Psychology is such a broad subject, different branches of psychology have formed

to study different aspects of human behaviors, thoughts and experiences. The

branches are: Abnormal Psychology , Behavioral Psychology, Biopsychology, CrossCultural Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Psychology,
Health Psychology , I/O Psychology, Human Factors Psychology, Comparative
Psychology , Developmental Psychology, Educational Psychology, Personality
Psychology and Social Psychology.
1. Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that studies unusual
patterns of behavior, emotion and thought, which may or may not be
understood as precipitating a mental disorder.
2. Anomalistic psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience
connected with what is often called the paranormal, without the assumption
that there is anything paranormal involved.
3. Black psychology (also called African psychology) is an African
cosmological lens[clarification needed] applied to social or psychological
phenomena.[1] This is approached from two perspectives:
The first perspective considers these concepts and theories as universal, which
means that the lens is appropriate in studying all human beings, not just those of
African heritage.[1] This approach was embodied in early efforts by Black scholars
to challenge the assumption that African Americans were inferior. Over time, it grew
to also incorporate the history and the experiences of African Americans, exploring
it in a ways considered superior to the traditional models of White psychologists.[2]
The second perspective, the Africentric scholar approach, considers the lens as only
appropriate when applied to people of African descent.[1]
4. Cardiac psychology is a specialization of health psychology that focuses on
the primary and secondary prevention of heart disease by incorporating
strategies to address the emotional and behavioral barriers to lifestyle
changes (e.g. smoking cessation), and that seeks to enhance recovery in
cardiac patients by means of providing patients tools (e.g. stress
managemnet and psychotherapy) to cope with life and physical changes
associated with their disease.
5. Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical
knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving
psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective wellbeing and personal development
6. Comparative psychology refers to the scientific study of the behavior and
mental processes of non-human animals, especially as these relate to the
phylogenetic history, adaptive significance, and development of behavior.
Research in this area addresses many different issues, uses many different
methods, and explores the behavior of many different species, from insects
to primates.
7. Conservation psychology is the scientific study of the reciprocal
relationships between humans and the rest of nature, with a particular focus

on how to encourage conservation of the natural world.[1] Rather than a

specialty area within psychology itself, it is a growing field for scientists,
researchers, and practitioners of all disciplines to come together and better
understand the earth and what can be done to preserve it.
8. Correctional psychology is an area of psychology that focuses on applying
psychology to a correctional setting. According to researcher Michael Decaire,
"The correctional psychologist's primary mission is to assist in offender
rehabilitation and reintegration."[1] The correctional psychologists primary
mission is to assist in offender rehabilitation and reintegration. Additionally,
the psychologist enhances staff and inmate safety by promoting a healthy
institutional environment.[2] The correctional psychologist clearly has varied
responsibilities. Their primary focus is their application of direct psychological
services with inmates, evaluation of the prison population, inmate
management, release evaluation and recommendations. While correctional
has become a highly popular sub-discipline of psychology, it is also riddled
with unique ethical dilemmas and conflict
9. Critical psychology is a perspective on psychology that draws extensively
on critical theory. Critical psychology challenges mainstream psychology and
attempts to apply psychological understandings in more progressive ways,
often looking towards social change as a means of preventing and treating
psychopathology. One of critical psychology's main criticisms of conventional
psychology is that it fails to consider or deliberately ignores the way power
differences between social classes and groups can impact the mental and
physical well-being of individuals or groups of people. It does this, in part,
because it tends to explain behavior at the level of the individual.
10.
Cultural psychology is a field of psychology which assumes the idea
that culture and mind are inseparable, and that psychological theories
grounded in one culture are likely to be limited in applicability when applied
to a different culture. As Richard Shweder, one of the major proponents of the
field, writes, "Cultural psychology is the study of the way cultural traditions
and social practices regulate, express, and transform the human psyche,
resulting less in psychic unity for humankind than in ethnic divergences in
mind, self, and emotion" (1991, p. 72). Cultural psychology is that branch of
psychology which deals with the study and impact of culture, tradition and
social practices on psyche for the unity of humankind. Cultural psychology
attempts to discover the relationship between culture and the psychological
and how it affects and reshapes an individual's behaviour
11.
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of changes that
occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned
with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence,
adult development, aging, and the entire life span.
12.
Differential psychology studies the ways in which individuals differ
in their behavior. This is distinguished from other aspects of psychology in

that although psychology is ostensibly a study of individuals, modern

psychologists often study groups or biological underpinnings of cognition.
13.
Ecopsychology studies the relationship between human beings and
the natural world through ecological and psychological principles.[1] The field
seeks to develop and understand ways of expanding the emotional
connection between individuals and the natural world, thereby assisting
individuals with developing sustainable lifestyles and remedying alienation
from nature.
14.
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in
educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the
psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as
organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn
and develop, often focusing on subgroups such as gifted children and those
subject to specific disabilities. Researchers and theorists are likely to be
identified in the US and Canada as educational psychologists, whereas
practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school
psychologists. This distinction is, however, not made in the UK, where the
generic term for practitioners is "educational psychologist."
15.
Evolutionary psychology (EP) is an approach in the social and
natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory,
perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to
identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations that is,
the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. Adaptationist
thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and
immune system, is common in evolutionary biology. Some evolutionary
psychologists apply the same thinking to psychology, arguing that the mind
has a modular structure similar to that of the body, with different modular
adaptations serving different functions. Evolutionary psychologists argue that
much of human behavior is the output of psychological adaptations that
evolved to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments.
16.
Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply
experimental methods to the study of behavior and the processes that
underlie it. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and
animal subjects to study a great many topics, including, among others
sensation & perception, memory, cognition, learning, motivation, emotion;
developmental processes, social psychology, and the neural substrates of all
of these.
17.
Health psychology is the study of psychological and behavioral
processes in health, illness and healthcare.[1] It is concerned with
understanding how psychological, behavioral and cultural factors are involved
in physical health and illness, in addition to the biological causes that are well
understood by medical science. Psychological factors can affect health
directly (such as stress causing the release of hormones such as cortisol

which damage the body over time) and indirectly via a person's own behavior
choices which can harm or protect health (such as smoking or taking
exercise.
Industrial and organisational psychology (also known as I-O psychology or
work psychology) is the scientific study of employees, workplaces, and
organizations. Industrial and organizational psychologists contribute to an
organization's success by improving the performance, satisfaction, and well-being of
its employees. An I-O psychologist conducts research on employee behaviors and
attitudes, and how these can be improved through hiring practices, training
programs, feedback, and management systems.
International or global psychology is an emerging branch of psychology that
focuses on the worldwide enterprise of psychology in terms of communication and
networking, cross-cultural comparison, scholarship, practice, and pedagogy. Often,
the terms international psychology, global psychology, and cross-cultural
psychology are used interchangeably, but their purposes are subtly and importantly
different: Global means worldwide, international means across and between
nations, cross-cultural means across cultures. In contrast, the term multicultural is
more often used to refer to ethnic and other cultural differences existing within a
given nation rather than to global or international comparisons. This entry focuses
predominantly on international psychology.
Music psychology, or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of
psychology or a branch of musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical
behavior and musical experience. Modern music psychology is mainly empirical:
music-psychological knowledge tends to advance primarily on the basis of
interpretations of data about musical behavior and experience, which are collected
by systematic observation of and interaction with human participants. Music
psychology is a field of research with practical relevance for music performance,
music composition, music education, music medicine, and music therapy.
Neuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain as they relate to
specific psychological processes and behaviors. It is seen as a clinical and
experimental field of psychology that aims to study, assess, understand and treat
behaviors directly related to brain functioning. The term neuropsychology has been
applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied to efforts
to record electrical activity from individual cells (or groups of cells) in higher
primates (including some studies of human patients).[1] It is scientific in its
approach, making use of neuroscience, and shares an information processing view
of the mind with cognitive psychology and cognitive science.
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and its
individual differences. Its areas of focus include:
Construction of a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major
psychological processes
Investigation of individual differences
Investigation of human nature and human's similarities

"Personality" is a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a

person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, emotions, motivations, and
behaviors in various situations. The word "personality" originates from the Latin
persona, which means mask. In the theatre of the ancient Latin-speaking world, the
mask was not used as a plot device to disguise the identity of a character, but
instead was a convention employed to represent or typify that character.
Political psychology is an interdisciplinary academic field dedicated to
understanding politics, politicians and political behavior from a psychological
perspective. The relationship between politics and psychology is considered bidirectional, with psychology being used as a lens for understanding politics and
politics being used as a lens for understanding psychology. As an interdisciplinary
field, political psychology borrows from a wide range of other disciplines, including:
anthropology, sociology, international relations, economics, philosophy, media,
journalism and history.
Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was
summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe
that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a
scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving individuals,
families, and communities."[1] Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture
genius and talent" and "to make normal life more fulfilling",[2] rather than merely
treating mental illness. Positive psychology is primarily concerned with using the
psychological theory, research and intervention techniques to understand the
positive, adaptive, creative and emotionally fulfilling aspects of human behavior.[3]
Positive psychology is a branch of psychology focused on understanding human
well-being and happiness.
is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and social psychology
behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.[1]
By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The
terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all psychological variables that are
measurable in a human being. The statement that others' presence may be
imagined or implied suggests that we are prone to social influence even when no
other people are present, such as when watching television, or following
internalized cultural norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior
as a result of the interaction of mental states and immediate social situations. In
general, social psychologists have a preference for laboratory-based, empirical
findings. Social psychology theories tend to be specific and focused, rather than
global and general.
Abnormal Psychology
Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that looks at psychopathology
and abnormal behavior. The term covers a broad range of disorders, from
depression to obsession-compulsion to sexual deviation and many more.

Counselors, clinical psychologists, and psychotherapists often work directly in this

field.
25. Behavioral Psychology
Behavioral psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on observable
behaviors. Conditioning, reinforcement and punishment are key concepts used by
behaviorists.
26. Biopsychology
While our minds plays a role in our physical well-being, our biological processes
also influence our mental health.
27. Cross-Cultural Psychology
Cross-cultural psychology is a branch of psychology that looks at how cultural
factors influence human behavior.
28. Forensic Psychology
Forensic psychology is the branch of psychology that deals with the intersection of
psychology and the law. the duties of a forensic psychologist are fairly limited in
terms of scope and duration. A forensic psychologist is asked to perform a very
specific duty in each individual case, such as determining if a suspect is mentally
competent to face charges.
Competency evaluations
Sentencing recommendations
Evaluations of the risk of reoffending
Testimony as an expert witness
Child custody evaluations
Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the assessment,
diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders.

31. Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that explores internal states
including attention, thinking, and decision-making. Cognitive psychology is the
branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think,
perceive, remember and learn. As part of the larger field of cognitive science, this

branch of psychology is related to other disciplines including neuroscience,

philosophy and linguistics.
Health Psychology
Health psychology focuses on promoting health as well as the prevention and
treatment of disease and illness.
I/O Psychology
Industrial-organizational psychology is concerned with the study of workplace
behavior.
29. Human Factors Psychology
Human factors is the branch of psychology concerned with applying psychological
principles to product design, usability issues, human-computer interaction and
ergonomics
Comparative Psychology
Comparative psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the study of
animal behavior. The study of animal behavior can lead to a deeper and broader
understanding of human psychology
30. Cross-cultural psychology is a branch of psychology that looks at how
cultural factors influence human behavior. Cross-cultural psychology is a branch of
psychology that looks at how cultural factors influence human behavior.
Many cross-cultural psychologists choose to focus on one of two approaches:
The etic approach focuses on studying how different cultures are similar.
The emic approach focuses on studying the differences between cultures.
Many other branches of psychology focus on how parents, friends and other people
impact human behavior, but most do not take into account the powerful impact that
culture may have on individual human actions.
Cross-cultural psychology, on the other hand, is focused on studying human
behavior in a way that takes the effects of culture into account.
Developmental Psychology
Developmental psychology is concerned with the lifespan of individuals. Like
theories of child development, intellectual development, cognitive development,
and more
Educational Psychology

Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with schools,

teaching psychology, educational issues, and student concerns. Find more
information about educational psychology
Personality Psychology
Personality Psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with How do our
personalities develop?
31. Social Psychology
Social psychology seeks to explain and understand social behavior.
32. Sports Psychology
Sports psychology is the study of how psychology influences sports, athletic
performance, exercise and physical activity.
Positive Psychology
Positive psychology is a branch of psychology focused on understanding human
well-being and happiness.
33. Systems psychology is a branch of both theoretical psychology and applied
psychology that studies human behaviour and experience in complex systems. It is
inspired by systems theory and systems thinking, and based on the theoretical work
of Roger Barker, Gregory Bateson, Humberto Maturana and others. Groups and
individuals are considered as systems in homeostasis. Alternative terms here are
"systemic psychology", "systems behavior", and "systems-based psychology".
Applied systems psychology
In the 1970s the term applied systems psychology was being used as a specialism
directly related to engineering psychology and human factor.[2][3]
Cognitive systems theory
Cognitive systems psychology is a part of cognitive psychology and like existential
psychology, attempts to dissolve the barrier between conscious and the
unconscious mind.[4]
Contract-systems psychology
Contract-systems psychology is about the human systems actualization through
participative organizations.[5]
Family systems psychology
Family systems psychology is a more general name for the subfield of family
therapists. E.g. Murray Bowen, Michael E. Kerr, and Baard[6] and researchers have
begun to theoretize a psychology of the family as a system.[7]
Organismic-systems psychology

Through the application of organismic-systems biology to human behavior Ludwig

von Bertalanffy conceived and developed the organismic-systems psychology, as
the theoretical prospect needed for the gradual comprehension of the various ways
human personalities may evolve and how they could evolve properly, being
supported by a holistic interpretation of human behavior.
34. Narrative psychology is a viewpoint or a stance within psychology concerned
with the "storied nature of human conduct" [1] or in other words how human beings
deal with experience by constructing stories and listening to the stories of others.
The very notion of it is that human activity and experience are filled with "meaning"
and stories, rather than logical arguments or lawful formulations, are "the vehicle by
which that meaning is communicated"; such dichotomy is found in Jerome S. Bruner
(1986, 1990, 1991) as a distinction between "paradigmatic" and "narrative" forms of
thought, in his understanding they are both fundamental but irreducible one to the
another.
35. Theoretical psychology is concerned with theoretical and philosophical
aspects of the discipline of psychology. It is an interdisciplinary field involving
psychologists specializing in, amongst others, cognitive, social, developmental,
personality, clinical, perceptual, neurological, biological, evolutionary, historical,
economic, political and critical psychology.
36. Counseling Psychology: Here, the focus is on providing therapeutic
interventions for clients who are struggling with some mental, social, emotional or
behavioural issue. It also looks at living well, so people reach their maximum
potential in life.