Often, when we think of psychology, we think of a person lying down on a sofa being asked questions about their feelings. We think of a man or a woman listening intently to them and writing down on their notebook every now and then. That man or woman is called a clinical psychologist and they are but one of the many types of psychologists you can choose to be. As a senior undergraduate student, I know that it can be difficult to choose which area of psychology you want to focus on. There’s so many of them! And they’re all so interesting to read about! Don’t worry. As time passes, you will learn more about each and every one of them and there will always be one that catches your attention the most. If not, just mix them up! (What?) You’ll see soon. As of now, please read on to learn a little bit about some of the most popular types of psychology.
If your interest is working directly with people, their daily problems and mental illness…
Clinical psychology is the field for you! Welcome to the world of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, hypnosis, you name it! These psychologists can pretty much focus on many mental, emotional and behavioral issues. They help people deal with problems that interfere with their daily life, like depression or anxiety, by implementing treatment plans designed to make the person work towards changing those things in their life which they are not happy about. Cool, right?
If you like the idea of working with couples and families, try family and couples therapy! This is a branch of psychotherapy that works with intimate relationships in order to improve troublesome dynamics that can wreak havoc between people. The difference is that the psychologist will have to treat various people on a session at once, instead of sitting down with just one.
If you’re interested in learning, education and children…
Educational psychology is an option for you. Educational psychologists study how people learn and find new methods to improve education and learning abilities. They also study learning disabilities to help those people in need find a way to have a normal life.
You can also be a school psychologist! You would be helping children cope with their emotional needs as well as help them deal with the pressure of academic and social life. Often, people seem to diminish children’s sentiments. You’d be surprised to know how intense their feelings can be and that they usually need guidance and help to deal with them.
If you REALLY like people…
Community psychology is for you! A community psychologist works to educate a group of people who live in close proximity to each other on how to solve their problems and find help and services for the community. Community psychologists organize activities to help the neighbors bond and form connections, as well as give empowerment to the members to create change.
Or maybe you’d like to know how animals think?
Then study comparative psychology! Comparative psychologists study and compare animal behavior to discover the basic principles of its development. This can give us a better idea on how human beings evolved in perception, learning, memory, cognition, motivation and emotion.
If you’re mad for the brain and the nervous system…
Try Neuropsychology! Neuropsychology is the study of the relationship between the brain and behavior. A clinical neuropsychologist sees patients with different conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, hemispatial neglect, cerebral vascular incidents or head trauma. They also administer different types of neurological tests to assess a person’s mental and cognitive abilities and design treatments to help them improve any problems.
Cognitive psychologists also work with people’s brain abilities such as attention, language use, memory, perception, thinking and problem solving. They desire to understand the capacity of the brain to process all stimuli it is exposed to.
Are you business-oriented?
How about being an Industrial-Organizational psychologist? These people study the behavior and relationships of people in the workplace to improve productivity! Nothing better than making someone’s business flourish and contribute to the economy.
You’ve also got your consumer psychologist, they research consumer behavior to help businesses promote their products, as well as figure out which items seem the most attractive for people.
Do you have a passion for justice?
Try Forensic psychology. They work closely with law enforcement to discover the motivations underlying the behavior of people who’ve committed murder, rape, crime sprees and other criminal behavior. Forensic psychologists have a knowledge of perceptual and cognitive processes that occur in humans who have participated in criminal behavior or witnessed it. They also study how perception can be affected by psychological factors such as fear or anger, how memory falters after a certain time and how people act when they’re lying and when they’re telling the truth.
Is nature your muse?
How about studying environmental psychology? These psychologists study the relationship between human beings and their environment, whether it’s natural or created, to promote healthy and productive behavior. Many environmental psychologists work closely with the government with research on eco-friendly behavior and activities; how changes in people’s surroundings such as an adding a park and garden help their lifestyle and in teaching people how to conserve energy and water, create less waste and recycle more material.
There are so many types and subfields of psychology that I’m going to have to cut this short and tell you about it next time. See you next week!
*Photo Courtesy from Pinterest
*Resources from APA website