psychologia

Psychologia is the scientific study of mind and behavior, including mental processes such as perception, memory, emotion, and thought, as well as observable actions. It seeks to understand how biological, cognitive, social, and cultural factors shape how people think, feel, and behave across the lifespan and in different environments.

Originating from Greek roots psychē ("mind" or "soul") and logia ("study of"), the term is the etymological basis for the English "psychology"; many languages use cognate forms such as psychologia or psicología.

Historically, psychology emerged as a scientific discipline in the 19th century, building on philosophy and physiology. The field has included competing traditions—structuralism, functionalism, psychoanalysis, behaviorism—and later the cognitive revolution and the integration of neuroscience. Contemporary psychology is interdisciplinary, combining biological, cognitive, developmental, social, and clinical perspectives.

Methods include controlled experiments, observation, psychometric testing, surveys, and neuroimaging, along with longitudinal and cross-cultural studies. Subfields cover clinical and counseling psychology, cognitive, developmental, social, health, neuropsychology, educational, and industrial-organizational psychology, among others. Applications span mental health treatment, education, workplace performance, public health, and research.

Psychologia thus denotes both a historical term and the modern scientific field that seeks to explain behavior and mental life through empirical evidence and theory, often drawing on insights from neighboring sciences such as neuroscience, biology, anthropology, and computer science.