Fields Of Psychology

Psychology has diversified and expanded in many directions. Beginning with experimental and physiological psychology which focus on the basic psychological processes, attention was shifted to the application of psychology in different spheres of life. In the following paragraphs we shall briefly study the different branches of psychology. 

(a) Experimental and Cognitive Psychology: Traditionally experimental psychology has been concerned with the study of psychological processes such as sensation, perception, learning, memory, motivation, emotion, etc. The goal is to understand the principles underlying these processes with the help of experimental method. For a long time this area has dominated the scene. With increasing information this field has diversified. The new field of cognitive psychology happens to be the closest one to experimental psychology. This field tries to explain processes involved in the perception, comprehension and use of information for various purposes. Thus reasoning, problem solving, attention and related processes are being analysed with sophisticated methods and tools. This branch tries to understand the fundamental causes of behavior. 

(b) Physiological and Comparative Psychology: This field of inquiry is devoted to the analysis of biological foundations of behavior. It asserts that all behavior can be reduced to various physiological processes. For instance, activities in cerebral cortex and hypothalamus are found to be systematically related to thinking and motivation. The field of comparative psychology investigates the dimensions and complexities of behavior among animals like rats, pigeons and monkeys and compares those across species. 

(c) Developmental Psychology: This sub-field of psychology deals with the problem of changes in behavior throughout the lifespan. These changes take place in physical, motor, cognitive, personality, emotional, social and linguistic domains. Study of these changes may be undertaken by following the same person for a longer period. Alternatively, one may study people of different age groups. The first approach is called longitudinal and the second is cross-sectional. Important divisions of this branch include child psychology, adolescent psychology, and psychology of adulthood and aging. The study of developmental psychopathology has great significance for rehabilitation of children with disabilities and behavior problems. 

(d) Social Psychology: Interactions with other human beings are one of the most significant aspects of our life. Social psychology tries to understand the influence of other individuals and groups on our behavior. Perceiving other individuals, forming attitudes, persuading others to change their views, prejudice, interpersonal attraction, group decision, social motivation and leadership are important themes in social psychology. More recently, great concern has been shown for applications and a new specialization entitled applied social psychology has emerged. Social psychology has particularly benefited by the contributions from sociologists. 

(e) Educational and School Psychology: As an applied field this branch of psychology tries to help solve the problems of teaching and learning in classroom setting. It helps the students and teachers both to deal more effectively with the learning situations. Much of the work of educational psychologists is devoted to the areas of curriculum planning, teacher-training and instruction-design. Psychology of learning and motivation supplies the necessary theoretical framework and empirical data regarding learning process, the principles of learning, reinforcement, transfer of training, retention and forgetting. Educational psychologists plan and suggest curriculum to a school board in the light of student’s interest, abilities, and needs. The job of school psychologists is to deal with more immediate problems in the school. The school psychologists are particularly concerned with diagnosis of learning difficulties and their remediation, and vocational and other forms of counseling. 

(f) Counseling Psychology: A counseling psychologist deals with people who have milder emotional and personal problems. She/he tries to enable an individual to utilize his/her present resources most effectively in solving personal problems. Thus a counselor's task is to modify behavior in areas like marital life, delinquency, school maladjustment, dispute in work setting, etc. The counselor systematically changes the behavior through various procedures including behavior modification, modelling, sensitization and rational thinking. 

(g) Clinical Psychology: The general image of a clinical psychologist is that of a doctor who diagnoses psychological disorders and treats them using psychotherapy. But s/he is not a doctor and should not be confused with a psychiatrist who holds a medical degree. She uses various techniques to relieve the symptoms and to help people understand the reasons of their problems. A clinical psychologist strives at changing personality in order to enable a person to cope with his/her situation in an adaptive manner. A clinical psychologist mainly aims at the identification of negative or problematic aspects in development and their alleviation. For example, a clinical psychologist, treating phobia, a kind of unreasonable fear behavior, tries to remove reinforcements that maintain the behavior, and at the same time provide reinforcement in order to promote learning of more rational and effective coping patterns in people. 

(h) Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology: Psychologists working in this area help industries and other organizations in personnel selection, training, solving problems related to communication, productivity, and interpersonal and inter-group relations. Various interventions for organizational development (e.g., team building, development of communication skills, goal setting, job design) are currently employed to improve the conditions of work setting and enhancing the quality of products. 

(i) Environmental Psychology: This is a relatively new field of psychology which specializes in understanding the relationship between human beings and environment. Environmental planning, environmental perception and attitude, design of environments, environmental stressors (e.g., crowding, pollution, disasters) and environmental attitudes are being studied. The goal is to save the environment and improve its quality. 

(j) Engineering Psychology: Human life in the modern world is dominated by machines of various kinds. The human-machine interaction raises many problems. Engineering psychology, also known as human factors engineering, tries to specify the capacities and limitations of human-machine-environment system so that the system can be operated safely and efficiently. Therefore, the task of engineering psychologists is to help designing instruments and machines and developing the layout of work setting. With the advent of computers and innovations in the area of information technology, many new methods are being used to solve the related problems. 

(k) Health Psychology: It is an emerging branch of psychology which focuses on understanding the factors that promote the status of health. In contemporary life the number of health hazards (e.g., stresses, pollution in the environment, frustration) is increasing. In order to cope with them successfully we need to adopt patterns of health behavior such as exercise, meditation, proper diet, physical activity etc. Health psychology examines the role of these behaviors in promotion of physical and mental health. It also tries to find ways to modify inappropriate behaviors and prevention of illness.