An Introduction to Educational Psychology The definitions of schooling and education immediately raise some important issues: What is the nature of a human being and what is the nature of the society or culture in which the child is expected to be successful? These larger questions are addressed to some extent in educational psychology courses, but are more readily addressed in developmental psychology and foundations of education courses. That is why these courses are prerequisites to courses in educational psychology. Educational Psychology is a combination or overlapping of two separate fields of study. The first is psychology, which can be defined as the scientific study of the mind and behavior (or behavior and mental processes), especially as it relates to individual human beings. Note that it is the scientific study of mind or mental processes (covert or internal) as well as behavior (overt or external). People who study psychological phenomena are not necessarily limited to the study of human beings (a large body of research relating to animals has been developed) nor are they limited to only studying individuals. However, when studying groups of individuals, the focus is generally on how individuals perform within the group rather than the study of the group as a whole. Scientists who study animals and people in terms of group- and institutional-behavior generally align themselves with sociology while individuals who focus on human culture and belief systems generally align themselves with anthropology. The second field of study with which educational psychology aligns itself is education or more specifically schooling, as defined above. That is, the primary focus of this subdiscipline of psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior (or mental processes and behavior) in the context of formally socializing and developing the potential of individual human beings. Educational psychology is therefore a distinct scientific discipline within psychology that includes both methods of study and a resulting knowledge base. It is concerned primarily with understanding the processes of teaching and learning that take place within formal environments and developing ways of improving the affiliated operations and procedures. Educational psychologists are interested in a wide variety of topics such as learning theories; teaching methods; motivation; cognitive, emotional, and moral development; and parent/child relationships.