Psychology is an academic and applied discipline that involves the scientific study of mental functions and behaviors.[1][2] Psychology has the immediate goal of understanding individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases,[3][4] and by many accounts it ultimately aims to benefit society.[5][6] In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist and can be classified as a social, behavioral, or cognitive scientist. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also exploring the physiological and biological processes that underlie cognitive functions and behaviors.
Behavior
Behavior or behaviour is the range of actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with themselves or their environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the (inanimate) physical environment. It is the response of the system or organism to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary.
Branches of phychology 1. Abnormal Psychology
Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that looks at psychopathology and abnormal behavior. The term covers a broad range of disorders, from depression to obsession-compulsion to sexual deviation and many more. Counselors, clinical psychologists, and psychotherapists often work directly in this field.

2. Behavioral Psychology
Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. While this branch of psychology dominated the field during the first part of the twentieth century, its hold loosened during the 1950s. However, behavioral techniques remain a mainstay in therapy, education and many other areas.

3. Biopsychology
The branch of psychology focused on the study of how the brain influences behavior is often known as biopsychology, although it has also been called physiological psychology, behavioral neuroscience and psychobiology.

4. Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on internal states, such as motivation, problem solving, decision-making, thinking, and attention. This area of psychology has continued to grow since it began taking hold in the 1960s.

5. Comparative Psychology
Comparative psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the study of animal behavior. The study of animal behavior can lead to a deeper and broader understanding of human psychology.

6. Developmental Psychology
This branch of psychology looks at development throughout the lifespan, from childhood to adulthood. The scientific study of human development seeks to understand and explain how and why people change throughout life. This includes all aspects of human growth, including physical, emotional, intellectual, social, perceptual, and personality development. Topics studied in this field include everything from prenatal development to Alzheimer's disease.

7. Educational Psychology
Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with schools, teaching psychology, educational issues, and student concerns. Educational psychologists often study how students learn or work directly with students, parents, teachers and administrators to improve student outcomes.

8. Experimental Psychology
Experimental psychology is the branch of psychology that utilizes scientific methods to research the brain and behavior. Many of these techniques are also used by other areas in psychology to conduct research on everything from childhood development to social issues.

9. Personality Psychology
This branch of psychology is focused on the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that make a person unique. Some of the best-known theories in psychology have arisen from this field, including Freud's stage theory of psychosexual development and Erikson's theory of psychosocial development.

10. Social Psychology
Social psychology seeks to explain and understand social behavior and looks at diverse topics including group behavior, social interactions, leadership, nonverbal communication and social influences on decision-making.

Schools of Thought in Psychology
From structuralism to cognitivism, numerous schools of thought have emerged throughout psychology's history. Many of these theoretical outlooks have dominated the field at certain points in history. Learn more about some of the major schools of thought in psychology in the following articles and resources.
Heredity
is the passing of traits to offspring from its parents or ancestor. This is the process by which an offspring cell ororganism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause some species to evolve. The study of heredity in biology is called genetics, which includes the field of epigenetics.
In humans, eye color is an example of an inherited characteristic: an individual might inherit the "brown-eye trait" from one of the parents.[1] Inherited traits are controlled by genes and the complete set of genes within an organism'sgenome is called its genotype.[2]
The complete set of observable traits of the structure and behavior of an organism is called its phenotype. These traits arise from the interaction of its genotype with the environment.[3] As a result, many aspects of an organism's phenotype are not inherited. For example,suntanned skin comes from the interaction between a person's phenotype and sunlight;[4] thus, suntans are not passed on to people's children. However, some people tan more easily than others, due to differences in their genotype:[5] a striking example is people with the inherited trait of albinism, who do not tan at all and are very sensitive to sunburn.[6]
Heritable traits are known to be passed from one generation to the next via DNA, a molecule that encodes genetic information.[2] DNA is a long polymer that incorporates four types of bases, which are interchangeable. The sequence of bases along a particular DNA molecule specifies the genetic information: this is comparable to a sequence of letters spelling out a passage of text.[7] Before a cell divides through mitosis, the DNA is copied, so that each of the resulting two cells will inherit the DNA sequence. A portion of a DNA molecule that specifies a single functional unit is called a gene; different genes have different sequences of bases. Within cells, the long strands of DNA form condensed structures called chromosomes. Organisms inherit genetic material from their parents in the form ofhomologous chromosomes, containing a unique combination of DNA sequences that code for genes. The specific location of a DNA sequence within a chromosome is known as a locus. If the DNA sequence at a particular locus varies between individuals, the different forms of this sequence are called alleles. DNA sequences can change through mutations, producing new alleles. If a mutation occurs within a gene, the new allele may affect the trait that the gene controls, altering the phenotype of the organism.[8]
Maturation

The term maturation refers to the orderly and sequential developmental changes which occur thin the nervous system and other bodily structures controlled by our genes. The principle of readiness states that unless the necessary bodily structures are sufficiently mature, then no amount of practice will produce the particular behaviour.

Role of heredity
The age old debate Nature vs. Nurture. Are we the way we are because of how we are raised or are the actions and choices we make in life already hard-wired into our DNA when we are born? It is hard to be able to choose just one answer and go with it 100%. Scientist have been performing experiment...

Sensation and perception
In, sensation and perception are stages of processing of the senses in human and animal systems, such as vision, auditory, vestibular, and pain senses. Included in this topic is the study of illusions such as motion aftereffect, color constancy, auditory illusions, and depth perception.
Sensation is the function of the low-level biochemical and neurological events that begin with the impinging of a stimulus upon the receptor cells of a sensory organ. It is the detection of the elementary properties of a stimulus.
Perception is the mental process or state that is reflected in statements like "I see a uniformly blue wall", representing awareness or understanding of the real-world cause of the sensory input. The goal of sensation is detection; the goal of perception is to create useful information of the surroundings
In other words, sensations are the first stages in the functioning of senses to represent stimuli from the environment, and perception is a higher brain function about interpreting events and objects in the world. Stimuli from the environment are transformed into neural signals which are then interpreted by the brain through a process called transduction. Transduction can be likened to a bridge connecting sensation to perception.
Gestalt theorists believe that with the two together a person experiences a personal reality that is other than the sum of the parts.

Median is the 'middle value' in your list. When the totals of the list are odd, the median is the middle entry in the list after sorting the list into increasing order. When the totals of the list are even, the median is equal to the sum of the two middle (after sorting the list into increasing order) numbers divided by two. Thus, remember to line up your values, the middle number is the median! Be sure to remember the odd and even rule.

Mode in a list of numbers refers to the list of numbers that occur most frequently. A trick to remember this one is to remember that mode starts with the same first two letters that most does. Most frequently - Mode. You'll never forget that one!
Name some differences * 8 percent to 10 percent of men may be affected. * Eating disorders are more likely in women and there's more often a co-morbid depression. * Among women, depression disorders are much more likely to be accompanied by co-morbid anxiety disorders. * During a bout of depression, women are much more likely than men to experience atypical symptoms including hyperinsomnia and an increase in appetite. * Bipolar disorder is equally prevalent among women and men; however, the course of the disorder may be quite different. Compared with men, women are more likely to have rapid cycling episodes, experience more depressions and more dysphoria manias and to develop lithium-induced hypothyroid disorder. * Women are more likely than men to have anxiety disorders and have a greater incidence of panic disorder with agoraphobia. * The prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorders among men and women is almost equal, but women tend to have an earlier onset and more obsessions related to food and weight than men. * Schizophrenia affects women more favorably than men. Women have a later onset, fewer symptoms and a better response to treatment.

Learning is a process that depends on experience and leads to long-term changes in behavior potential. Behavior potential designates the possible behavior of an individual, not actual behavior. The main assumption behind all learning psychology is that the effects of the environment, conditioning, reinforcement, etc. provide psychologists with the best information from which to understand human behavior.
As opposed to short term changes in behavior potential (caused e.g. by fatigue) learning implies long term changes. As opposed to long term changes caused byaging and development, learning implies changes related directly to experience.