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All About Psychology

Types of Psychology: Academic

Author: albrecht

Academic Psychology

This category covers the core, often compulsory topics within psychology that students traditionally study when doing a psychology course, degree or program. These are areas within psychology that can draw upon a broad range of related theory and research.

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Abnormal Psychology

Abnormal psychology is the analytic and scientific study of abnormal thoughts and behavior in order to interpret, describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning. The definition of what constitutes 'abnormal' has varied across time and across cultures, and varies among individuals within cultures. Today, persistent abnormal functioning is often associated with a mental disorder. In general, abnormal psychology can be described as an area of psychology that studies people who are consistently unable to adapt and function effectively in a variety of conditions.

Biological Psychology

Biological psychology is the scientific study of the biological bases of behavior and mental states. Because all behavior is controlled by the central nervous system, it is sensible to study how the brain functions in order to understand behavior. This is the approach taken in behavioral neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychology. Neuropsychology is the branch of psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the 'brain' relate to specific behavioral and psychological processes. Often neuropsychologists are employed as scientists to advance scientific or medical knowledge. Neuropsychology is particularly concerned with the understanding of brain injury in an attempt to work out normal psychological function.

Cognitive Psychology

The nature of thought is another core interest in psychology. Cognitive psychology studies cognition, the mental processes underlying behavior. It uses information processing as a framework for understanding the mind. Perception, learning, problem solving, memory, attention, language and emotion are all well researched areas. Cognitive psychology is associated with a school of thought known as cognitivism, whose adherents argue for an information processing model of mental function, informed by positivism and experimental psychology.

Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology has been described as the discipline that attempts to describe and explain the changes that occur over time in the thought, reasoning and functioning of a person due to biological, individual and environmental influences.

The authors note further that developmental psychology involves the study of children's development as well as the development of human behaviour across the lifespan.

Personality Psychology

Personality psychology studies personality based on theories of individual differences. One emphasis in this area is to construct a coherent picture of a person and his or her major psychological processes. Another emphasis views personality as the study of individual differences, in other words, how people differ from each other. A third area of emphasis examines human nature and how all people are similar to one other. These three viewpoints merge together in the study of personality.

Personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations

Social Psychology

Social psychology is the study of the nature and causes of human social behavior and mental processes, with an emphasis on how people think towards each other and how they relate to each other. Social Psychology aims to understand how we make sense of social situations. For example, social psychologists study the influence of others on an individual's behavior (e.g., conformity or persuasion), the perception and understanding of social cues, or the formation of attitudes or stereotypes about other people. Social cognition is a common approach and involves a mostly cognitive and scientific approach to understanding social behavior.