Rajeshwari Dutta, academic content writer in psychology at Edumarz.
The main two branches of psychology are A)PURE PSYCHOLOGY and B)APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY .
Pure psychology deals with many principles and theories for observing and analyzing human behavior. Under pure psychology many sub-branches are there,like:
Clinical psychology
Health and counseling psychology
Abnormal psychology
Social psychology
Experimental psychology
Physiological psychology
Development or child psychology
Now we would explain these sub-branches briefly–
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY – in clinical psychology, the psychologists and psychiatrist both play an important role for diagnosing the behavioral problems, they both use various techniques and therapies for dealing with the problems of patients.
Health and counseling psychology – this branch falls under pure psychology and even in applied psychology also. Here the psychologists play a vital role in counseling their patients with stress ,anxiety, depression and many other behavioral problems, giving suggestions and advice on how to cope up with the stress etc.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY– it studies social interactions, behavior in groups, relationships with the family members like parents,siblings,husband or wife etc.
EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY– it is scientific in nature and mainly deals with laboratory or field experiments for applying the psychological principles and theories.
PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY– it mainly deals with our bodily related issues corresponding with our emotions and cognitive processes also. It mainly studies the nervous system like the central nervous system ;the functioning of the brain,hormones,glands etc.
CHILD OR DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY– it deals with the developmental processes of a human being in every span of life like infancy,childhood,adulthood and old age. Physiological as well as mental problems in every age sphere.
Now we would discuss applied psychology which we use mainly for practical purposes and not only for theories but also in many other fields like in industries, offices etc.
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY – it mainly deals with human behavior in schools and in other educational institutions like observing and analyzing students intelligence, memory and learning procedure in schools and colleges, improving their learning abilities and modification of behavior.
INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY – it mainly deals with the relation of human behavior within the industrial or an organizational situation. How the employee and the employer works corporately in an organization, selection of appropriate workers according to their abilities and disabilities, improving their motivation towards work, efficiency,regularity ect.
LEGAL PSYCHOLOGY – it applies the theories and techniques of observing the behavior of criminals, anti-social persons commiting rape,robbery etc and trying to rectify their problems to bring back to their normal life.
Many other sub branches of applied psychology are also emerging like community psychology, political psychology, forensic psychology, parapsychology, genetical psychology and geo psychology.