elderly people. You may also find them analysing vital social problems relating to social change and development, population, poverty, interpersonal or intergroup violence, and environmental degradation. Many psychologists now play an active role in designing and executing intervention programmes in order to provide people with a better quality of life. Hence, it is no surprise that we find psychologists working in diverse settings such as schools, hospitals, industries, prisons, business organisations, military establishments, and in private practice as consultants helping people solve problems in their respective settings.
Besides helping you in rendering social service to others, the knowledge of psychology is also personally relevant to you in your day- to-day life. The principles and methods of psychology that you will learn in this course should be made use of in analysing and understanding yourself in relation to others. It is not that we do not think about ourselves. But very often, some of us think very highly of ourselves and any feedback that contradicts our opinion about ourselves is rejected because we engage in what is called a defensive behaviour.
In some other cases, persons come to acquire a habit of running down themselves. Both conditions do not permit us to grow. We need to have a positive and balanced understanding of ourselves. You .
What is behaviour? Give examples of overt and covert behaviour. . How can you distinguish scientific psychology from the popular notions about the discipline of psychology?
. Give a brief account of the evolution of psychology.