The Vital Role of Psychology in Law, Research Paper Example

The concept of legal matters govern the ideal procedure by which humans are guided by specifically founded rules that are existing in order to create peace and organization in the community. Law and order are among the factors that make societies livable enough even amidst the uniqueness and differences every person has from another. Noticeably, as a person exists, he himself as desires, goals and dreams he wants to reach. There are instances when such desires overlaps with another’s hence making a huge problem especially when they are confronted with limited resources and are living within a similar community. This is where the sanctions, limitations and provisions of the law come into full account. The capacity of the law to control the situation to allow each individual to have a fair share of whatever it is that is meant to be his or to be appreciated as his own provides a more distinct consistent determination on how humans ought to be treated and how they themselves would measure their capacities alongside their limitations to be able to live with people surrounding them.

However, in creating such laws and policies, law makers should know the very basic especially in relation to human behavior and human response systems. This is where the assumptive role of psychology comes into the picture. Psychology is basically the science that defines the overall being of humans based on their strengths, weaknesses, desires and determined goals. The overall makeup of being a human individual creates a definite sense on what psychology entails to impose especially when legal matters are being established based on a strong foundation.

What makes psychological considerations elemental in the formation of laws include the following factors: (a) the law should be human; (b) the law should be realistic and practical; (c) the law should be reasonable in recognizing human limitations accordingly. The first consideration on law being human intends to show a determinable guideline on how being human is guarded by particular issues; these issues include relationships and social connections that basically make a definite impact on the overall behavior of each individual. Most of the time, this is where conflicts occur. In making a law in connection to such relationships, psychological studies could help especially in citing possible conflicts that can be dependent on particular theories that could be used to resolve possible issues accordingly.

The second consideration is on the law being realistic and practical. No legal sanctions should be superficial from being naturally human. Legal matters ought to be fully recognizable by everyone existing in the communities where they are being implemented. Unrealistic laws simply create more chaos than organization. Properly defined rules allow people to be more cautious on their ways [thus guarding themselves as to how they realize the realities of their dreams without overthrowing the rights of others whom they need to coexist with].

The third consideration is on the law being reasonable enough to recognize limitations and strengths of each individual basing on personal behavior studies that are produced through psychological research. In criminal psychology, such limitations are recognized fully especially when human individuals and their actions are being compromised with behavioral problems causing them to go beyond what is reasonable to a person who thinks in line with the range of normality. Individuals working in the legal field need to know of these basics. This factor shall allow them to see a deeper sense of being human and the conflicts that it is engaged with due to the occurrence of particular situations that usually challenge normal human behaviors.

These three considerations on the connection between law and psychology provides a proper and strong foundation proving that these two elements of human basics are actually related to each other and are in need of coexisting with each other simply because the principles that one carries into account is vital to the creation of the foundation to which the other is dependent upon. What makes a definite form of insistence on how these two elements ought to be assumed as partnered subjects is that they both champion the applications of the basics of the education and science behind human realities.

In an academic sense, law students are required to have had the chance to be involved in subjects with prerequisites to psychology. It is believed that those who are able to ace psychology would be able to ace the basic functions of the law and apply legal matters in a way that best benefits the human society. It is with the existence of such recognition of the value of psychology involved in the most complex implementations of the law that justice in itself is given birth. Most likely, it is with such condition of thinking on the part of the law makers and law students [as well as other legal practitioners] that they are able to hold strongly to the basic foundations of progressive law; one that adheres to human basics as the basis of a good set of policy that is set to create balance in the society.

True to its sense, legal backgrounds that serve as the guidelines for the living system that exists in communities ought to be based on what is basically humanely acceptable. Laws and policies that go beyond this particular demarcation line often create problems; making it harder for people to follow through the rules and handle legal matters in their own hands. This could be obviously seen in current situations involving social chaos in many countries implementing unrealistic, often too demanding rules in their communities; the tendencies are tragic as at some point, lives are even lost along the way. This is the proof that psychological principles ought to be taken seriously by those who were given the power to outline the law and create a mandating system that basically allows humans to breathe amidst the policies that surround them.

References

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Cina, Carol. “Social Science for Whom? A Structural History of Social Psychology.” Doctoral dissertation, accepted by the State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1991.

Cocks, Geoffrey. Psychotherapy in the Third Reich: The Göring Institute, second edition. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997.

Forgas, Joseph P., Kipling D. Williams, & Simon M. Laham. Social Motivation: Conscious and Unconscious Processes. Cambridge University Press, 2005.