Others, Stevens 1990: 15 theme is the message that the author intends to communicate by telling the stories. Those message of the story is usually about life,
society, or human nature. The th eme may be the author‘s thought about a topic or
view of human nature. Theme is often universal truths that are suggested by the specifics of the story.
2.2.4 Psychology
Psychology is a study of mental function and behavior. Psychology is derived from the Greek word psyche that is refers to mental and logos refers to science.
Reber 1995:617 explains that
Psychology simply cannot be defined; indeed, it cannot even be easily characterized . . . Psychology is what scientists and philosophers of various
persuasions have created to . . . understand the minds and behaviors of various organisms from the most primitive to the most complex . . . It is an attempt to
understand what has so far pretty much escaped understanding, and any effort to circumscribe it or box it in is to imply that something is known about the
edges of our knowledge, and that must be wrong.
Another definition from Davidoff 1976: 2 psychology is the science of the behavior, this behavior refers as any human or animal process or activity that can be
objectively observed measured. Observed or measured in a way that is reasonably free of value judgments, personal preferences, and biases so that impartial observers
can agree on the description..
Meanwhile, Aristoteles, in Gerungan: 2009 psychology is the science of the symptoms of life that every living creatures actually have a soul. Human, animal, also
plant have a soul. He proposed the form of soul into three categorize: 1.
Lower: the vegetative which is soul possessed by plants in that they grow and decay and enjoy nutriment, but they do not have motion and sensation.
2. Sensitive: the animal soul which is giving animals with motion and sensation
3. Higher: the rational soul which is the conscious and intellectual soul peculiar
to human. From those explanation above Psychology is the science or study about
emotion, behavior, minds, soul, and emotion of organism. Psychology teaches people to learn the spirit inside them and to know more about them self and another
Gerungan 2009: 17 also says that as a study of the behavior, psychology have major specialties in their field. Some of them are :
a Behavioral neuroscientists focus on the biological basis of behavior, and
experimental psychologists study the processes of sensing, perceiving, learning, and thinking about the world.
b Cognitive psychology, an outgrowth of experimental psychology, studies
higher mental processes, including memory, knowing, thinking, reasoning, problem solving, judging, decision making, and language.
c Developmental psychologists study how people grow and change throughout
the life span.
d Personality psychologists consider the consistency and change in an
individual‘s behavior, as well as the individual differences that distinguish one person‘s behavior from another‘s.
e Health psychologists study psychological factors that affect physical disease,
whereas clinical psychologists consider the study, diagnosis, and treatment of abnormal behavior. Counseling psychologists focus on educational, social,
and career adjustment problems. f
Social p sychology is the study of how people‘s thoughts, feelings, and actions
are affected by others. g
Cross-cultural psychology examines the similarities and differences in psychological functioning among various cultures.
From those explanations of psychology, it can be inferred that psychology and their entire field is a study of human‘s behaviour that has a purpose to provide an
understanding of the mechanism of human activities and their social adaptation, so that a man might improve himself.
2.2.5 Individual Psychology: Adler’s Theory
