psychology

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The science that deals with mental processes and behavior.
2. n. The emotional and behavioral characteristics of an individual, group, or activity: the psychology of war.
3. n. Subtle tactical action or argument used to manipulate or influence another: He used poor psychology on his employer when trying to make the point.
4. n. Philosophy The branch of metaphysics that studies the soul, the mind, and the relationship of life and mind to the functions of the body.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The science of the phenomena of mind; mental science. It is said to have originated with Pythagoras. Aristotle greatly improved it, and stated its most important principle, that of the association of ideas. It has, however, only recently taken the position of a universally acknowledged science; and its methods are still in dispute. Some psychologists hold that we know the mind by direct intuition in consciousness; others, distinguishing between consciousness and self-consciousness, hold that the former involves no recognition of the mind, while the latter is not an original power, but only acquired knowledge. But, though such inward vision be denied, most psychologists still consider the observation of what passes within us as the main foundation for psychology. Others regard introspection as too deceptive to be of much use, and some deny its possibility. A few psychologists only, since Descartes, have held that the distinctions we naturally draw about mental functions — as, for example, between thinking and willing — have, in good part at least, a real significance. The great majority have denied this, explaining that the faculties are nothing in the soul (which itself has no parts), but are mere conveniences of description. Nevertheless, these writers are accused by many modern psychologists of practically assuming that our natural ideas of mind are in some approximate harmony with the facts of mind, just as physicists assume that among the conceptions which appear simple and natural to man are likely to be found those that are embodied in laws of nature. The prevalent school of modern psychologists attributes great importance to systematic experimentation by one person upon another, especially to quantitative determinations, as of the time occupied in different mental processes, the force required to produce sensations of given intensity, and the like; yet some of the older generation predict that the utility of this method will be found to have narrow limits. Psychology has also been pursued by means of extensive observations upon persons in abnormal mental states, upon persons having some mental peculiarity, upon the development of the minds of children, upon the languages, institutions, mythology, and arts of different races, and by means of the comparative study of biography. Psychology has often been divided into psychography, psychonomy, and psychosophy. See the somewhat deceptive quotation from Coleridge, 1817, under psychological, and the first quotation below.
2. n. The special psychology of any single group of living things: a common term for folk psychology, professional psychology, race psychology, ethnic psychology, psychology of peoples, etc.
3. n. The science of the products of the mental life in the human race at large; same as folk psychology .
4. n. The psychology and psychogenesis of the human mind.
5. n. Race psychology; the differential psychology of species and races, whether human or sub-human.
6. n. The science of the individual mind as conditioned, in its functions and development, by other minds; the psychology of the social factor in its influence upon the individual mind.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The study of the human mind.
2. n. uncountable The study of human behavior.
3. n. uncountable The study of animal behavior.
4. n. countable The mental, emotional, and behavioral characteristics pertaining to a specified person, group, or activity.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The science of the human soul; specifically, the systematic or scientific knowledge of the powers and functions of the human soul, so far as they are known by consciousness; a treatise on the human soul.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the science of mental life