Psychology helps people in all walks of life because it can explain why people behave the way they do. With this kind of professional insight, a psychologist can help people improve their decision making, stress management and behavior based on understanding past behavior to better predict future behavior. The true purpose of psychology as studying the function of behavior in the world, emphasizing adaptive processes in individuals. Psychology is a branch of philosophy.  I am giving  writeup about few branches of psychology. 

Forensic Psychology

When psychologists apply forensic theory to a criminal investigation to understand psychological problems associated with criminal behaviour the term used is forensic psychology. The field has experienced dramatic growth in recent years as more and more psychology students are interested in this applied branch of psychology. Popular movies, television programs, and books have helped popularize the field, often depicting brilliant heroes who solve vicious crimes or track down killers using psychology.

In forensic psychology, punishment is the penalty imposed on a person who has committed a crime. The severity of the punishment is usually in line with the seriousness of the crime. The main goal of punishment is to deter the offender and others from committing similar crimes. 

Example of forensic psychology is Tandoor Murder Case (Naina Sahani) in 1995. The tandoor murder case shocked the nation. This case, where a woman was murdered and her body disposed of in a tandoor oven, is considered one of the first high-profile cases in India where forensic evidence played a crucial role in conviction. Naina Sahni’s murder remains one of the most sensational cases for the criminal and justice system. Discovering a burnt body of a woman chopped into pieces in a tandoor of a restaurant in Delhi indeed shook the country’s conscience to a completely new level. While no specific forensic psychologist is directly named as having solved the Tandoor murder case, T.D. Dogra, a forensic medicine expert, played a crucial role in the investigation by leading the second autopsy which revealed the true cause of death, a pistol injury. 

Forensic psychology encompasses evaluating competency to stand trial, making sentencing recommendations, offering expert testimony, performing child custody evaluations, participating in jury selection, and providing psychotherapy to criminal offenders.

Sports Psychology

Studies the psychological factors that influence athletic performance, including motivation, anxiety, and stress management. Sports psychology is a branch of applied psychology, it uses psychological principles to study and improve athletic performance and well-being, encompassing areas like motivation, anxiety management, and goal setting. Coleman Roberts Griffith is known as “Father” of sports psychology.

Depending on a sports psychologist’s unique specialization, their key aim is generally twofold: They help athletes achieve greater sports performance and recover from injuries with evidence-based psychological techniques. They help their clients reduce mental or emotional suffering through physical therapies. Tennis player Leander Paes has been working with a US-based sports psychologist, Dr. Jim Loehr, since the 1990s, Paes   highlights the long-term benefits of sports psychology. Shooter,  Abhinav Bindra has been counselled by  sports psychologist Amit Bhattacharjee, with whom he trained for five years. Virat Kohli has spoken about the positive impact of working with Paddy Upton, a former mental conditioning coach for the Indian national team, who helped him regain his perspective during the 2022 T20 World Cup. 

Educational Psychology

Explores the psychological principles of learning and teaching, with applications to curriculum development, classroom management, and student support.  Educational psychology, a field that studies human behaviour within educational contexts, encompasses understanding learning processes, classroom environments, student development, and effective teaching methods, ultimately aiming to improve educational outcomes.  Narendra Nath Sen Gupta is widely recognized as the founder of modern education psychology in India, having established the first independent Department of Psychology at the University of Calcutta. Dipti Yadav is an honourable psychologist and career counsellor who promotes holistic well-being. She can diligently lead groups and individuals in educational arena.

Howard Gardner is an American developmental psychologist and the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard University. He  is a developmental psychologist who has penned numerous research papers and books, many of which involve his Multiple Intelligences Theory. This theory states that information process occurs in a variety of different ways. According to Gardner, there are eight primary intelligences: linguistic, logic/mathematical, musical, bodily/kinaesthetic, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. There are also two additional intelligences that may be added to that list, which are pedagogical and existential.

Cultural Psychology

Examine how culture influences thoughts, behaviors, and emotions, contributing to a globalized understanding of human behavior. Cultural psychology is the study of how people are shaped by their cultures, focusing on the interplay between the mind and culture. They draw from various social science disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, and psychology.  This field is more than simply examining traditions or language; it is also the exploration of what drives human behavior, the attitudes, ideas, and actions of different cultures. Culture plays a major role in our lives and in global economy. I am referring to corporate culture in below given passages.

Cultural psychologists investigate how cultural norms, values, beliefs, and practices influence various aspects of human psychology, including cognition, emotions, social interactions, and development. They examine similarities and differences in psychological phenomena across different cultures, seeking to understand how cultural contexts shape human behavior. Cultural psychologists contribute to the development of psychological theories and practices that are culturally sensitive and relevant to diverse populations. By studying cultural differences, they aim to foster greater understanding and tolerance among people for cross cultural understanding and removing biases.

An example, in organizations  we see a common bias during hiring. It is that the hiring panel favors male candidates over female candidates even though they have similar skills and job experience. Another well-known example is the gender pay gap. As of 2021, the average median salary for men is about 18% higher than women’s. Ageism refers to stereotyping or discriminating against others based on their age, often happening to older team members. 

Organizations refuse to hire people over or under a certain age. asking for someone’s age at a job interview when it is not relevant to the work and enacting policies that unfairly privilege one age group over another. viewing older people as out of touch, less productive, or stuck in their ways.

Virtual Reality and Psychology

This area studies how virtual reality can be used for therapy, training, or research, including exploring VR applications in the treatment of phobias, stress, and other mental health conditions. Virtual reality (VR) offers psychologists a powerful tool for studying human cognition and behavior in highly controlled, immersive environments, with applications ranging from social and cognitive research to clinical interventions, like exposure therapy for phobias. 

For example. patients suffering from the agony of burn injuries find relief in immersing themselves in SnowWorld, a simple virtual reality game where they throw snowballs at penguins and snowmen. It distracts them so much from their real life that they sometimes even forget about their pain. Psychologists started using VR decades ago to treat phobias, such as the fear of riding trains and planes, and it is now being used for a range of mental health issues. “The potential is that VR treatment can be faster, more powerful, and have a greater appeal for patients than traditional mental health approaches,” says Daniel Freeman, founder and director of the University of Oxford VR lab for mental health disorders. However, the benefits often remain to be proven in clinical trials. Psychologists started using VR decades ago to treat phobias, such as the fear of riding trains and planes, and it is now being used for a range of mental health issues.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Psychology

As AI has been more integrated into our lives, psychologists are researching how AI can be used in therapy, diagnosis, and research, and the ethical implications of AI in mental healthcare. Recently development in AI presents countless opportunities and challenges to psychology in world. AI provides psychologists the opportunity to analyse vast amounts of data efficiently. In the context of education, AI can be a helpful support for code and essay writing, assignments, tests, and background summaries in mere seconds. It also allows for harnessing massive search power. AI is relevant to the practice of psychology insofar as it will become increasingly implicated in the daily lives of professional psychologists and in the health/functioning of the clients and patients whom they serve.

AI is transforming psychology, offering tools for accessible therapy, research, and training, including AI chatbots for initial support, AI-powered interventions, and machine learning for data analysis. Few examples follow elaborate AI’s contribution to psychology.

Wysa: An AI-powered chatbot that provides mental health support and guidance. 

Talkspace: A platform that uses AI to match users with therapists and provide virtual therapy sessions. 

7Cups: A platform that uses AI to provide support and guidance to users who are struggling with mental health issues. 

This song plays at the very start of the movie showing the titles of the movie and a bewildered Dev Anand who played the role of Raju Guide – the protagonist of the movie who is released on parole from jail for his crime of forging the signature of his lover. Raju guide rescues Rosie (Wahida Rehaman) a dancer from a toxic marriage and he motivates her to follow her passion for dancing. She rises because of the constant motivation and backing of the protagonist.

The story of Guide is set in a small village with archaeological unexplored ruins which brings together three very different characters who are passionate about their vocations; an eccentric archaeologist Marco who cannot look beyond his work, and his beautiful wife who is an accomplished dancer but is frustrated and trapped in a loveless marriage and is forced to suppress her passion to dance and an adventurous and lively tourist guide Raju, who takes on the task helping Marco in exploring the pre-historic ruins (caves). Raju ends up as Rosie’s friend, confidante and guide.

In 1965 Guide became a path breaker movie in more ways than one. It is a film adapted from the English novel The Guide written by R K Narayan. Hindi films in the fifties and sixties were usually based on film scripts or stories adapted from Hindi, Bengali or Marathi literature. Rosie’s relationship with Raju starts on a note of sympathy and support and develops into love. A live-in relationship was unthinkable in the sixties and, Raju’s inner transformation in jail.

The song ‘wahan kaun hai tera’ in fact tells the story of the movie. The song is philosophical which conveys that this world is an illusion. According to cognitive scientists such as Donald Hoffman we are being tricked into believing our own reality. We all are seeing around us a   façade that guides our way around a far more complex and hidden background. We are all travellers in this beautiful yet wild world; each one experiences a different journey.  The song tells that traveller must rest under the shade for a few moments. Here the lyricist Shailendra perhaps wanted to emphasize taking a pause for rejuvenating and restarting the remaining travel. Pausing increases productivity, and pausing works miraculously. In your travel you will meet a lover, a companion, a guide, friends, partner, dependents, and enemies so on and forth. But nobody will cry for you in your sorrow.

I love one stanza in the song ‘kehete hai gyani, duniya hai paani, paani par likhi likhai’ earth is a watery planet because 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water. Whatever is written on water does not hold significance because the writing will never last as water keeps flowing. Nothing is permanent in life; name, fame, and fortune do not stay permanently. We come into the world empty-handed and leave empty-handed.  It’s 2022 and I still can’t get over S.D. Burman’s voice and Shailendra’s lyrics, it is one of the finest songs.

Can you imagine a society in which arts and humanities do not exist; can you imagine your world without music, art or literature? If religion and philosophy would be absent, the study of history would be nullified, and intellectual debate would never happen. How dry our world would be without passion of humanities. We all give maximum importance to science, math, and technology and consider the arts as a lesser branch of study; we naively discount the value of the humanities and attempt to minimize their importance in education. But, the fact is they are so significant in our daily life.

The humanities are one of the academics disciplines  that study human culture, using techniques that are of significance; these techniques are mostly exploratory. Humanities have a significant historical element as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences. The humanities branch includes ancient civilization, literature, philosophy, history, anthropology, sociology, communication studies, cultural studies, law, linguistics, religion, visual and performing arts such as music and theatre. The humanities are also referred as social sciences.  Scholars in the humanities are described as humanists; this term also describes the philosophical position of humanism.

Humanities education gives insights into how their society is different

Humanities education gives students insights into how their society is different. The world consists of several religions, cultures and races. Educators also list several other benefits to the study of the humanities. Since the humanities involve the gaining of large amounts of information about the world and humanity, it requires that students develop critical thinking skills in order to process and analyze the information. This is a skill that translates into other realms of a student’s life, and it can provide benefits to other areas of study.

Research into the human experience adds to our knowledge about our world. Through the work of humanities scholars, we learn about the values of different cultures, about what goes into making a work of art, about how history is made. Their efforts preserve the great accomplishments of the past; help us understand the world we live in, and give us tools to imagine the future. This has given birth to Futures Studies which is also called futurology and futurism. It is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them.

Today, humanistic knowledge continues to provide the ideal foundation for exploring and understanding the human experience. Investigating a branch of philosophy might get us thinking about ethical questions. Learning another language helps us gain an appreciation for the similarities in different cultures. Contemplating a sculpture makes us think about how an artist’s life affected his/her creative decisions. Reading a book from another region of the world helps us think about the meaning of democracy and its importance for our survival. Listening to a history course helps us understand the past, while at the same time it offers us a clearer picture of the future.

A report commissioned by Oxford University’s Humanities Division found that numbers of Oxford graduates of English, History, Philosophy, Classics and Modern Languages are employed in key economic growth sectors of finance, media, legal services and management. This number rose substantially between 1960 and 1989. By the end of the period, 16-20% was employed in these sectors. It is believed to be the first report of its kind as it evaluates the contribution of the study of the humanities to boost the economy by looking at career paths and mid- and end-career destinations of graduates, rather than the three years immediately after graduation as used by the government’s Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

The research has involved using the University of Oxford alumni database to examine the employment history of 11,000 Oxford humanities graduates who matriculated between 1960 and 1989 to give full career paths to track, and has also involved focused in-depth interviews with 50 alumni, thereby engaging quantitative and qualitative measures of humanities graduates’ impact on the British economy and society. The head of humanities at the University of Oxford says that it is widely recognized that the humanities have intrinsic value as well as utility in the well-being of the world and it has a great impact and value in any economic crisis.

Mark Edmundson – a renowned Professor of English at University of Virginia says that serious thinkers opt for Humanities to broaden their minds and learn to how to live the rest of their lives. A serious thinker himself, Edmundson has felt firsthand the pressure on colleges to churn out a productive, high-caliber workforce for the future. Through his articles and paper presentations he reminds us that there is more to education than greater productivity. With prose exacting yet expansive, tough-minded yet optimistic, the liberal arts are more important today than ever. Titled as “Why Teach”?  Edmundson’s collected writings on the subject, including several pieces that are new and previously unpublished. What they show, collectively, is that higher learning is not a rut – some staid. It is a necessary remedy for our troubled times. Why Teach? is thus brimming with the wisdom and inspiration that make learning possible. When it comes to choosing a career, we all ask this common question – will humanities help me achieve a desired career in life? It depends on what that career is. Humanities will enable you to advance in writing skills, speaking skills and thinking. And, most importantly it will strengthen your ability to recognize further opportunities to learn. It will give you the ability of researching – to find information and ideas, and the ability to critically distinguish between various sources of ideas. It will help you structure your thoughts coherently and express yourself in ways that are appropriate to the occasion. It will help you build up reading skills which will further give you an ability to understand language and systems of meaning, whether they occur in literal texts, or in other forms. Humanities students learn to read images, culture, and a host of other things, besides written texts. It will make you adaptable – your ability to apply knowledge skills to vide variety of contexts.

And here’s another thing to keep in mind – the humanities today are not the humanities of the past. Sad, but the image that many people have of humanities is of a pursuit that has no relation to practical human concerns. The fact is humanities disciplines are involved in research projects of all sorts, with just about every discipline in the university. Philosophers work with scientists and engineers, historians work with medical professionals, creative writers work with digital media engineers. The fact is every technical and scientific discipline, at some point or other, must help the humanity and hence becomes a humanities discipline! Every scientific advance is an advance for humans, and is meaningful in our history, for the betterment of our lives. Every invention happens within the context of human meaning. Every business trades on human narratives and human desires as expressed through language and symbol. The humanities matter everywhere. This discipline of studies therefore is far from being marginal. It is central to all human life.

In the words of Terry Eagleton – a prominent British literary theorist and critic “The humanities should constitute the core of any university worth the name.” So, guys stop underrating importance of Humanities.