People As People

I think an important premise of psychology as a scientific discipline is that there are relatively fixed patterns underlying people. Of course, there is a lot of controversy and debate along the lines of nature versus nurture in which the patterns may not be inherent but socially learned; with research largely coming from WEIRD countries (western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic), there may be peculiarities ingrained in individualism.

Nonetheless, I think humans as animals, albeit very special and advanced mammals, have shared basis that is partially elucidated by psychological schemas like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

This shared basis can be applicable, or some would even say exploitable, in many fields. How does marketing take advantage of instincts? Why are some leaders so charismatic? Why do some social media campaigns succeed and others get lambasted? Why are luxury goods so coveted? I won't provide answers in my opinion, but I think even business-related questions like these can be understood psychologically. This makes psychology an important framework for understanding and interpreting human development despite flaws of its study and how notoriously difficult understanding oneself is.