Psychology and phenomenology offer valuable insights into human consciousness. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior, while phenomenology is the philosophical study of experience. This article will discuss the difference between psychology and phenomenology and how they contribute to our understanding of human consciousness.

What is Phenomenology?

Phenomenology is a method for studying consciousness and what we can experience directly. Edmund Husserl’s phenomenological movement was established in the early 20th century. Later, a group of his pupils expanded on it at Göttingen and Munich university.

The word “phenomenology” comes from the Greek words for “to look at” (phainesthai). It can be defined as studying conscious structures from a first-person perspective. It states that the ultimate source of all meaning and value is what people experience themselves.

What is Psychology?

Psychology is concerned with the study of behavior. It includes studying one’s thoughts and feelings, which can be conscious or unconscious. The main focus of psychology is to understand how people think, act and feel in relation to biological influences, social pressure, and environmental factors. 

Psychologists focus on perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence, subjective experiences, motivation, brain functioning, and personality in carrying out their duties. There are many branches of psychology, namely abnormal psychology, the study of abnormal behavior and psychopathology, biological psychology, which studies how biology influences the mind and behavior, and clinical psychology, whose main thrust is on the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders. Other branches are:

• Cognitive psychology (study of human thought processes).
• Comparative psychology (concerned with the study of animal behavior).
• Developmental psychology (study of human growth and development over the lifespan).
• Forensic psychology (used in the legal and criminal justice system).
• Industrial-organizational psychology (used to enhance work performance and select employees, personality psychology (focuses on understanding how personality develops), and social psychology (related to group behavior, social influences on individual behavior and attitudes) [Source].

Similarities between Psychology and Phenomenology

The similarity between psychology and phenomenology is that these concepts focus on human consciousness and mindset. Also, psychology and phenomenology are interested in how people behave or react due to influences from certain experiences. Experience tends to channel a person’s perception of certain things, and a reaction is prompted in response to an experience. Psychology and phenomenology stress that the human mind is very much alive and can interpret experiences and enable an individual to react in some way, not out of his own will, but by responding to the experiences faced in life. 

Psychologists use phenomenology to determine a person’s perception of what has happened rather than what happened [Source]. 

Difference between Psychology and Phenomenology

The difference between psychology and phenomenology is that psychology is a scientific study of the human mind and behavior, while phenomenology studies how humans interpret their experiences. Also, phenomenology focuses on existing phenomena that are things we can see, while psychology can tap into the abstract in terms of perception and feelings. Psychology is concerned with how people think and behave. In contrast, phenomenology is concerned with one’s experience of events in life. According to phenomenology, humans are bound to find meaning and their reality in experiences. Under psychology, many factors channel a person’s experience, ranging from biological to social ones. The epicenter of psychology is the mind and behavior, but phenomenology extends to experiences and perceptions.