Unit M3 Manage health and social care practice to ensure positive outcomes for individuals.
Task D
Explain the psychological basis for well-being; include the theories that support your findings.
The literal meaning of Psychology from its Greek Etymology is “study of the soul”. A more contemporary definition from Chambers Dictionary is “science of the mind” or “the study of mind and behavior”. A fuller description is offered by the NHS “Psychology is a science based profession and is the study of people; how they think, how they act, react and interact. It is concerned with all aspects of behaviour and the thoughts, feelings and motivation underlying them”.
The idea that there is a connection between the mind and well being can be traced back to
Greek philosophers in the 4th Century BC. The Physician Hippocrates theorized that mental disorders were of a physical (rather than divine) nature. Aristotle investigated psychological phenomena in De Anima and a loosely related collection of short works called the Parva Naturalia It seems that early Greek Philosophers appreciated that a specialist study of the soul/mind could help the physician and natural scientist to better understand human physical existence.
Psychology largely remained as a subset of Philosophy from it’s Greek origins through to the late 16th Century when the latin word ‘psychologia’ emerged in Germany in relation to a separate science of investigation and understanding of the mind.In 1694 the French
Philosopher Rene Descartes published “The Passion of the Soul”. It introduced the idea of dualism, which asserted that the mind and body were two separate entities that interact to form the human experience. This publication directly influenced scientists such as the physician Steven Blankaart (1650 - 1704) to develop Empiricism within his scientific research and who is also credited as being the first author to use the English word
Psychology.
Psychology
Bibliography: http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/psychological-therapies/careers-inpsychological-therapies/psychologist/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arist otle-psychology/#7 http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Krstic/marulic.htm http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/psychistory.htm http://psychology.about.com/od/psychology101/u/psychology-theories.htm http://www.ekrfoundation.org/five-stages-of-grief/ 13