Sub-fields of Psychology

Promote psychological health in individuals, groups, and organizations

Specialize in specific psychological disorders

Work in private practice, mental health institutions, schools, universities, industries, legal systems, medical systems, counseling centers, government agencies, military offices.

Primarily do research

Study thought processes (perception, language, problem solving, memory, judgment, forgetting, intelligence).

Work as a professor, industrial consultant, human factors specialist.

Human behavior is influenced by interaction between people and physical, social, political, and economic environments.

Improve individual functioning by enhancing environmental settings.

Focus on prevention, promotion of positive mental health, and crisis intervention

Work in federal, state, and local departments of health, corrections, and welfare.

Help people adjust to life transitions or make life-style changes

Help with adjustment problems rather than sever psychological disorders.

Work in academic setting, counseling center, community health center, business, or
private practice

Focus on age-related behavioral changes

Used in educational psychology, school psychology, child psychopathology, and gerontology.

Work in educational institutions, day-care center, youth group programs, or senior center.

Study the relationship between learning and our physical and social environments.Educational Psychologists.

Work in an university setting, government agency, training programs in business.

Research basic behavioral processes involving human and/or animals.

Most likely work in a university or research center.

Concerned with psychology’s contribution to promoting health and preventing disease.

Help people live healthier lives by designing, conducting, and evaluating programs to stop smoking, lose weight, improve sleep, or prevent transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.

Employed in hospitals, medical schools, rehab centers, public health agency.

Apply psychological principles to legal issues. Most are Clinical Psychologists.

Work in university, law school, research organization, law enforcement agency.

Study relationships between people and their work settings.

Increase productivity, improve personnel selection, promote job satisfaction, assist in organizational development and training.

Work in university, business settings, or government.

Investigate relationship between neurological processes and behavior.

Assess, treat, diagnose disorders related to the nervous system.

Work in neurology, neurosurgery, or psychiatric unit in hospital.

Study methods and techniques used to acquire psychological knowledge.

Develop and update tests and surveys.

Employed in an university, testing company, private research firm.

Diagnose and treat cognitive, social, and emotional problems that may negatively influence children’s learning or overall functioning at school.

Involved in the assessment of and intervention for children in educational settings.

Interested in interaction with others.

Study topics like attitudes, aggression, prejudice, interpersonal attraction, group behavior, and leadership

Most work in universities and federal agencies.