- Generally, psychology is divided into either applied or academic psychology. Academic psychology deals with the required topics of psychology that students usually cover when working toward a psychology degree or program. Examples of academic psychology include fields such as cognitive, developmental, personality, social, abnormal and biology psychology. On the other hand, applied psychology refers to those branches of psychology seeking to use psychological principles for solving practical problems in fields such as education, marketing or industry.
- Rather than focusing on observable behaviors, cognitive psychology studies the nature of thought in how people behave and how people think, learn and remember. Cognitive psychology uses information processing as a basis for studying mental processes. It also uses scientific research to study mental processing instead of subjective insights as used in psychoanalysis.
- Developmental psychology is a discipline that describes and explains changes occurring throughout someone's lifetime. This type of psychology views humans as continually growing and changing. It recognizes the biological as well as interacting psychological and social factors that influence a person's growth throughout his life. Although developmental psychology initially was concerned with babies and children, it has branched out to encompass adolescents and adults.
- Social psychology studies how people think, relate and interact with one another. Rather than focusing on individual behaviors, social psychology studies social situations and how they affect peoples' attitudes and behaviors. Social psychologists deal with understanding social cues in addition to how attitudes and stereotypes are formed about other people.
- Abnormal psychology concerns behaviors considered to be unordinary. It's a field of psychology studying people who are continually incapable of adjusting and functioning in various circumstances. This branch of psychology aims to understand root causes of abnormal behavior by studying thoughts and behaviors for interpreting and changing abnormal thought patterns. Abnormal psychology determines how unusual thoughts and behaviors should be addressed and then devises treatment plans for helping patients overcome them.
- Personality psychology is a field studying personalities based on personality studies and individual differences. It studies how people are different from one another as well as how people are similar. Personality psychology analyzes thought patterns, feelings and behaviors that make people unique.
- Biology psychology studies behaviors and experiences in relation to genetics, besides evolution and physiology. It's particularly concerned with the physiology of the nervous system. Along with the study of biology psychology, other related studies are usually included such as neuropsychology and biopsychology.
