The 12 branches (or fields) of Psychology

A summary of the different specializations and fields of action of the science of behavior.

It is quite common to think that psychologists are dedicated to solving certain types of personal problems of "patients". Behavioral problems, such as alcohol addiction; emotional problems, such as the Pain caused by the death of a loved one, or problems related to pathologies also treated by psychiatry.

In short, psychology is, for a large part of the population, the practice of psychotherapy, if not directly something that has to be done by psychiatry.The different specialties (branches) of psychology are divided into two main areas: psychotherapy and psychotherapy, when not directly related to couches, hypnosis and psychoanalysis in general.

The different specialties (branches) of psychology

However, if we take a closer look at what psychology is and what it has been throughout history, we will realize that the areas and fields in which it can be applied are much broader than the iconic image of Sigmund Freud providing psychotherapy services seems to suggest. Indeed, psychology can have so many facets, psychology can have as many facets as there are activities performed by human beings..

That is why there is not just one psychology, but many branches of psychology that are oriented to different fields of application and different objectives. Psychology consisting of psychotherapy with patients is, therefore, only one of the many specialties that exist within the science of behavior.

So, if you want to know what are the different branches of psychology and their job opportunities, you will do well to read the following.

1. Organizational and work psychology

Organizational and work psychology (the latter is also known as industrial psychology) is the psychology of organizations and work. industrial psychology) is concerned with research and intervention on workers, with the aim of finding strategies to make their performance level optimal, taking into account the needs of each of them and those of the organization as a whole. It is, therefore, the application of psychology to the world of work..

People who work in organizational psychology usually work within the Human Resources departments of companies, or they can offer their services from agencies specialized in personnel selection, training courses, the creation of more effective work dynamics, etc.

As the activities carried out within an organization are very varied, this branch of psychology has, in turn, many facets.

One of its facets, for example is oriented to what makes each individual worker perform well in his or her job, either by intervening on the work environment, or by intervening on the work environment, or by intervening on the work environment, or by intervening on the work environment.This may involve intervening on the tools available to each person, studying their strengths and weaknesses, conducting ergonomic studies to check whether or not they work comfortably, etc. This facet of the specialization is usually called work psychology, or industrial psychology, since it has more to do with the performance of each of the workers and their immediate work environment.

The other facet of this specialty of psychology, on the other hand, is oriented towards the dynamics of work, is oriented to the dynamics of work and the relationships between the people who make up the organization.and therefore has to do with work climate, leadership studies, resolution of conflicts of interest, the creation of effective communication flows, etc. This is organizational psychology.

The psychology of work and organizations is also the branch of psychology that tends to have the greatest number of job opportunities, and is therefore usually a highly valued career option. Within it, personnel selection tends to be the one that creates the most jobs..

2. Marketing and consumer psychology

Marketing psychology stems from organizational psychology, in the sense that it is oriented to meet the needs of the productive machinery of companies.. In this case, these needs consist of providing an outlet for the products or services offered, so that the potential demand for them is directed to the company's offer.

In short, among all the branches of psychology, this specialization focuses on research aimed at creating attractive services and products for the customer. focuses on research aimed at creating services and products that are attractive to the customer.. Therefore, it is involved in the creation of the marketing plan, advertising and product design.

Marketing and consumer psychology specializes in making what organizations offer as appealing as possible to the type of customer to whom the product or service is to be sold, and it also establishes which communication strategies are most useful for reaching this customer.. This is a very overlapping discipline with what media and advertising agencies have traditionally been doing, and that is why this type of psychologist works together with professionals in those fields.

Among the most valuable assets of marketing and consumer psychology is neuromarketing, which applies neuroscience techniques to see how potential customers or consumers respond to advertising pieces, packaging designs, and other marketing and consumer psychology tools. packaging designs (product packaging), etc. Advertising psychologists can also play an important role in these design processes according to the way in which they interpret the reading of brain activation patterns, the tracking of the movement of the gaze in front of an advertising poster, etc.

This is one of the most important specialties of psychology in a context where consumers are increasingly immune and skeptical of advertising.

3. Clinical and health psychology

This is one of the best known branches of psychology, if not the best known, and consists of focused research and intervention in the field of psychology. and consists of research and intervention focused on psychological problems. more or less severe disorders that affect people's quality of life. If the psychological alterations have to do with mental disorders, clinical psychologists will work together with other health professionals in the diagnosis, prognosis, intervention and control of psychological alterations.

People who belong to this specialty of psychology offer a service called psychotherapy and whose form, approach and procedures can vary greatly, depending on the psychological orientation they have and the tools they have. As a consequence, not all health psychologists work in the same way, nor do they have the same training, although they may beAlthough they may be included in the category of mental health professionals, not all health psychologists work in the same way or have the same training.

4. Sexology

The specialization of sexology within the field of psychology has to do with the following areasn the application of psychology to the resolution of sexuality problems.. It is a branch of psychology derived from clinical and health psychology, but which is oriented to the treatment of patients' sexual lives.

Although psychology in the field of sexology is especially useful for treating sexual dysfunctions, it can also play a very important role in improving the sexual life of people without any such disorder.

5. Neuropsychology

The nervous system is the base of operations of everything that has to do with our behavior, our emotions and feelings and our ability to think and communicate, so it is normal that one of the branches of psychology is oriented towards neuroscience.

Neuropsychology is a specialization that straddles neurology and psychology, and its raison d'être is the study of mental processes and the functioning of the brain when there is any alteration in this..

Neuropsychology is especially useful in the study of brain lesions, malformations, dysfunctions and diseases that affect the functioning of the nervous system. Thus, people who choose this specialization from among all the branches of psychology will be able to dedicate themselves to the study of the relationships between mental (and behavioral) processes and what happens in the brain, in order to draw conclusions for diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and symptom control.

6. Forensic psychology

This specialty is oriented to cover needs that appear within the judicial system. A forensic psychologist collects, analyzes and presents psychological evidence to be taken into account in judicial proceedings.. For example, it may evaluate a person under investigation to examine the possibility that he or she has mental disorders, or it may provide evidence to strengthen the hypothesis that a person has false memories.

Unlike during psychotherapy, where information related to a specific person's behavior is also collected and analyzed, in forensic psychological evaluation the interests of the psychologist and the person being examined do not coincide. In fact, among the tasks of the forensic psychologist is to explore the possibility that the person being examined is lying in order to assert a version of events that benefits him or her.

In addition to all this, the branch of forensic psychology is related to the creation of psychological profiles of criminals to assist in search and seizure tasks.

7. Educational and developmental psychology

Almost all branches of psychology direct part of their attention to learning processes, but the specialization in educational psychology directs all its attention to them. The objective of this branch is to to apply techniques and strategies to make learning take place in the most satisfactory way possible, so that there is a good fit between the learning process and the learning process.The aim of this branch is to apply techniques and strategies to make learning take place in the most satisfactory way possible, making a good match between learners and teachers.

In addition, educational psychology understands the concept of "education" in its broadest sense. It is not only concerned with what young people do in school, but applies to all areas where learning plays a leading role, whether in training courses for workers or within families and communities that have to adapt to a new situation.

In fact, educational psychology is giving more and more importance to the need to conceive education as a network.The educational psychologist's work is not limited to schools and academies. That is why part of the efforts of educational psychologists are aimed at bringing together different agents who, among themselves, have a role in the education of a group of people: teachers, social workers, family members, etc.

Developmental psychology is closely related to educational psychology and is often perceived as one and the same thing. However, the former is more oriented to behavioral changes that have to do with the maturational development of people and their passage through the different stages of growth, from childhood to old age.

This is used in educational psychology to establish criteria that allow us to know what are the capacities and learning limits of people, depending on what stage of development they are in. For example, the fact that a child is five years old presupposes that she will not be able to learn contents that require the use of a moderately elaborated formal logic.

8. Sport psychology

The branch of sport psychology aims to implement strategies to make the psychological and physical performance of athletes lead them to improve their results, both in terms of their individual performance and that involving their cooperation and coordination with other people in their team (if there are teams in the sport in question). The objective is to ensure that the psychological dynamics, the strategies learned and the emotional state in which the athlete finds himself/herself will lead him/her to be in an optimal situation to make the most of his/her capabilities.

Psychologists who opt for this branch intervene in many of the processes addressed by clinical and educational psychology, such as following self-instructions, the development of good self-esteem and self-image, conflict resolution, habits related to communication during sports sessions, etc.

9. Social psychology

This is one of the most interesting branches of psychology, as it places special emphasis on the It puts special emphasis on the dimension of the collective, the relationships between people in a context.. Thus, social psychology is aimed at investigating the way in which the presence of other people (whether real or imagined) affects the mental processes of the individual.

It is, therefore, a specialization that, although it belongs to psychology, is closer to sociology than the other branches. Moreover, being one of the major fields of psychology, it can play an important role in the other branches of this discipline: organizational psychology, educational psychology, etc.

10. Community psychology

Community psychology can be understood as a derivative of social psychology oriented to research and intervention on problems affecting specific communities and localized groups of people. and localized groups of people.

Its objective is to generate both material changes in the context of these people and new dynamics of relationships among them that allow their quality of life and decision-making capacity to improve.

In addition, the research and intervention strategies of community psychologists promote the participation of the members of the community. promote the participation of community members in the whole process..

11. Couple and family psychology

This branch of psychology can be understood as a specialization within clinical psychology that also takes ingredients from social and community psychology and, in the case of couple therapy services, from sexology. It focuses on conflict resolution within families, and the sessions offered are usually in groups.

12. Basic and experimental psychology

Basic psychology is a branch of psychology totally dedicated to the investigation of the processes research into the more general psychological processes involved in human behavior.. It is oriented to the study of psychological processes typical of mature and healthy human beings, in order to discover tendencies and patterns that characterize the entire human population.

This specialty of psychology is therefore in charge of the study of basic psychological processes such as memory, attention, reasoning or decision making, placing much more emphasis on the mechanisms on which these are based than on the way in which the context influences them.

Bibliographical references:

• Triglia, Adrian; Regader, Bertrand; Garcia-Allen, Jonathan. (2016). Psicológicamente hablando. Paidós. ISBN 9788449332531.
• Vidales, Ismael. (2004). Psicología general. Mexico: Limusa. ISBN 9681863739.