Which field studies the normal and abnormal processes of the mind?

• A. Psychology
• B. Sociology
• C. Neurology
• D. Pharmacology

Answer: (A)

Understanding how the mind works—how we think, feel, and behave, and how mental disorders arise—belongs to psychology. It covers normal mental processes like perception, memory, learning, and emotion, as well as abnormal ones such as anxiety or depression, and uses experiments, observations, assessments, and clinical approaches to explain and address these processes. Sociology looks at groups and society, not individual mental processes. Neurology focuses on the brain and nervous system’s biology, which underlie mental functions but don’t primarily study mental experiences and disorders. Pharmacology investigates drugs and their effects on the body and mind, including mood and cognition, but not the broad study of mind processes themselves. So the field that studies normal and abnormal processes of the mind is psychology.