Mental Health

Mental Health and Community Counseling

Krystal N. Robinson

Counseling 501

Liberty University

Abstract

Mental Health and Community Counseling

Psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes. Such behaviors include thoughts, feelings, and actions; mental processes involve problem solving, intelligence, and memory (Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo, 2009). However, the terms behavior and mental processes used in psychology could have different meanings. For example, it could also encompass people’s perceptions, reasoning processes, and even biological activities (Feldman, 2008). Psychology is a science because it involves research in the form of the scientific method. This method helps to understand human behavior. The main goals of the scientific method are to describe, predict, explain, and/or control behaviors. Once the goals are met, conclusions from the hypothesis can be drawn. In this way, the scientific method will be tested.

Psychology is a diverse field, including many subfields. Some subfields of psychology include community, cognitive, experimental, mental health, and social psychology to name a few. The purpose of this paper is to discuss mental health and community counseling. First, I will give a brief history of the overview of psychology.

Famously quoted by Ebbinghaus, psychology is known as having “a long past but a short history.” This statement implies that psychology has been around a long time, yet has not been studied long. Psychology can be traced back down to Greek philosophers. While psychology did not become a science until the 1870’s, philosophers debated whether the mind and body were separate entities (Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo, 2009). The mind is a material, physical world while the body is an immaterial, non-physical world. The Greeks were the first to address topics covered today by psychology. Also, they were authors of the oldest body of ideas related to philosophy and science.

To formally...