Ch.

2 Branches of Psychology
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Branches of Psychology
2.2.1 Theoretical branches
1. Developmental Psychology
2. Child Psychology
3. Social Psychology
4. Cognitive Psychology
5. Experimental Psychology
6. Abnormal Psychology
2.2.2 Applied branches
1. Educational Psychology
2. Clinical Psychology
3. Counselling Psychology
4. Criminal Psychology
5. Sports Psychology
6. Industrial Psychology
2.3 Careers in Psychology
2.1 Introduction
Psychology is an important science in modern times and its scope is getting wider everyday.
Knowledge of psychology is needed to understand and combat behavioural problems.
As the scope of Psychology is getting wider, new branches of Psychology are emerging (today,
there are more than 50 branches)
For e.g. now a days sports psychology is emerging as a new branch of psychology to deal with
psychological issues faced by sports persons.
Internet made financial transactions and social interaction easier, but it also gave rise to
online cheating and fraud. So to understand and deal with these issues a branch called ‘cyber
psychology’ has emerged.

2.2 Branches of Psychology

Activity 1:
Task 1 : Which factors motivate student’s behaviour in the classroom? Write them down.
Task 2 : Use the information found in task 1 to create a better classroom environment.
Task 1 : Try and identify qualities of successful student. Make a list.
Task 2 : Using the information found in task 1 prepare guidelines for other students.
Task 1 : Note down the causes of unhappiness or sadness among people.
Task 2 : Using the information found in task 1 write down how you can help them.

In all pairs, task 1 deals with finding out new information, connections, relationships between an
individual and his environment.
In other words, the task 1 deals with ‘theorizing’ about individual responses.
In all pairs, task 2 deals with ‘applying’ that information to make changes in existing structures
or conditions.

These two tasks typically exemplify the two broad areas of Psychology.
• Theoretical branches of Psychology
• Applied branches of Psychology

Modern psychology touches every aspect of human life. The scope of psychology is extremely
wide which has led to development of many sub fields. Let us look at these main branches one
by one.
2.2.1 Theoretical Psychology
Psychologists working in theoretical fields focus mainly on conducting research and formulating
theories and include many areas of specialization in today’s times.
Basic focus is on developing principles and establishing laws to explain human behaviour.

Studies Studies Studies how a Focuses on Tries to Studies

changes that biological, person higher mental understand unusual
happen psychological influences processes like the patterns of
during the and others and thinking and fundamental behaviour,
entire life emotional gets reasoning / causes of emotions or
span from changes in influenced by special behaviour thinking
conception to childhood others cognitive
death abilities
Pls note that there are many sub-branches in theoretical Psychology. – we study main 6 listed up

(1) Developmental Psychology

a) Developmental Psychology studies changes in behaviour from conception to death/ entire life
span.
b) Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why human beings change over
the course of their life.
c) It aims to explain how thinking, feeling, and behaviour change throughout life.
d) A developmental Psychology may study a specific period of life such as childhood,
adolescence, adulthood and old age.
e) This field examines changes across three major dimensions: physical development, cognitive
development, and social development.

(2) Child Psychology

a) It deals with the biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur during childhood
as the individual progresses from being dependent to becoming independent.
b) For e.g. psychologist working in this area may study problems related to children such as
lying, bunking school, stealing, bed wetting etc.
c) They use standardized psychological tests to measure intelligence, adjustment etc.
d) They also conduct researches on effective child rearing practices, role of reinforcement in
motivating children etc.
(3) Social Psychology
a) We spend much of our lives in the presence of other people, with whom we interact in a
variety of ways and in different settings.
b) Social Psychology studies how an individual influences others and gets influenced by others.
c) According to Myers, social Psychology refers to the scientific study of how an individual’s
behaviour is affected by others.
d) The primary focus of social Psychology is on understanding how individuals are affected by
others.
e) Social Psychology examines issues such as co-operation or conflicts within groups, attitudes,
prejudice, friendliness or leadership qualities of an individual.

(4) Cognitive Psychology

a) Cognitive Psychology focuses on higher mental
processes such as thinking, reasoning and decision
making.
b) It is concerned with the study of attention,
perception, language development, thinking,
memory and problem solving.
c) Some of the topics of research in this field could be
- How does memory disruption occur?
- What are the different types of learning styles
and learning disorders?
- What causes them?
- What leads to speech impairment?
- How does the decision-making mechanism
work?

(5) Experimental Psychology

a) The experimental psychologist tries to understand the fundamental causes of behaviour.
b) They conduct experiments to study: -
how people react to sensory stimuli and perceive the world.
c) Experimental Psychology studies
how people learn and remember, reason and respond emotionally.
d) It deals with such problems as sensation, perception, learning and memory.
e) The method of investigation in this field is that of laboratory experiment.
Ivan Pavlov conducted experiments on classical conditioning taking dog as his subject

(6) Abnormal Psychology

a) Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that studies unusual patterns of
behaviour, emotions and thinking.
b) It aims to study the causes and factors leading to abnormal reactions.
c) For example: excessive suspiciousness, extreme mood swings, perceiving objects or
situations which are not real, mental retardation, extreme fear of objects, animals or situation
etc.
2.2.2 Applied Psychology
1. The knowledge and principles generated through research in theoretical Psychology are used
to develop techniques to solve practical problems of individuals.
2. Through various branches of applied psychology, psychologists are putting knowledge into
practice so as to help individuals to adjust to their real life situations.
3. Applied Psych. is further divided into many sub-branches. Let us see a few of these branches.

(1) Educational Psychology

a) The field of Educational Psychology examines and studies all factors related to education.
b) It aims at increasing the efficiency of teaching and learning process.
c) The educational psychologist is concerned with
- developing effective methods of teaching / learning,
- preparing intervention programs for exceptional children,
- developing personality development programs,
- preparing relevant curriculum etc.
d) It is also concerned with the general problems of teaching and learning process.
e) It focuses on learning difficulties of slow learners, exceptional as well as average children.
f) They try to design intervention programs to develop motivation, effective study habits and
better classroom environment.
g) Educational psychologists are primarily associated with schools, colleges and universities.
h) They conduct psychological tests to provide guidance to students. They deal with behavioural
issues of children such as learning disorder, hyperactivity, lack of concentration, ADHD etc.

(2) Clinical Psychology

a) Clinical Psychology is concerned with the study, diagnosis and treatment of emotional and
behavioural problems such as
mental illness, marital and family conflict, drug addiction,
severe depression, alcoholism, delinquency etc.
b) For the purpose of diagnosis, clinical psychologists collect detailed information about the
client by using i) psychological tests,
ii) interviews of client and his significant others like family and friends.
c) They use appropriate psychotherapy to help the client to deal with his problem.
d) The Clinical Psychologists either work in hospitals and community health centers or have
their private practice. This is the largest sub field of Psychology.
.
(3) Counselling Psychology
a) This field of Psychology is similar to clinical Psychology but counselling psychologists deal
with milder behavioural problems.
b) They offer guidance about adjustment issues faced by a person.
c) Counselling psychologists will be involved with vocational and career guidance.
d) Some problems dealt by counselling psychologists are related to issues or difficulties
experienced by a person in studies, personal life issues or workplace issues etc.
(4) Criminal Psychology
a) This branch is closely related with Social Psychology.
b) Criminal psychologists are concerned with:
i) identifying the causes of crime,
ii) studying personality of criminals,
iii) suggesting preventive measures to control criminal behaviour and
iv) implementing plans for criminal rehabilitation.
c) Criminal psychology deals with the motives behind the criminal behaviour.
d) They play significant role in forensic department to uncover the scene of crime by
understanding and interpreting the behavioural clues of the criminals.
e) They generally work with the law enforcement department or the criminal investigation
department or social organisations working for rehabilitation of criminals.

(5) Sports Psychology

a) Sports Psychologists help sports persons to maintain their motivation, stamina during actual
performance and also maintaining themselves when they are not on the field.
b) They help players to maintain composure when they are working under pressure, help them to
maintain their emotional balance when they are going through a bad patch and guide them to
maintain themselves when they are recovering from personal injuries

(6) Industrial Psychology

a) Industrial psychology is concerned with behaviour of people working in organization.
b) They play important role in selection and placement of employees, motivation, job
satisfaction, appraisals and grievances.
c) They help to enhance motivation, group morale, leadership skills among the employees.
d) Consumer psychology which is a branch of industrial psychology deals with consumer
behaviour, quality of products, brand loyalty and influence of advertisement on purchasing.