To different disciplines

4.3.3
Psychology and the Medical Sciences
Medical sciences attempt to find out the causes of disfunctioning or
malfunctioning of the body system. In fact, medical sciences are a branch of
biological sciences. Advances in the medical sciences have resulted in a
considerable amount of knowledge about the structure and function of the brain,
the nervous system and the endocrine glands, which are crucial to the study of
behaviour.
Medical sciences have contributed significantly to the understanding of abnormal
behaviour. Actually, many of the leading thinkers in psychology such as Freud,
Jung, Adler, Horney, Rogers, McDougall, Goldstein and some others were
originally medical persons. They have contributed a lot to the understanding and
treatment of human behaviour, as they were not only interested in treating physical
diseases but also in dealing with psychological abnormalities. The development
of the fields of abnormal/ clinical psychology as well as the psychodynamic
approach to personality is due to the contribution of medical sciences.
While interacting with mentally ill and emotionally troubled people, these medical
doctors developed useful insights to human behaviour.
Self Assessment Questions
1) .................................................... psychology, an emerging field in the
21
st
century, is an approach that explains behaviour and the development
of the mind in terms of their function and adaptiveness.
2) A ............................................................... is a fake pill or injection.
3) In fact, medical sciences are a branch of ..................................... sciences.
Answers: 1) Evolutionary, 2) placebo, 3) biological
4.4
PSYCHOLOGY AND SOME OTHER
DISCIPLINES
We have so far examined the relationship between psychology and different groups
of sciences. But 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.

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