘inward’ and spiere meaning ‘to look’. Hence, introspection means ‘looking within’.
It is a sort of self-observation in which one perceives, analyses and reports one’s own feelings and, in fact, everything that takes place in one’s mind during the course of mental act. For example, when an individual is in a state of anger, anxiety or fear, one may be asked to determine one’s own observation about what one sensed, thought or felt at the time of expe- riencing that emotion.
Merits/Advantages:
- Introspection method is a simple and readily available method: One’s mental processes are always present and can be introspected at any time
- It gives us a direct and immediate insight into one’s own mental processes: The information gathered through these methods is always first-hand information, which is immediate understanding and analysis of one’s own feelings, as are felt.
- It provides adequate knowledge of the inner experiences and feelings: No other method will provide an analysis of one’s own emotional feelings. This method paves the way for gathering and analysing one’s own emotional experiences.
Limitations/Disadvantages:
- The state of one’s mental processes is continuously changing: It is impossible to intro- spect one’s mental activity at a particular time.
- This method lacks repeatability: The introspected individual’s report will not be same as it is introspected again by some other situation of same emotion.
- It is not possible to verify the self-observation: Generally, in scientific methods, the re- sults can be verified, as it is objective measurement, but in introspection the reports cannot be verified as it is more subjective measurement.
- It is impossible to acquire validity and exactness in self-observation: In scientific methods, the results have validity and accuracy in measurement, but in the introspection there is no precise data.
- This method cannot be applied to study all behaviours: It has limitations in application; for example, the introspection is possible only by mentally matured individual not by all.
Naturalistic Observation Method
Psychologists sometimes actively observe behaviour in natural settings. Naturalistic observation allows us to study behaviour that has not been tampered with by outside influences. It is thus essentially a way of perceiving the behaviour as it is. By this method, we can infer the mental processes s of others through overt behaviour (external behaviour). Thus, it is an indirect approach to the study of mental process.
Merits/Advantages:
- Naturalistic observation method is more realistic or natural: This method gives more realistic data for the researcher to analyse the nature of behaviour, than is provided by controlled observation.
- It is used very much in developmental studies: The human growth and development or the changes in behaviour over the span of time is studied through this method more objectively.
- It is very much used to study abnormal behaviour: In the study of abnormal behaviour, clinical psychologists collect data by observing people under natural conditions of their day-to-day life.
Limitations/Disadvantages:
- Observer effect: This method suffers with the demerit of observer effect, a tendency of people or animals to behave differently from normal when they know they are being observed.
- Observer bias: This method has a major demerit as the observer bias, a tendency of observers to see what they expect to see or observe.
- Each natural environment is unique: Each naturalistic setting is unique and unlike any other. Observation that is made at one time in one setting may not hold true for another time, even if the setting is similar, because the conditions are not going to be exactly the same time after time.
- Inability to establish cause and effect relationship: In the beginning, the observer does not have any control on natural environment, so it is impossible to infer exact cause and effect relationship of any observed phenomena.
Experimental Method
The experimental method is considered the most scientific and objective method of studying behaviour. This method is most powerful research tool that is used in psychology as the most scientific study of behaviour. Psychologists carefully control conditions in experiments to identify cause and effect relationship.
In an experimental study, the experimenter has complete control over the variables. Variables are any conditions that can be changed and that might affect the outcome of the experiment. There are three types of variables: independent variables, dependent variables and extraneous variables.
a) Independent variables are conditions altered or varied by the experimenter, who sets their size, amount or value. Independent variables are suspected causes for differences in behaviour.
b) Dependent variables measure the results of the experiment. That is, they reveal the effects that independent variables have on behaviour.
c) Extraneous variables are conditions that an experimenter wishes to prevent from affecting the outcome of the experiments, but these conditions are not controlled by the experimenter. Sometimes they can affect the results of experiments without consciousness of the experimenter.
Merits/Advantages:
- Experimenter has total control on variables: In observation method, the psychologist or experimenter does not have any control over the natural phenomenon, but in experi. mental method the experimenter eliminates irrelevant conditions and studies the exact causal relationship between two behavioural phenomena (independent and dependent variables).
- It is more objective measure of behaviour: The results obtained are objectively observed and measured, on the basis of which certain conclusions are reached.
Limitations/Disadvantages
- Experimental environment is completely a rigid condition: Experimental condition is more of an artificial situation; therefore, the behaviour studied under experimental
condition is different from the spontaneous or the natural environment. - It is difficult to control the intervening variables: The experiment studies the relationship between independent variable and dependent variable, but in real life experiment it is difficult to control all the factors that influence human behaviour
- Human behaviour is not mechanical: Human behaviour is always dynamic, it is not necessary that the independent variable always produces the same effect, as is produced by the mechanical activity.
- Experimental method is costly and time consuming: As the experimental condition is artificial, it is costlier and time consuming to establish the desired environment.
Clinical Method
It is difficult or impossible to use the experimental method to study mental disorders, such as depression or psychosis. Case study is in-depth collection of information about a patient or mentally disturbed individual. Case studies are sometimes called as natural clinical tests. At the first level, the case study is employed to understand the various factors related to the occurrence of a particular event.
Clinical method is used to investigate the root causes of a problem or exceptional behaviour and suggesting as well as providing proper environment and possible treatment. This method uses other techniques such as physical examination, case history analysis and clinical interview method for the investigation of an individual.
Merits
- In-depth information: This method provides tremendous amount of details about single individual as it used different techniques to collect the maximum information from all the information from all the dimensions such as physical, social, emotional and environmental.
- Valuable method to study mental disorders: Clinical method is more suggestive way of collecting data or background information to diagnosis of the root causes of mental disorder.
Limitations:
- Clinical method demands more proficiency in handling: Clinical method is not used by everyone as it demands proper technical skills in handling the information collected and special training in collecting the data, such as confuting the clinical interview.
- The results cannot be generalized: As the clinical method studies the individual behav- iour in depth, the obtained result cannot be generalized because of individual difference in case study
Correlational Method
This method is used to find the degree of relationship, or correlation, between two existing traits or behaviour or variables. The first two factors of interest are measured, and then a statistical technique is used to find their degree of correlation. The strength and direction of a relationship can be expressed as a coefficient or correlation, such as positive or negative. Positive correlation shows that increase in one measure is matched by increase in other.
Negative correlation shows that increase in one variable is associated with decrease in other. The correlation numerical interpretation ranges from -1.00 to +1.00. The number +1.00 indicates perfect positive relationship and -1.00 indicates perfect negative relationship. If the number is zero or close to zero, the association between two measures is weak or nonexistent.
Merits
- Discover the relationship between two or more variables: This method always predicts the degree and direction of relationship between two or more variables.
Limitations
- Correlation method does not determine the cause and effect connection always: Correlation does not demonstrate causation. Just because of appearance of one variable, it is not necessary for the other variables to also always follow.
- Correlation method does not have complete control on other factors: The observation of correlation method has the limitation, as it has the lack of control over the intervening variables.
Survey Method
In the survey method, public polling technique is used to answer psychological questions (questionnaires). Typically, people in a representative sample are asked a series of carefully worded questions. A representative sample is a small group that accurately reflects a larger population.
The survey method is employed to know how a particular behaviour is distributed among a group of people. For example, if we want to understand the attitude of college students then a survey is undertaken. Surveys can be generally relating to the people at large or to specific groups like students or workers or business people, etc.
Merits
- Use on a large group: It is a more suitable method to study the behaviour of a large group of people.
- More economical and less time consuming: This method takes less time to collect the information as it uses questionnaires and the expenditure is also very less while collecting the data.
- Results can be generalized: Through this method, the result can be generalized because the data is collected on the sample of population as a whole and not as an individual data.
- More flexible: In the survey method, the data collation is more flexible and any data can be collected with lesser risk.
Limitations
- It is impossible to check the accuracy of information: As the survey data is collected from the sample subjects, sometimes the subject misunderstands the information and assumes a different meaning. Therefore, there is probability of changing the response, which cannot be verified
- Biased sample: Sometimes the sample collected by the experimenter is biased, so the sample result does not represent the whole population.
All of the above discussed methods have some limitations; therefore researchers employ more than one method to overcome these limitations. At the same time, the application of any method depends on the problem in the study or the interest of the experimenter.
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