Psychology

How to spell psychology

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce psychology

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does psychology mean?

1. nounThe scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behaviour.
2. nounThe mental and emotional characteristics or attitudes that drive a person or group.

Psychology in a sentence

• She studied psychology at university before training as a therapist.

• The coach understood the psychology of a team under pressure.

• The textbook covers the psychology of memory and perception.

• Clever advertising relies on the psychology of the average shopper.

Where does psychology come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes from the Greek psyche, which literally meant 'breath' and by extension 'soul' or 'mind', combined with logia, meaning 'the study of' or 'an account of'. The Greeks personified Psyche as the soul itself, famous from the myth of Psyche and Eros, and that sense of an inner animating spirit carried into the scholarly coinage. The term was assembled in the 1500s and 1600s by Latin-writing scholars in Europe as psychologia, the systematic study of the soul, before it gradually shifted to mean the study of the mind and behaviour. English adopted it in the 1600s, and its modern scientific sense took hold in the 1800s as the discipline became experimental. The trap in the spelling is purely Greek: the silent 'p' before the 's' and the 'ch' standing for a hard 'k' sound both preserve the original Greek letters psi and chi, which is why so many adults are tempted to drop the 'p' or write a 'k'.

How the word is built

• psych- (from Greek psyche: soul, mind)
• -o- (connecting vowel)
• -logy (from Greek logia: study of)