HOW MANY DIFFERENT SUBFIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY?

Some psychologists conduct basic research that builds psychology's knowledge base, for example, Biological psychologist they will explore the link between brain and mind, Developmental psychologists will study behavior and abilities from womb to tomb, Cognitive psychologists study how we perceive think and solve problems, Personality psychologists investigate our relatively permanent traits, Social psychologist study how we get impacted by others' social behavior and how do we impact their behavior, Counselling psychologists listen carefully to a client's troubled thoughts and emotions and A Social-cultural psychologists will be studying the variations in human values and behavior in different cultures.

Some psychologists engage in basic research. In applied research, practical problems are tackled like industrial psychologists helping companies to select employees or develop training programs, etc. However, all subfields of psychology have a common goal – to describe and explain behavior and the mind underlying it.

The specific branches of psychology are given below.

Biological Psychologist:

They try to understand the relationship between the functioning of the brain and behavior. Biopsychology studies how emotions, thoughts, and behavior are affected by the brain, the nervous system, and neurotransmitters in humans and animals. The field can be viewed as a combination of neuroscience and basic psychology. It focuses on how damage to specific areas of the brain affects neural function and behavior, as well as the influence of drugs and other mind-altering substances on the brain and body.

Developmental Psychologist:

They study how behavior, abilities change throughout our entire life span. It is the scientific study of growth, change, and stability in behavior that occurs throughout the lifespan. It looks into the physical, cognitive, personality, and social development. It studies the impact of heredity and environment on development, e.g. age construct, cohorts.

Cognitive Psychologist:

They are concerned with how we perceive, think, and solve problems. It is a study of mental processes such as "attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and thinking." The term Cognition refers to mental processes. Mental processes involve gaining knowledge and comprehension. These processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem-solving. These are higher-level functions of the brain and cover language, imagination, perception, and planning.

Personality Psychologist:

They investigate how traits influence behavior. Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and its variation among individuals. It is a scientific study that aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces.

Social Psychology:

It is a study of how individual behavior is influenced by people around him. It is a scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Socio-cultural Psychology:

It suggests that human behavior is influenced by social and cultural forces outside the individual. This perspective involves ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, social class, family traditions, culture, nationality, etc.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology:

It is a study of behavior in work settings and the application of psychological principles to change work behavior. It covers topics such as selection, training programs, performance evaluation, leadership, motivation and job satisfaction, reducing stress, consumer behavior, cultural diversity, globalization, technology, etc. It uses psychological concepts and methods to help organizations and companies to boost their morale and productivity, design products, and implement systems.

Engineering Psychology:

It is the science of human behavior and capability, applied to the design and operation of systems and technology. It is concerned with the adaptation of the equipment and environment to people, based upon their psychological capacities and limitations. Its objective is improving overall system performance and comfort.

Clinical Psychology:

It is concerned with understanding, evaluating, predicting, alleviating, and preventing intellectual, emotional, biological, psychological, social, and behavioral maladjustment, disability, and discomfort. It is applied to a wide range of client populations, across the life span, in varying cultures, and at all socioeconomic levels. It aims to promote human adaptation, adjustment, and personal effectiveness and satisfaction.

Psychology and Helping Professions:

Psychology also deals with practical problems like how to have a happy marriage, how to overcome anxiety and depression, or how to bring up healthy children.

Counseling Psychology:

Counseling psychologists help people to cope-up with challenges and crises in academic, vocational, and marital life. They help to improve personal and social functioning. Counseling psychologists deal with less serious problems compared to clinical psychologists.

Psychiatry:

Psychiatrists are medical personnel, who provide medication for psychological issues like depression, anxiety.

Positive Psychology:

Martin Seligman and others have focused on researched or human strengths and human potentialities. Positive psychology explores positive emotions, positive character traits, and enabling institutions. They are more concerned with if psychology contributes to a good life and help a person to lead a meaningful life. It is a science of positive aspects of human life, such as happiness, optimism, social connectedness, well-being, and flourishing. It believes that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.

Community Psychology:

Community psychologists work to create social and physical environments that are healthy for all. For example, if there is a problem with bullying in school, they will try to change that. Some psychologists may train students to cope with the stress of transition from elementary school to middle school. Community psychologists seek to study how the school and neighborhood give birth and encouragement to bullying.

Forensic Psychology:

Forensic psychologists apply psychology's principles and methods in the criminal justice system. They may assess witness credibility, or testify in court on a defendant's state of mind and future risk. Forensic psychologists apply psychology to the criminal justice system, assess offenders' state of mind at the time of the offense (Sanity evaluations), assess the competency of individuals to stand trial (Competency evaluations), assess the risk of re-offending (future risk), assess, witness credibility, assess malingering and deception, evaluate child custody in divorce, prepare for and provide testimony in court, assess the consistency of factual information across multiple sources, advise police on mental illness and criminal psychology, consult with attorneys on mental health issues in the court system, work with at-risk populations such as trauma survivors, design correctional programs, etc.

Psychology is a subject that relates to many fields, psychologists teach in medical schools, law schools, theological seminaries they work in hospitals, factories, and corporate houses. They engage in interdisciplinary studies such as psychohistory (psychological analysis of historical character), psycholinguistics (the study of language, and thinking), and psychoceramics (the study of crackpots).

Psychologists have gained insight into brain, mind dreams, memories and depression, and joy. Psychology helps us to understand how we perceive, think, feel, and act.

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AYUSH HEALTH AND WELLNESS™