Unit I - Nature of Educational Psychology
UNIT I NATURE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY MEANING OF PSYCHOLOGY Etymological derivation of the word ‘Psychology’ indicates that it has its origin from two Greek words- psyche and logos. The word ‘logos’ stands for study. However, the meaning and interpretation of the word “psyche” has been in a state of change from time to time leading to subsequent changes in the ways of defining the term ‘psychology’ as may be evident from the following four stages of its evolution. First Stage . By taking the meaning of the word ‘psyche’ as soul, psychology was first defined as the “study of soul”. The inability to define soul led to the search for a new meaning of the word ‘psyche’. Second Stage . At this stage, the philosopher cum psychologists tried to define psychology as the “study of the mind” by giving a new meaning and interpretation to the word ‘psyche’ in the form of ‘mind’. Although the word ‘mind’ was less v...