Branches of Psychology

Psychology is known as the ‘Study of Mind’. Its also called dynamic science because no one can ever perceive or predict the behavior or nature of minds. Each individual’s actions, reactions and emotions tend to differ from one another.
The subject psychology itself is vast like an ocean. When broadly classified, psychology falls into 10 main branches. Let us briefly define and go through each one of them.
Behavioral Psychology
As the name indicates, its the study of behavioral science such as mental process and human behavioral patterns. Behavioral Psychology is based on study of the functions of brain cells.
Clinical Psychology
Clinical Psychology is a treatment oriented branch of psychology which deals with scientific ways of handling psychological problems. It is also called counseling psychology. This includes prevention, understanding and cure of psychological issues by counseling and psychotherapy.
Abnormal Psychology
Abnormal Psychology is the branch of psychology which deals with the abnormalities in a person’s behavior and psyche. This is a branch of study which is commonly found in Human Resources Management courses and Criminal Law courses.
Educational Psychology
Educational Psychology is often taught in educational institutions like schools and colleges. This field of study basically focuses on student life. It deals with shyness, learning disorders, adolescence, sex education in children and so on. These studies and awareness comes in handy in the different developmental stages of children.
Developmental Psychology
As the name suggests, Developmental Psychology deals with the changes that occurs in a human being over course of time. It deals with early childhood developmental stages. This helps in identifying the causes, treatment and effects of any psychological disorders better.
Personality Psychology
Personality Psychology is that branch of psychology which deals with the IQ and personality of an individual. Different IQ tests and personality tests allow individuals to gauge themselves for better understanding. These are commonly found in interview tests and performance analysis.
Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology deals with the study of psychological stimuli in human beings. psychological stimuli include ability for developing linguistic skills, identifying a person’s state of mind, recognizing a kin from another and so on. We have noticed that babies, however small they are, easily get the cue of the above mentioned psychological stimuli.
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Psychology deals with the mental processes like thoughts, memory and problem solving. It basically deals with the perception and problem solving capability of the brain.
Legal Psychology
Legal Psychology is almost similar to cognitive and clinical psychology. It’s just that it has got a legal point of view. The legal psychologist assists the crime investigation by assessing the testimonies and statements of the witnesses and the victims.
Community Psychology
Community Psychology is the study of the psychological aspects of the individuals in a community. This is based on characteristics like interdependence, adaptation, diplomacy and so on.

List of Branches of Psychology
There are 10 main branches of psychology. While I cannot really please my heart by explaining each of these in complete detail, I will explain the concept of each branch with a short example of usage (psst... don't tell anyone. The example is especially for you!).

Abnormal Psychology
Abnormal psychology is the study of certain behavioral abnormalities in a person's psyche. Like, neuroses, psychoses and mental retardation. Hypnosis and mesmerism are often used for treatment in this branch of psychology. Abnormal psychology is one of the most basic forms of psychology study, and is taught in Law and Human Resource Management studies as well.

Example - "Jenna was a normal girl. She had a twin brother, and the two of them were the best of friends. At the age of 13 Jenna's brother, Albert, died due to a car crash. Post the accident, Jenna, who was once a vivacious and popular girl, became very shy. She barely had any friends, and gave up hope in life. Her grades started to fall and she started avoiding people and clung to her family all the time. Further psychoanalysis showed that Jenna was showing early signs of fear of abandonment".

Behavioral Psychology
Behavioral psychology is the more popular term used for behavioral neuroscience, or biopsychology, or psychobiology. It studies the mental processes and the behavioral patterns of humans as well as non-human subjects. Behavioral psychology basically studies the behavior of an individual (human or otherwise) to gage the psychological state of that individual. Treatment is this branch of psychology is more physical, like electrolytic lesions and chemical lesions. This branch of psychology is more concerned with the physical functioning of the brain and its cells.

Example - "David was a normal 18 year old. He loved partying and loved spending time with his boyfriend. Yes, David was gay. For this fact David faced a lot of opposition from his parents. They insulted him and the family had arguments on a daily basis. Due to this fact, David found solace in smoking marijuana. Soon he was addicted to it, and could not function without it. Sadly, David died at the age of 20, of a drug overdose." Read more on addiction.

Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology that is the scientific study of the prevention, understanding and the relieving of psychologically based issues. Psychological assessment and psychotherapy are the means of treatment used in this field of psychology. Nonetheless, clinical psychology also stresses a great deal on research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program development and administration. It is also referred to as counseling psychology. So, one can say that clinical psychologists are the general practitioners of the psychology field.

Example - "Hannah was a working mom. She and her husband had a very long, but extremely dysfunctional marriage. When he divorced her, Hannah was left with the responsibility of two children. Which meant, longer hours at office, exams, dance recitals, PTA meeting, basketball games and the odds and evens. This left Hannah with no time to meet anyone, chill out and de-stress. Soon, Hannah was found losing her temper at her kids and slacking off at work. One of her colleagues suggested that she see a clinical psychologist. A month into psychotherapy, Hannah has started to get her peace of mind back!"

Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that deals with the internal mental processes of thought such as visual processing, memory, problem solving, and language. It basically looks over the information processing functioning of the brain. So, it looks into concepts like perception, aging, memory, emotions, decision-making, etc. It is the one of the most recent branches of psychology.

Example - (I will not be able to give a very generic example of cognitive psychology as it is mostly used in accompaniment with behavioral or any other branch of psychology.)

Community Psychology
Community psychology studies the psychology of individuals and the dynamics in a community. It studies the concepts of diplomacy, etc, that are characteristic to community oriented behavior. It studies adaptation, cycling, succession and interdependence. It helps a community understand empowerment, social justice, citizen participation, etc. It is also referred to as critical psychology.

Example - "Jason, Joshua and Janet were members of a social service group that facilitated mindset altering in conservative regions. They were community psychologists, and took up the challenge of reducing occurrences of female infanticide in a small village in India. After a year of educating the men as well as the women in the village, they started a project on woman empowerment, and later took the step into stopping female infanticide. After 5 long years of working, thanks to their understanding of the community psychology, they succeeded at bringing about massive change in the mindset of the people in the village."

Developmental Psychology
Developmental psychology is the study of the systematic changes that occur in a human being and his psyche over the course of life. It is also concerned with early child development and care. Each individual goes through certain changes during their life. Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that studies this progression and helps understand these changes, their causes and effects, better.

Example - "Marianne and Thomas had a child. They were elated the day their son Matthew was born. However, Matthew was not like other children. He was always happy, but showed reluctance to learn. He did not start speaking till he was a year old, that too in incomprehensible terms. Marianne then figured that she rather consult a developmental psychologist, who identified the problem as advanced dyslexia and started treatment on the child. By the time Matthew was 5 years old, he was just as capable as any other child out there."

Educational Psychology
Educational psychology is the branch of psychology that is used in educational institutions. It deals with learning disorders, "gifted" students, peer pressure, adolescence, sex education in children, etc. Educational psychologists are mostly the school counselors. Educational psychology is also referred to as school psychology. It comes in handy in colleges as well. It basically concentrates on student life.

Example - "Henry was a typical school bully. He spent most of his week after school in detention. Henry was also a straight-A student. He was good at basketball but never went for the try outs. Henry was a senior and never had a girlfriend. He had a "gang" of "peeps" however, he never called them friends. After a year of weekly sessions with the educational psychologist at school, it was discovered that Henry was suffering from extremely low self esteem, which is masked off as a superiority complex."

Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the most primal psychological stimuli in human begins. It is believed by evolutionary scientists, that while it is absolutely natural for a human being to pick out linguistic skills, the same does not hold true for reading and writing. They are adaptive skills. It is also natural for a human being to gage another human being's emotional state of mind, and the ability to recognize a kin from another.

Example - "Evolutionary psychologists believe that technique of a male to attract a mate would be to prove that he is the alpha male, by defeating the other competing males in a battle of physical strength. While even in current social scenarios, males do make the attempt to prove themselves as alpha males, they have a different method of going about it. They now prefer to win a woman over, by proving to be more classy, suave and able to protect them, if the need be."

Legal Psychology
Legal psychology is basically the same as cognitive and clinical psychology. However, a legal psychologist has to assist in the process of crime investigation. This branch of psychology used this understanding, to judge the testimonies and statements of the witnesses or the victims, giving the investigation the extra push that it may need. More so, it works at understanding a certain witness or victim's perception from the legal point of view.

Example - "Thia was a legal psychologist. She basically worked with a lawyer and detective (Perry Mason sorts) and always accompanied him when he investigated any case that he took up. She helped at interrogating people and at understanding the motive of the crime. She often helped him, with her understanding of psychology, to crack a tough knot in a case, thus helping out an innocent from being sentenced."

Personality Psychology
Personality psychology is the branch of psychology that governs the legitimate IQ tests and the personality tests that one takes to understand themselves better. It is the branch of psychology that puts a wholesome picture in front of an individual about themselves. It also studies specific personality disorders like narcissistic personality disorder, etc. It helps an individual see themselves in a more objective light.

Example - " Rihanna was a typical teenager. She suffered from the typical confusion relating self. She was popular and had a lot of friends, but she still craved being unnoticed at times. She often felt lonely at night. Despite popular belief (about her) Rihanna was a virgin. After months and months of trying to surmise herself, Rihanna decided to go in for a personality test. The results astounded her. She was suffering from the greed for popularity. This kept her away from her true calling. She loved art, but ended up being a cheerleader. Many such revelations came as a surprise to her. Soon, she followed her true calling and found happiness."

These 10 are the basic branches of psychology. There are several more derivative branches of psychology that one can opt for. It has been a pleasure writing this article. I have tried my best in making it as simple and free of psychology terms as possible, so that you can understand it better. This is where I sign off! Psych out!!