Psychology is a discipline that studies mental behavior and reactions, scientifically. It incorporates symbolic interpretations for the analysis of social conduct. There are many types of psychology that are studied by their respective experts.
Human behavior has intrigued psychologists for years. The phenomena of perception, personality, cognition, behavior, reaction and emotion not only display immense diversity of the mental faculty, but also affect our relationships.
The study involves analysis of the processes within the conscious and unconscious mind. Psychology is applied to every aspect of activity. Our reactions to everyday issues at home or work reflect the health of the ‘mind’.
Branches of Psychology
Psychology is a science and an art that attempts to study the individual, family and society to understand mental functions and triggers for certain, otherwise unexplainable social behavior.
The different types of psychology explore neurological processes for human development. Psychology depends on the natural sciences for research. The branches of psychology include the following faculties:
In this type of psychology, the study is aimed at relieving stress or dysfunction that is triggered due to various psychological reasons. This results in personal development and emotional and physical well-being.
Psychologists pursuing Clinical Psychology, study the depths of forensic testimony and clinical neuropsychology. The professionals use specially designed and adapted therapy models to generate therapeutic alliance. The subsequent exploration of psychological problems helps to identify and apply new thought and behavior modes.
As the name suggests, this branch of psychology studies abnormal behavior. The aim is to understand the shift in nature and abnormal interactive patterns adopted by an individual. It uses psychopathology and clinical psychology to research on the causes behind psychological disorders. This branch of psychology studies maladaptive features of the condition, in the presence of disability, stress and/or dysfunction.
This type of psychology studies the mental processes that dictate behavioral traits. It experiments with learning, perception, memory and attention, to apply information processing to mental reasoning and normal functions. It is for this reason that it is also called experimental psychology. Cognitive psychology is the result of input from various neurobiologists, logicians and linguists, who emphasize not only on theory, but also formalization.
In this type of psychology, the behavior patterns of animals are studied. This branch of science is vital to psychological research. It provides comparisons to ascertain traits and prove evolutionary links. Studying animal behavior also enables the psychologists to gain a better understanding of human psychology. Animal models are experimented with, to study emotion and behavior.
Counseling psychology, as the name suggests, refers to the study of interpersonal relationships across a span of time. The focus, in this branch of psychology is on social, emotional, educational, developmental and vocational issues that bring about major changes in behavior. The Counseling Psychologist uses psychotherapy to experiment on sensitive relationship-based issues.
This branch of psychology studies educational setting and interventions. Psychologists experiment with the dimensions of teaching and social psychology applied within schools and colleges. Educational psychology influences teaching methods and general practices in and around the campus.
Biological psychology studies the mental frame as a biological substrate. This branch investigates behavior that springs from reactions within the nervous system. Most of the research is conducted via experiments with behavioral and cognitive neuroscience. The aim is to understand the function of the brain with regards to different psychological triggers and processes. Biological psychology links human behavior with the brain to study the areas within the brain connected with certain reactions.
A relatively new dice played on the psychology board, evolutionary psychology, simply put, attempts to understand how and why human beings evolved with set perspectives and behavioral modes that define an inherited algorithm of deep-seeded defense mechanism applications.
The manner in which our ancestors endured dilemmas and their plans inducing response and actions are areas that are studied. These situations with their respective solutions are treated, in order to comprehend how some spontaneous and some thought-over responses became stereotypically innate within prevailing cultures all over the globe.
Health psychology is a sub-field of psychology that focuses on the overall aspect of health maintenance. Psychological, physiological, behavioral and social dimensions of an individual are taken into consideration where health psychology is concerned.
Elaborating on the concept of health psychology further, the stream also concentrates on providing preventive measures and treatments, serving as a virtual aide to keep fit and healthy. Health psychology also aims at understanding the reactions of people who are enduring certain health ailments and how they cope with the same.
Psychology and the Law
Legal psychology, alternately known as forensic psychology, however marginally yet significantly different, together, are regarded as psychology and the law. Study of reasoning behind jury decisions, evidence and eyewitness testimonies is regarded as legal psychology and study of clinical reports and systematic evaluation and analysis pertaining to courtroom testimony is regarded as forensic psychology.
Our personality inherently defines who we are today and what is the essential behavioral mode we apply to cope and react to situations. The manner in which we function, make decisions and modulate our moods is unique to each one of us. The study of the various personality types is known as personality psychology.
Quantitative psychology is an indispensable concept in the field of education, science and public interest. Quantitative psychology deals with methods and techniques employed to analyze information gathered through research and design for the purpose of comprehending typical human traits and response producing strategies.
Social psychology concentrates on behaviors exhibited by individuals in various social settings. It also studies other aspects of social interaction and forms of behavior that mold an individual’s reactions, conforming to constructing a set of responses for social situations.
Industrial and organizational psychology
Industrial and organizational psychology is a branch of psychology that is slowly gaining recognition. It includes studying and analyzing the behavioral aspects of an employee in an organisation through training programs and by obtaining their feedback. It is all done to improve the performance of the employee thus benefiting the organisation.
An upcoming stream of psychology, Global or International psychology deals with the interrogatory examination of human perspectives and phenomena on a global basis. The extent of mental health problems, inter-racial conflicts and disturbances, environmental concerns are some issues addressed on the global platform.
Psychology is a vast field where human perspectives, thoughts, behaviors and even eccentricities are studied in order to achieve a paradigm of evaluation and analysis of the mentioned variables.