***Psychology has been defined in different ways. Some people have defined psychology as an art. Other people have defined psychology as a science. Many text books define psychology as the science of mind and behavior. Psychology involves the study of human nature and/or behavior. Different opinions come from different perspectives.***
1.
the science of the mind or of mental states and processes.
2.
the science of human and animal behavior.
3.
the sum or characteristics of the mental states and processes of a person or class of persons, or of the mental states and processes involved in a field of activity: the psychology of a soldier; the psychology of politics.
4.
mental ploys or strategy: He used psychology on his parents to get a larger allowance.
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Different Fields in Psychology
How does thinking, perceiving and responding happen and why does it happen so differently in different individuals? How does your psychology decide who you are and why? Find it all in this article on the different fields in psychology.
Psychology (derived from the Greek words 'psyche' meaning mind and soul and 'logos' meaning discourse), is the study of mental processes and behavior. It attempts to explore different facets of the mind. Theorists identify three broad categories of psychology, namely, the cognitive, the conative and the affective. For more on this, refer to theoretical perspectives of psychology. But here we take you through the different fields of psychology to choose from, when choosing this interesting field as your career. If the clinical side of psychology interests you, consider choosing fields like clinical or counseling psychology. Fields such as child psychology, rehabilitation psychology or social work require the psychologist to work with people, understand their problems, counsel them and help them get out of their problems. On the other hand, fields like neuropsychology, color or dream psychology, experimental psychology and biological psychology are more research-based. They involve the study of human behavior and factors affecting it. Other branches like the psychology of ambition, altruism, art, beauty, atheism among others are more theoretical, less practical. They, again, are research-based and include study, more than practical application. Here's an introduction to the various psychology fields, arranged alphabetically.
Fields in Psychology...
A | B | C | D-F | H-I | N-Q | S
...Starting with A
Abnormal Psychology: It is the study of abnormal behavior. It is actually a branch of psychology that deals with the study of abnormal behavioral patterns and their causes. There are various theories about what to consider 'abnormal'. Actions or behavior that is not in coherence with what an average human being would do are referred to as abnormal. The study of abnormal psychology finds application in clinical psychology, which is used in the treatment of psychological disorders. This is not a specialized field in psychology but is definitely an important branch that interests many. Read more on abnormal psychology.
Psychology of Addiction: A complete dependence on a certain substance or drug is known as addiction. Both physiological and psychological factors can lead to addiction. The psychology of addiction analyzes these factors and attempts to find ways of controlling addiction. The study of this field of psychology is closely related to rehabilitation and community psychology, and is of help in counseling the addicts to start a new life.
Psychology of Advertising: Advertising is largely based on customer behavior. Marketing strategies aim at tapping the customers' emotions in order to make them feel compelled to buy the product. The psychology of advertising involves the analysis of customer behavior and how promotional techniques change it. This field involves the study of advertising techniques and how they affect market trends. The psychology of advertising analyzes customer behavior in response to different advertising strategies, and thus is an exciting field of psychology to study.
Psychology of Altruism: Altruism is a selfless concern towards the welfare of others. The psychology of altruism involves the analysis of factors that make an individual selfless. Psychologists believe that altruistic behavior is a part of how we evolved. They say, we are born with this feeling, which, by nature, makes us feel concerned about others. If understanding the nuances of altruism interests you, venture this field of psychology.
Psychology of Ambition: Ambition is associated with one's need of achievement. Heinz Kohut developed the psychology of self, which studies the system of ambitions and ideals. The psychology of ambition studies the process by which ambition is generated in an individual and how it dictates the way he/she behaves. The study of this field can be of help if you aspire for a career in developmental psychology, school psychology or counseling.
Animal Psychology: This is another interesting field of psychology that deals with the emotional state and behavioral traits of animals. It is believed that animals react to stimuli in a trial and error manner and that their behavior is mostly unintentional. The study of animal psychology aims at understanding how animals behave in different situations and how their emotions and reflexes vary.
Art Psychology: Art is the manifestation of human creativity. The art forms a person is interested in and the way he/she portrays them, is closely associated with his/her personality. The psychology of art tries to analyze the characteristics of art and its production. There is a lot published on the psychology of art and there are universities offering programs in art psychology. Though not a field in psychology, art therapy is related to the psychology of art. It makes use of art making for physical and emotional healing.
Psychology of Atheism: This field analyzes the intriguing question of whether God exists. Atheism is defined as disbelief in God. The psychology of atheism tries to understand the factors that lead to disbelief in God. Opinions vary over whether belief in God is only wishful thinking or there really exists a supreme power ruling us.
Psychology of Attraction: What makes a person attract to another? What role does attraction play in a lasting relationship? The psychology of attraction attempts to answer these questions and analyzes the factors governing relationships between human beings.
Psychology of Beauty: The perception of beauty differs from one individual to another. What appeals to one person may not appeal to another. What makes things beautiful? How does the human mind perceive beauty? The psychology of beauty attempts to find an answer to questions like these and tries to analyze whether beauty is an abstract feeling, whether it is based on personal judgment and how it leads to joy.
Psychology of Behavior: This is a very important field of psychology that deals with the analysis of behavioral patterns in human beings. It studies the factors that influence the different types of behavior in individuals. Behaviorism is based on the principle that behavior is acquired. This field of psychology tries to analyze how behavioral patterns are acquired and which factors influence behavioral change. Behavioral psychology studies observable behavior and is taught as a part of any introductory course in the subject.
Psychology of Belief: Our beliefs form the core of our knowledge system and influence our personality. This field attempts to analyze the belief systems of individuals and how they affect behavior.
Biological Psychology: This field of psychology analyzes the biological aspect of human behavior. As the nervous system controls behavior, the patterns of behavior can be derived from the functioning of the brain. Biological psychology also tries to analyze the biological aspects of psychological disorders.
Child Psychology: This field of psychology analyzes the emotional and social development of children. This field includes the analysis of changing behavioral patterns in children and the different stages in their overall development. As a child psychologist, you may need to work with toddlers, children or teenagers and help diagnose and treat the cognitive, social or emotional issues they have.
Cognitive Psychology: This field of psychology analyzes the mental processes, which are responsible for behavior. It deals with the study of problem solving, information processing, memory and emotional abilities of human beings. If questions like how human beings perceive things, how they remember and recollect and what is the process of thinking like, have intrigued you, cognitive psychology could be the field you should enter.
Color Psychology: This field of psychology analyzes the effect of different colors on the behavior and emotions of human beings. Colors are believed to affect human emotions and influence their behavior to a large extent. That's the reason behind use of specific colors for specific purposes in advertising and otherwise. Colors carry different meanings in different cultures. The study of how colors affect human emotions, how they influence human behavior and how colors affect your mood and how they make you feel, is precisely what color psychology includes.
Community Psychology: This branch of psychology studies how an individual and his community affect each other. It analyzes the influence society has on an individual's behavior and also how individual behavior affects the society. If you are interested in carving a career out of this field in psychology, you must read about a career in community psychology. Social work, social psychology community development and cross cultural psychology are some fields of study, that are closely related to community psychology.
Comparative Psychology: The study of animal behavior falls under the category of comparative psychology. This field of psychology deals with the study of mental processes in animals in order to get a better understanding of human psychology. The study of adaptations, reproduction and evolution in animals comes under comparative psychology. Here's an interesting read... Do pets have emotions?
Counseling Psychology: This branch of psychology deals with the art of counseling people about their roles in personal or professional life. It focuses on issues related to stress management. Counseling psychologists deal with the psychological well-being of an individual as opposed to clinical psychologists who focus more on the medical side of one's emotional health and well-being.
Clinical Psychology: It deals with the analysis and treatment of health disorders related to psychology. It deals with the clinical management of individuals with respect to their neural and psychological functioning. As a clinical psychologist, you are required to have knowledge of medicine to be able to look at the clinical aspect of one's emotional health.
Psychology of Communication: It analyzes the different patterns of behavior that lead to the expression of different kinds of emotions. It deals with the study of the various types of communication like verbal and nonverbal or direct and indirect communication. It involves the study of how communication takes place and how expression and listening skills impact the way situations are perceived.
Psychology of Creativity: Creativity leads to new discoveries. Creativity is God's gift. Plainly put, it is the understanding of unique and complex relationships between various components of the environment. Creativity emerges from thinking differently. The psychology of creativity studies the factors that lead to development of creative thinking.
Criminal Psychology: This field of psychology deals with the study of the thinking and behavioral patterns of criminals. It analyzes the factors that lead to criminal behavior and involves understanding a criminal's mind. If this field of study interests you, go through criminal psychology careers.
Developmental Psychology: This field of psychology attempts to analyze the behavioral patterns of individuals in different age groups. It analyzes the patterns of changes in behavior with ascending age. For example, the physical and psychological changes that take place as a result of growing age are studied in the developmental psychology of aging.
Psychology of Dreams: According to the famous theory of Sigmund Freud, dreams are the means of expression of one's subconscious wishes. Some theories say that dreams are the means by which the brain organizes thoughts. It is also believed that dreams modify one's mental state. The causes of dreams, the different types of dreams and the significance of the content of dreams have always been a subject of curiosity and interest. The psychology of dreams deals with this. More on the psychology of dreams.
Educational Psychology: It involves the study of the education system and the behavioral and social development resulting from it. The much-debated issue of heredity versus environment and how it influences an individual is dealt with, in this field of psychology. More on educational psychology.
Evolutionary Psychology: It involves the study of various psychological traits through an evolutionary perspective. It focuses on the study of how psychological traits might have evolved through adaptations in living beings.
Experimental Psychology: More than a field in psychology, experimental psychology is an approach taken in the study of different psychology fields. Experimental psychologists conduct experiments to understand perception and behavioral changes in individuals. They propose theories based on observations made through experiments in psychology. The Milgram experiment is one good example of an experimental approach to the study of psychology.
Forensic Psychology: It is defined as the intersection between psychology and the criminal justice system. It is applied to the criminal justice system to evaluate the psychology of
Health Psychology: This field is related to the application of psychology to healthcare. It analyzes a wide range of health-related behavioral patterns. The psychology of the body consists of three aspects, namely, the body image, the body language and the body awareness. Body image is one's perception of his/her identity, body language helps human beings communicate with others and body awareness involves the analysis of the mind-body relationship.
Human Factors Psychology: It is the analysis of how psychology affects human interactions with objects in the environment. This field of psychology is also known as engineering psychology.
Industrial Psychology: It is used to analyze and improve the potential of human beings at their workplace. It finds applications in the selection and evaluation of employees in an organization. The psychology of business is applied to gain a systematic understanding of employees.
Neuropsychology: This branch of psychology tries to understand how the brain influences behavioral responses in human beings, by studying the structure and functions of the brain and their relationship with psychological processes. There are two approaches in the study of this field of psychology. One which analyzes the correlation between the nervous system and behavior and the other which studies the impact of brain injury or ailments of the brain on one's psychological state.
Personality Psychology: It analyzes the different types of personalities and studies the effects of behavior, thoughts and emotions of an individual's personality.
Quantitative Psychology: It uses mathematical and statistical data for the study of behavioral patterns in human beings. Psychometrics is a branch of psychology that deals with the measurement of knowledge, abilities and attributes.
School Psychology: The principles of school psychology combine those of educational and clinical psychology. It attempts to understand and cure students with learning disabilities.
Social Psychology: It deals with the analysis of how human beings think about each other and how they react to different situations. Their understanding of social issues and their mental setup are analyzed in this field of psychology.
Sports Psychology: This field analyzes a person's behavior in sports. It studies the factors that affect an individual's performance in sports or any physical activity. The skills built through sports are closely associated with psychology. Sports psychology studies this relationship.
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Colour psychology and symbolism are very similar, but colour psychology basically takes the effects of colours on us a step further. Colour symbolism in anthropology and art refers to the use of colours as symbols or the attaching of certain connotations to different colours. Colour psychology, however, investigates the effect of colours on our behaviour and emotions. Colour symbolism can be regarded as a basis for colour psychology as the study often takes into consideration what colours mean to us or signify.
Colour psychology can be a wonderful thing to put into application into our lives. However, little scientific lab research has been carried out in this area and most findings are based on human behavioural observations. Still, these observations have been very encouraging, that colours have more effect on us than we could ever imagine. Maybe, one day, doctors could prescribe colours to patients suffering from depression! Till then, let the world of COLOURS brighten your life!
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Psychology and It's Importance
Psychology
What is psychology means? What’s the function of psychology? Is it important? What’s the importance of this then? What do you call a person who studies psychology? There are a lot of questions concerning psychology and as you continue reading this article all of those queries will get answered accordingly.
Well, psychology means a theoretical, educational and applied science connecting the scientific study of mental operations and behavior or performance. Psychology also refers to the application or usage of understanding, knowledge and skills to a number of areas of human activity, involving issues concerning with daily activities such as education, events, people and their task, employment, association, relationship as well as the treatment of mental health difficulties.
Psychology involves various sub-areas of study and applications related with different subject like human development, sports education, physical condition, business, media as well as the regulation. It also includes exploration and investigation from the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities.
The Importance of Psychology
Psychology is important as it is concerned with the study of behavior and mental processes and at the same time, it is also applied to many different things in human life. Everything we perform is very much related to or with psychology. Psychology, primarily studies who and what we are, why we are like that, why we act and think like that and what we could be as a person.
Psychology is important in a lot of different ways, for instance the studies that has been conducted in various life threatening illnesses. Through the process of utilizing psychology, the psychologist determined different diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and some other Neurological diseases. By making use of psychological research, doctors have now developed medicines and even able to alleviate different illnesses.
Through studying psychology we are able to understand and determine how the mind and body of an individual works. With that said, people would no longer make things complicated for themselves and for their health as well. They are going to avoid things that can cause stress, they are able to manage time very well, and are more effective with their studies or chosen career.
As a writer, psychology is important as it helps me in understanding myself better, it helps me to perceive things positively and it assists me in determining the things that I enjoy doing the most and the kind of stuff I like to write about. It also contribute a lot of great help in the way I handle things in life, the way I face challenges and problems that occurs at an unexpected time and of course the way I make decisions in my everyday living.
Different Subfields of Psychology * Abnormal Psychology – primarily focused on the study of abnormal behavior. The study is conducted to determine, describe, predict, explain, illustrate and change abnormal patterns of performance. It studies the nature of psychopathology and its causes. It is very applicable in treating the patient with psychological disorders. * Biological Psychology – scientific study of biological basis of behavior and mental condition. Since the person’s behavior is controlled by the nervous system, biological psychologist suggested to examine the way the brain operate in order to comprehend the person’s behavior. * Cognitive Psychology – studies cognition or the mental processes bring about behavior. Various subjects included to this field are perception, learning, problem solving, memory attention, language and emotion. It is associated with a school of thought called cognitivism. * Personality Psychology – generally refers to the person’s personality. The main focused of this study are the patterns of person’s behavior, thought and emotions as well. * Psychology and Law – also known as Legal psychology. Explore the topic regarding jury decision-making, eye witness memory, scientific evidence and legal policy. * Quantitative Psychology – involves and usage of mathematical and statistical methods in psychological research and the development of statistical technique in analyzing and illustrating a behavioral data. * School Psychology – the combined principles of educational psychology and clinical psychology in understanding and treating students with learning difficulties and disabilities. As well as to encourage intellectual growth to every gifted students. * Social psychology – focus on how human think about each other and how they relate to one another. It primarily studies about the human’s social behavior and mental processes. * Comparative Psychology – the focal point of this studies are the behavior and mental process of animal compare to human beings. * Counseling Psychology – it performs personal and interpersonal operations in a person’s being wherein the main concern are the emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related, developmental and organizational areas. * Industrial/ Organization Psychology – it is more related to optimizing human’s potentiality in the work place. * Environmental psychology is the practice of making sure employees and visitors to the office feel appreciated, important, happy and healthy while in the space. * Clinical Psychology – the center of its practice are psychological assessment and psychotherapy, however it is also engage in making inquiries, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony and program development and administration. * Developmental Psychology – concentrating on the growth and development of the human mind in its entire existence. It also tries to find reasons and to comprehend why people perceive, understand and act and how these stages alter as they grow. * Forensic Psychology – deal with a lot of practices basically including clinical evaluations of defendants, statements to judges and attorneys and courtroom testimony at provided issues. * Health Psychology – the method of applying psychological theory and studies to health, disease and health care. It is concerned with health-related behavior involving healthy diet, the doctor-patient relationship the patient’s comprehension regarding health information and viewpoint about illness. * Child Psychology – studies about the child’s growth and development involving the stages of their social, emotional, mental and physical progress. * Psychology of Creativity – it mainly involves new discoveries and usually resulted from different way of thinking. * Psychology of Beauty – how an individual perceive and appreciates the beauty of other people and the things around him. * Animal Psychology – how the animal respond to a stimuli in a trial and error process. Their responds to this method determines their behavior.
How Psychology Improves a Relationship
You make use of psychology everyday of your life. Are you aware of that? You use it when you are talking with friends, with your co workers and with every one around you, you use it when arguing, reasoning and disciplining your child. Since psychology are being made use day by day, below I have prepared some helpful ways to all of you, my dear readers. * Psychology Help in Building Relationships – it helps strengthening a relationship and making everyday lives better through escalating a person’s self-knowledge and understanding towards another individual. * Psychology Improves Daily Communication – by understanding psychology, people learn on how to communicate effectively towards one another. It teaches people to understand what others are saying and of course in comprehending the person’s actions or gestures towards a certain condition. * Psychology Builds Self-Confidence – the more you know, and discover about yourself, your being, your personality and your weaknesses the more you seek for self-improvement and when that happens your self-confidence are increasing. * Psychology Enriches Careers – by knowing better and understanding your co-workers you are able to get along with them, you know where to stand as you know where they are coming from and what they are going through. Psychology teaches you how to correctly and rightfully deal with other people around you. As this condition continues occurring in a work place, it will positively enrich everyone’s career.
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It is very important that a person knows what psychology is all about and how essential it is in everyday lives. I hope you will be able to make use psychology in every aspects of your life as well as in making decisions.
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