The Psychology Symbol

Thinking About Becoming A Psychology Student?

Psychology Symbol

I decided to add a psychology symbol page to the psychology website in response to a number of e-mails I've received regarding its meaning.

When you study the topic you quickly discover that the universal symbol for psychology is the pitchfork shaped image in the picture above. Now while this is great for short hand purposes i.e., drawing the symbol rather than having to spell out psychology in full; have you ever wondered about where the psych symbol originates from?

The Devil is Not in The Detail

One interesting but totally incorrect suggestion is that the psych symbol is somehow related to the fork carried by the devil. One theory goes that because mental illness was historically seen as the work of the devil, psychology by association was considered diabolical; and in an irreverent display of defiance, psychologists adopted the devil fork shape as their official symbol.

It's All Greek To Me

The fact is that to discover the origin of the psychology symbol, you simply have to trace its etymology (word origin and sense development).

As can be seen from the image above the symbol for psychology represents the penultimate letter of the Greek alphabet, psi, which is also the first letter of the Greek word psuche, meaning mind or soul, from which the term psyche arose; which in turn gave us the name of the discipline psychology which is most commonly defined as study of the mind.

Perhaps the devil is in the detail after all!

Evidence for the etymological origin of the psych symbol can be traced back as early as 1879. The following definition is taken from the book "New Word Analysis (School Etymology of English Derivative Words)" by William Swinton.

Psych Symbol Picture Gallery

Psych Symbol Shadow

My own gallery entry. A picture of me and my boys on the beach. Didn't realise it as the time but the shadows we created look very much like the symbol for psychology.

Psych Symbol Tree

(Photo Credit: Quapan)

Psych Symbol Gift Idea

When I was searching for symbol pictures online, this Sterling Silver Psych Symbol Charm was among the search results. See following link for full details.

Sterling Silver Psychology Symbol Charm

Classic Articles All Psychology Students Should Read

This special Kindle collection consists of the most influential, infamous and iconic research articles ever published in the history of psychology. See following link for full details.

The Psychology Classics Kindle Collection

Back To Top Of The Page

Go From Psychology Symbol Back To The Home Page

New! Comments