I'm going to have to go along with @Polymath257 on this. Psychology is the study of the mind, mental development and human behavior. It is not the study of the soul. Given what we have already discussed, there isn't anything a scientist could study in that area.
Brain function can be studied. It is already known that damage to certain areas of the brain will result in somewhat predictable, though not completely predictable outcomes. Severe or chronic sleep deprivation can practically alter a person's personality. But the existence, presence and actions of a soul are beyond any capacity to study and the existence of it and anything that might be associated with it are based on belief by faith alone.
I would hold onto my position:
psychology (n.)
1650s, "the study of the soul," from Modern Latin psychologia, probably coined mid-16c. in Germany by Melanchthon from Latinized form of Greek psykhē "breath, spirit, soul" (see psyche) + logia "study of" (see -logy). The meaning "science or study of the phenomena of the mind" is attested by 1748, in reference to Christian Wolff's "Psychologia empirica" (1732). The modern behavioral sciences sense is from the early 1890s.
Yes… it includes the mind, will and emotions.
yes, I agree with you that if the brain is damaged, it affects outcome. But let me say it this way...
If your nerves in your back to your legs are damaged and you can never walk again, does that mean the brain doesn’t exist because it affected the nerve? Or the brain still exists but the nerves in the back have been affected. Likewise, if the brain is affected, it doesn’t mean the soul doesn’t exists, it means the nerve (so to speak) has been affected but the soul is still present and the same.
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