Types of Psychology

Psychology is scientific study of mental behaviour and reactions, which depends on many factors such as social, economical, environmental, personal etc. Depending upon these factors the subject has been divided into many branches. Psychology has gained much interest among the universities students as it attracts students both professionally as well as academically. Different universities have different core course structure of psychology. It depends on the students which subject they want to select for their further professional career in the main subject of psychology. Here some of the main and basic branches of the subject are given which students study all over:

 

Clinical Psychology:

This branch is highly concerned with the study of the various psychological reasons what cause stress, dysfunction, mood alteration. It deals with the assessment and treatment of mental disorders, abnormal behaviour and various other psychiatric problems. It is one of the most exciting careers among students as it brings challenges as well as rewards. A professional clinical psychologist works with clinical professionals to help out in treatment of mental patients. Apart from hospitals, clinical psychologists also teach students at all grades in the universities.

 

Abnormal Psychology:

This type is concerned with the abnormal behaviour. It studies the change in the normal behaviour and the shift in the nature of mood of an individual. It also studies the behavioural pattern of the patients. It combines psychopathology and clinical psychology to understand the psychological disorders, mental, emotional and behavioural aberrations. Abnormal psychologists study neuroses, psychoses, personality disorders, psycho-physiological disorders, organic mental syndromes and mental retardation.

 

Cognitive Psychology:

It is the deals with the study of the mental processes such as mechanisms of thought process, emotions, and feelings. It highly focuses on how people think, acquire, process, evaluate, memorize and store the information. It is also concerned with other disciplines such as neuroscience, philosophy and linguistics. The study is done for various researches such as artificial intelligence, social psychology, neuropsychology etc. A cognitive psychologist focuses on research, treatment and teaching.

 

Counseling Psychology:

As the name suggests, it is the study of doing counseling for the mental patients. The main concern is social, emotional, developmental, educational issues that alter the behaviour. It focuses on the personal and interpersonal functioning across the life span. A professional of counseling psychology uses psychotherapy to study the emotional changes and relationship issues. Counseling psychologists guides the patients with their life problems. They conduct diagnostic tests and treatment plan for the patients. Choosing counseling psychology as a career option is famous among the students.

 

Developmental Psychology:

It is the study of human behaviour throughout the life stages. It highly focuses on the human mind development. This study tells about the changes in the alteration in thoughts, reasoning and functioning of a person depending upon the time and factors such as biological, individual or environmental. Developmental psychologists find out the reasons of how people manage with old age, how they manage with sickness and death. A developmental psychologists has to examine the life through various dimensions such as cognitive, social development and physiological.

 

Social Psychology:

It observes the individual behaviour and mood in various social frames, including social interaction and behavioural form influencing an individual’s reactions, responses against set social situations. It tells how people react, relate, think with each other like aggression, discrimination, attitudes, group dynamics, interpersonal attraction, prejudice, perception etc. Social psychologists study how social situations and change in social situation influence the behaviour pattern of an individual.

 

Comparative Psychology:

It studies the animal pattern behaviours to prove evolutionary links. Behaviour study also helps in understanding the human psychology. It utilizes comparative methods to conduct research on behaviour patterns like comparing modern species to ancient species. A comparative psychologist studies about the evolution, adaptation, parenting behaviours, primates, heredity etc.

 

Educational Psychology:

This branch deals with the study of motivation, development and measurement for educational establishment i.e., for schools and community based. It concerns on educational mechanisms such as leaning patterns and processes throughout the life span which are based on social, emotional and cognitive processes. It includes developmental, behavioural and cognitive psychology. It has become a vital discipline now a day as it has an effective contribution on the education which is helpful for both the teacher and the students.

 

Health Psychology:

This branch deals with maintaining the health including factors such as physiological, behavioural, social and psychological. It provides various measures and treatments to stay fit and healthy. Health psychologists research how biological, behavioural and social factors influence and are responsible for the heath and sickness. Health psychologists assist the people with psychological and emotional treatments with their health issues.

 

Legal Psychology:

This branch is also known as forensic psychology. It is used in criminal investigations which is about the psychological researches on the law and about the people who interact with it. Forensic psychology is getting attraction among the psychology students as it is a growing area of study. A forensic psychologist studies about the criminal psychology and civil justice in accordance with the psychology.

 

Personality Psychology:

It is the branch with deals with the study of individual personalities and individual differences. It studies the individual traits and behaviour patterns which influences the other individual in any group situation. This approach is similar to social psychology. Personality psychologists study the behaviour changes in situations such as attraction, anger, aggression, attitude, group behaviours persuasion etc.

 

Quantitative Psychology:

The study of human attributes statistical and mathematical modelling of psychological processes, research design and psychological data analysis are included in this branch. It focuses on the field of education, science and public interest.

 

Global Psychology:

Global or international psychology is study of human behaviour, interaction and perspectives on the global level. It includes inter racial conflicts, frontier disturbances, environmental problems on global level. It is an emerging branch. The main areas of consideration include cross cultural comparison, networking and communication, pedagogy etc.

 

Music Psychology:

This branch has emerged from psychological and musical interactions. It may be considered as a study of both psychology as well as musicology. Its aim is to explain the music behaviour and experience.  The main areas of focus in this study are understanding the psychological mechanisms of listening and playing music, composing, psychological influences of music on behaviour pattern of human etc.

 

Child Psychology:

This special branch deals with the study of behaviour of child through adolescence from prenatal development. It studied the emotional, mental, social and environmental aspects of child development. In a common term, it is also known as child development. This field includes the areas of study such as genetics, environmental influences, cognitive development, social factors, language, prenatal development etc.

 

The above mentioned branches of psychology are highly adopted as career option by the psychology students. Though I have described some of the most known and famous branches of psychology yet this domain is not just limited to these branches only. One may find several other branches as well such as:

 

Evolutionary psychology

Transpersonal psychology

Risk psychology

Space exploration psychology

Laughter psychology

Political psychology

Prison psychology

Positive psychology

Military psychology

Paranormal psychology

Sports Psychology

Biological Psychology

 

These psychological domains have not received much attention as these are not studied professionally, yet are studied as subsidiary branches in the core psychological course only. Moreover, it further depends upon the University’s syllabus structure.

 

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