Branches of psychology and which one to study

First of all congratulations for considering psychology as this is a very beautiful subject which has the ability to introduce you to yourself. Psychology though came into existence couple of centuries ago but it is as old as humanity. Since time immemorial humans have been in constant search for the answer of behaviours and thoughts exhibited by the humans.

Learning psychology helps you to connect with fellow humans and understand their problems and provide solution. This is in itself a very invaluable experience that no other subjects empowers you to have. It is not just about other's problem and other people, but after studying psychology you will experience a change within you. That is also the speciality of this subject. It will you to understand yourself, your emotions and will capacitate you to control them.

Along with these intrinsic values psychology as a subject and vocational studies also provides good economic opportunities for professionals. There are number of branches of psychology that a person can choose from like clinical psychology, Educational psychology, military psychology, work psychology, psychology of social integration, advertisements, sports psychology, forensic psychology and many others.

For our ease we can arrange them into following four broad heading and will tell you why should you choose one branch rather than other.

Let see them one by one --

1. Social psychology - This contains number of branches of psychology. they are

a. Educational     -       In this branch you will learn about various ways of teaching to students. problems that are faced by the students from early childhood to later in life. It will help you to understand the individual needs regarding education such as there are students who are very bright and there are who are very dull. A psychologist understand the learning abilities and style of individual students and help them to achieve their intended goals.

b. social integration  -  This branch of psychology deals with enhancing social cohesion , removing prejudice and discrimination from the society. Psychologist have the task of designing activities, policies and objectives to accomplish the task of social integration. It ranges from local area to national level. for instance to instil the feeling of cooperation in the students a psychologist may conduct experiments and workshops so that students can be taught to respect each other and value virtues like equality, fraternity , cooperation etc.

c. Rehabilitation -     This branch deals with rehabiliting the victims of aids, alcohol or substance abuse and post traumatic stress disorders. working in this area will enable you to help people live a fuller life and be healthy.

2. Corporate sector - This field of psychology contains branches like -

a. Advertisements    -  In this branch a psychologist uses the knowledge of human memory , learning, and perception to design the media of advertisement, duration of advertisement, frequency of advertisement etc.

b. Work             -           This branch seeks to enhance the motivation, loyalty, and productivity    of employees. For this tasks psychologists design the environmental set up, perks and their frequency that should be given to the employees and other values that are required for optimum utilisation of the work force.

3. Public Sector -      This field of psychology contains branches -

a. forensic psychology -   Forensic psychology deals with crimes and criminals. Why a person does murder or any other criminal acts. How it can be prevented ? Are witness true? and many other questions like this are sought by psychologist to answer.

b. Criminal Psychology -   Not all are born criminals but become due to some events in their life. Psychologist try to find out the possible reason behind the journey of becoming criminal and they also try to figure out the possibilities of amending their thoughts, attitude and behaviour.

4. Clinical Psychology -  This field of psychology deals with -

a. Mental disorders             - Any one can have mental disorders in their life . These disorders are very difficult to spot and cause a tremendous amount of disturbance in the patient life. This is probably the most common and popular branch of psychology. Disorders like schizophrenia, Obsessive compulsion disorders, paranoid and many other needs psychological interventions for treatment.

b. Relationship counselling  -  This branch deals with the problem faced by most of us in our life like unsuccessful marriage, constant domestic violence, being alone and depressed. Psychologist help the client to understand ones and other's emotions . They find the root cause of the problem by interrogating to the patients in numbers of sessions. They do this by letting their clients open up about their relationships, their thoughts , their beliefs and so on without judging them. In this way psychologists help them to achieve full potential of their life.

Final words

These were some important branches of psychology that a student can aspire to go with for professional career. But choosing branches will not just depend on the popularity of the branch and their economic potential rather it will depend on your personality your likes and dislikes, you expectations from life, what you values and what you want to contribute to the society and many other factors.

So choose wisely first do a exercise of self introspection so that you can find out the answers above questions and then do further research in the sort listed branches of psychology.

Wishing you a satisfied career ahead