Psychology is a wide field of study and has many applications, from medicine,politics,education , management, marketing etc.
here are some branches of psychology that may be important for us as we progress.
In summary
Here we discuss some of the branches of psychology that can lead a psychologist to a particular area of specializations. The branches we discuss here includes.
- Physiology
- cognitive psychology
- comparative psychology
- social psychology
- cognitive psychology
- development psychology
- clinical psychology
- Forensic psychology
- Educational psychology
- Occupational psychology
- Healthy psychology
Bio-Psychology
Also known as Physiology. It involves the physical basis of behavior and how functions of the nervous system particularly the brain and hormonal system collaboratively influence behavior and mental processes. For example, it shows that there are parts of the brain that is specifically concerned with particular behavior and abilities.
Here we see things like:
- the role of hormones in our emotions and how it is all linked to brain process.
- Relationship between brain activities and states of consciousness is also discussed.
- genetic transmissions
- heredity and environment
- how genetic factors interacts with the environmental one
- Sensory processes and perception
- motivation and stress
Comparative Psychology
It involves study of behavior of non-human animals with an aim to identify similarities and differences between species.
It also involves trying to create more understanding about human behavior through study of non-human animal behaviors. For example psychologists have studied rats in a controlled environment in order to develop better understandings of motivation.
Areas of study includes:
- classical and operant conditioning
- animal communication
- language and memory
- evolutionary description of human behavior
- teaching of language to non-human animals
Social Psychology
social psychology asserts that all behavior takes place within a social context and even when we are alone, our behavior continues to be influenced by others but there are people that usually have more direct influence upon us when we are within their presence.
social psychology is usually concerned with:
- Social perception
- interpersonal relationships
- prejudice and discrimination
- pro and antisocial behaviors
we will be talking about social psychology in greater lengths in future lessons
Cognitive Psychology
It involves study of cognitive processes which are the mental operations the brain performs to process information where Through these operations, the brain interacts with the information around it, stores it and analyses it in order to make the relevant decisions.
Cognitive processes includes:
- attention
- memory
- perception
- language
- thinking
- problem solving
- decision-making
- reasoning
- concept-formation
Cognitive psychology have great importance in applications of social psychology. We are likely to see that in future lessons.
Development Psychology
It involves itself with biological, cognitive, social and emotional changes that occurs in people as they grow with time. One important discovery by psychologists in this field of study is that development of the mentioned factors is not confined to childhood and adolescence but it is something that happens throughout the whole lifespan of human beings.
Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychology is a branch of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental illness and psychological problems.
Clinical psychology uses psychology knowledge in treating complex human problems. It gives direction when treating people for mental health,
promotion of community health, conducts research on mental health and strives promote mental health for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Clinical psychology deals with issues like :
- assessment, and treatment of abnormal behavior, mental disorder, and psychiatric problems.
- research
- teaching
- supervision and consultation
- program development, evaluation, and administration;
- courtroom testimony;
- public policy development; and professional practice.
clinical psychologists describes it as the study of individuals, by observation or experimentation, with the intention of promoting change within the clinical field where it involves observing and working directly with patients in clinics and related settings.
Problems that may seek attention of clinical psychologists may include:
- assessing people with learning difficulties
- administering psychological tests to brain damaged patients
- devising rehabilitation programmes for long-term psychiatric patients
- assessing the elderly for their fitness to live independently
- planning and carrying out programmes of therapy usually in behavior modifications
- carrying out research into abnormal psychology including the effectiveness of different treatments methods mostly for adults with cronical illnesses and elderly people in psychiatric hospitals.
- community care
- teaching healthy professionals like nurses, psychiatrists and social workers.
Forensic Psychology
It is a branch of psychology that applies psychological principles and methods to the criminal justice systems.
It is rooted in empirical research and draws on cognitive, development, social and clinical psychology.
It’s main area is the study of criminal behavior and it’s management those it has been expanded recently to involve emergence of technological issues like stalking and cyber bullying.
A crucial part of forensic psychologists involves research and evaluation of what constitutes successful treatment of criminal behaviors.
Forensic psychologists works mostly with prison services and criminal investigation departments. You will find them in places like :
- health services
- police service
- younger offenders unit
- probation services
- Universities and private consultancy
some areas of study that are the focus of forensic psychologist includes:
- Presentation of an evidence in a court proceedings
- Eyewitness testimonies
- false memory syndrome and recovered memory
- offender profiling
- Crime prevention
- devising treatment programmes in emotional issues
- assessing the risks of releasing prisoners
- Jury selection
- improving recall of child witness
Counseling Psychology
It is a branch of psychology that specializes in use of broad range of culturally informed practices to help people improve their well-being and prevent or alleviate distress and maladjustment, resolve crises, and increase their ability to function better in their lives. It focuses specifically normative lifespan development particularly on prevention and creating of awareness as well as improving and addressing individuals as well as the systems or contexts in which they function. It also helps people with work and career issues.
counseling psychologists may work directly with individuals, couples, families and groups.
Educational Psychology
Educational Psychologists usually concerns itself with theories, methodologies and applications of psychology to broad range of teaching, training and learning issues. Sometimes it is referred to as the school psychology.
The clients of social psychologists are mostly school going children and teenagers and they usually liaise with other professionals in the education field , health and social services.
An educational psychologists will involve themselves with issues like:
- administering psychometric tests particularly intelligence tests as part of assessment of learning difficulties
- planning and supervising of remedial teaching
- research into teaching methods, the curriculum, interviewing, counseling methods and techniques.
- planning educational programmes for those with mental and physical impairments and other groups of learners with special needs that may not be catered for in normal schools.
- advising parents and teachers on how to manage children and adolescences with physical impairments, behavior problems or learning difficulties
- Training of teachers
Occupational Psychology
This is a branch of psychology that involves work related issues like selection and training of individuals for jobs and vocational guidance including administrations of aptitude tests and tests of interests. The work of occupational psychologists is similar to the work of personnel management specialists.
issues that needs attentions of an occupational psychologist are like:
- Helping people who for reasons of illness, accidents or redundancy needs to choose and retrain for a new career.
- Designing and training for job placements
- designing job ergonomics
- advising on working conditions in order to maximize productivity
- studying of peoples efficiency in their work environment for correct deployments
- Helping flow of communication between departments in organizations with emphasis on physical rather than on practical or physical aspects of the working environment.
- Helps in selling of products and services through advertisements and promotions.
Healthy Psychology
It is a branch of psychology that deals on how to use psychological principles in order to promote changes in people’s attitudes and behavior about health and illness.
Health psychologists deals with issues identified by health care agencies which may includes:
- Use of psychological theories and interventions to prevent damaging behaviors like smoking and drug abuse and change of health related behaviors in community and workplace settings
- promote health by encouraging people in habits like exercise, healthy diet, teeth brushing, regular health check etc.
- research and develop processes that can predict and change health and illness behaviors
- Gives guidance on the nature and effects of communication between health care practitioners and patients, facilitates adherence in taking medications and in preparation for stressful medical procedures.
- Helps in management of psychological impacts on acute and chronic illiness on individuals, work and members of the family
Conclusions
In this lesson, We have discussed various specialization in the field of psychology. Psychology is a wide field and people joining the field can specialize in a variety of options depending on whether their interest is in education, health, marketing, criminal justice or business managements. Therefore psychologists are needed in every field of human existence and people who studies psychology can fit in any field.