Areas of Psychology Flashcards
Presents the basic and fundamental principles of human behaviour.
General Psychology
- Focuses on clinical descriptions
- Examines a range of psychological disorders, including anxiety disorders, personality disorders, sexual disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia, and organic mental disorders
Abnormal Psychology
- Most widely practiced specialisation
- It involves diagnosing and treating people with psychological problems
Clinical Psychology
Foster and improve normal human functioning across the life span by helping people solve the problems, make the decisions and cope with the stresses of everyday life
Counselling Psycholog
Studies what the characteristics make individuals different from one another, how and why.
Personality Psychology
Offshoot of personality psychology that focuses on mental phenomena by studying it in terms of drives and motives as causes of behaviour
Dynamic Psychology
Concerned with the methods and techniques used in acquiring and applying psychological knowledge
Psychometrics and Quantitative Psychology
- Conducts research on and often teach about a variety of basic behavioural processes.
- Studies the basic processes by which humans take in, store, retrieve, express and apply knowledge.
Experimental Psychology
Concerned with the genesis (evolution and development), control and consequences of a broad range of behavioural patterns.
Comparative Psychology/Zoological/Animal
- Concerned with everyday behaviour in natural settings
Seeks to understand the factors that contribute to normal and abnormal behavior in these settings - Concentrates the efforts on group of people who are not mentally ill (but may be at risk of becoming so) or on the population in general
Community Psychology
Studies how our beliefs, feelings and behaviours are affected by the presence of other persons
Social Psychology
Concerned with relations between psychological processes and physical environment
Environmental Psychology
- Concerns with how one feels about being a member of his/her racial group or ethnic group
- Studies the factors that promote or hinder a cultural minority’s positive development, and in association with psychological well-being and academic achievement
Racial/Ethnic Psychology
Studies the psychological and social factors affecting women’s development and behavior
Psychology of Women
Studies human development across the life span, from newborn to aged
Interested int he description, measurement and explanation of age-related changes in behaviour; stages of emotional development
Developmental pyschology (Genetics)
Focuses on children’s growth and changes in all areas that occur from birth to adolescence
Child Psychology
Focuses primarily on the various theories regarding the social, cognitive and biological development of adolescents
Adolescent Psychology
Studies adult development in the domains of cognition, personality and social-emotional processes
Adult Psychology
Studies the factors associated with adult development and aging
Psychology of Aging
- Practitioners, researchers and educators concerned with the prevention of family conflict, the treatment of marital and family problems and the maintenance of normal family-functioning.
- Concentrates on the family structure and the interaction between members rather than on the individual
Family Psychology
Study how people learn, and they design the methods and materials used to educate people of all ages
Educational Psychology
Help educators and others promote the intellectual, social and emotional development of children
School Psychology
Are involved in analyzing crime evidence and adding law enforcement agencies in criminal investigations
Forensic or Legal Psychology
Applies psychological methods and knowledge to the study and modification of the behaviour and mental processes of people involved in sports
Sports and Exercise Psychology
- The psychological science which studies cognition, the mental processes that are hypothesized to underline behaviour
- Specifically, it studies how humans acquire thoughts and ideas, how humans use knowledge over time
It accepts the use of scientific methods and rejects introspection as a valid method of investigation, unlike phenomenological methods such as Freudian Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Concerned with psychology’s contribution to the promotion and maintenance of good health and the prevention and treatment of illness
Health Psychology
Working with people who have suffered a physical deprivation or loss, such as cerebral palsy, or autism, either at birth or through later damage such as a stroke or accident
Rehabilitation Psychology
- Investigates the relation between physical systems and behaviour
- Neuropsychologists also diagnose and treat disturbances related to suspected dysfuntions of the central nervous system and treat patients by teaching them new ways to acquire and process information- a technique known as cognitive retraining
Neuropsychology and Psychobiology
- Is a multidisciplinary endeavour concerned with designing for human use
- Human factors researchers study the human machine interface
Human Factors Psychology
- Concerned with the relation between people and work
Industrial/Organization Psychology
interests are in consumer’s reactions to a company’s products or services
Consumer’s Psychology
concerned with improving the interaction between humans and their working environments, including jobs and the context in which they are performed
Human Engineering psychology
develop and validate procedures to select and evaluate personnel
Personnel Psychology
study of psychological aspects of work-related behaviour and experience
Vocational Psychology
- Contributes to space missions
- Ensuring the physical safety of a space facility from human error or aberrant behaviour
- Maximizing indvidual and grou productivity
Space Psychology
- Intimately involved in testing results for intelligence and aptitude for military specializations and helping to find more effective ways of training them
- Identifies people who might prove emotionally unstable in the military
Military Psychology
