Everyone has a rough idea of what psychologists (at least those in the clinical branch) do. However, in general there is a tendency to minimize the role of psychology in our society , limiting it to the treatment of mental disorders, when the truth is that the contributions of psychology are multiple and varied.

Since psychology studies the behavior of people as a whole, the benefits derived from the knowledge acquired by this science can be applied to many fields. If you are interested in knowing why psychology is so important , this article can be very useful.

  • You may be interested in: “Dictionary of Psychology: 200 fundamental concepts”

Psychology and its applications

Normally psychology is defined as the study of human behaviour and mental processes . This definition can vary depending on the theoretical orientation or the field of application; for example, the object of study can easily be extended to non-human animals, as is the case in comparative psychology and ethology.

In many cases, psychological research is included within what we know as “basic psychology” , dedicated to obtaining knowledge about processes such as perception, memory or reasoning, which influence any type of human behaviour.

The best known application of psychology is its clinical aspect, which aims to help solve mental and behavioral problems to improve the quality of life of people. Community psychology has similar objectives to clinical psychology but its approach is more macro, working with large population groups rather than individuals.

Other well-known branches of this science are educational psychology, which analyses learning with the objective of strengthening it, and organisational psychology, which applies the theories developed by social psychology to the professional sphere. Forensic psychology, on the other hand, focuses on psychological assessment as a support to judicial processes, and sports psychology has as its goal the improvement of sports performance.

Why is psychology important?

Due to the breadth of the field of psychology, its importance depends largely on the concrete application to which we refer . Nevertheless, in this section we will reflect on the relevance of psychology at a general level, emphasizing some of its key contributions.

1. To understand living beings

Psychological theories are fundamental in explaining the behavior of animals, especially people: any activity produced in a human society is susceptible to being analysed from psychology since it will always involve the participation of basic mental processes. In relation to the study of human groups, social psychology is particularly important.

The analysis of behaviour is not only interesting in itself for a large number of people, but also allows the application of the knowledge acquired to many different fields, especially within the social and natural sciences such as medicine, sociology, economy, history, political science , demography, linguistics, veterinary medicine or zoology.

2. To increase the quality of life

Many people consider that the ultimate goal of psychology is to increase the well-being and quality of life of others . Although other professionals have different conceptions, the truth is that service to other people has been a central aspect in the development of psychology and continues to be so today.

Clearly psychology is useful in promoting mental health and personal growth, but the benefits of this science are not limited to the psyche. Health psychology, for example, seeks physical well-being and disease prevention through the acquisition of healthy behavioral habits, a key aspect that medicine tends to neglect.

3. To improve relationships

The knowledge derived from psychological science is very important for the improvement of human relations. Thus, psychologists are the ones who are best able to improve the social skills of shy people, to mediate in cases of divorce or to intervene in mobbing and bullying, among other functions.

4. To enhance professional performance

In today’s societies, performance and productivity are extremely valuable on a professional level, and more and more people are realizing that having psychologists on their team clearly enhances results. Human resources, organizational psychology and sports psychology are good examples of this role.

5. To develop cognition

From psychology, many techniques have been proposed to improve cognitive abilities such as logical reasoning, memory or problem solving. We speak of “meta-knowledge” to refer to knowledge about one’s own learning processes; understanding how our mental processes work is very important for improving them.

6. To increase creativity

Psychology encourages creativity for various reasons. Not only does it enable us to analyze the artistic process at a deep level, but the understanding of the behavior and mental functioning of people is a very important aid to the creation of meaningful works with realistic characters.

7. To solve specific problems

Both clinical psychology and other branches of this science have often focused on solving everyday problems. In this sense, we consider that the problem-solving techniques proposed by D’Zurilla and Nezu , which determine a series of useful steps to face any complex situation, deserve a special mention.

8. To change the world

After all, many of us would like society to be more benevolent to those who make it up. Although institutions tend to ignore psychology out of ignorance or conflicting interests, if the contributions of our science to individual well-being and collective functioning were taken more into account, the world would certainly be a better place.