Branches of psychology

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Definitions of psychology

Psychology is the science of human behaviour.

- Kolesnik

Psychology is the science of the activities of the individual in relation to the environment.

- Woodworth

Psychology is a positive science of behaviour.

- Watson

Psychology is the science of behaviour and experience.

- Skinner

Psychology is the study of human behaviour and human relationships

- Crow & Crow

Branches of psychology

In modern times, psychology is being used in almost all aspects of human life as it is very helpful to understand and improve the existing conditions. Important branches of psychology are as follows.

Abnormal psychology

Adult psychology

Animal psychology

Child psychology

Clinical psychology

Developmental psychology

Educational psychology

Experimental psychology

General psychology

Genetic psychology

Individual psychology

Group psychology

Abnormal psychology the scope of abnormal psychology is limited to the study of abnormal individuals only.

Adult psychology it studies the behaviour of adult humans. An adult is a mature person and his emotional, social and intellectual behaviour is not like the behaviour of child. So it is totally a separeate branch of psychology.

Animal psychology it may be named as animal psychology also it is a comparative study of the behaviour of man and various animals. Animals cannot express themselves. Therefore, we can study their behaviour with the help of experiments only. It is very difficult to do some experiments on human beings. Therefore, some of the experiments are first tried on animals and then the results are applied to human beings. The laws of learning, now applied with much success to pupils in schools, were discovered in this way.

Child psychology it deals with the development of behaviour of the child. The child differs from the adult very much. His life urges, his emotions, his sentiments, his intelligence and his aspirations all differ from those of the adult. Therefore, child psychology is a full-fledged science itself.

Clinical psychology it primarily deals with problem children.

Developmental psychology it deals with the development of human beings from conception through various stages till death. Development covers various aspects i.e. emotional, language, motor physical, social etc.

Educational psychology it is the most important branch of applied psychology. It is the study of the psychologycal aspects of educational situations. It is a study of educational problems with reference to psychologycal facts. Psychology is the science of behaviour and education aims at modifying the behaviour in the most desirable way. But modification of behaviour depends on some fundamental psychological laws and limitations. Educational psychology studies those facts and limitations. It covers the development of the child from early childhood to maturity general facts of psychology which may have any relation with the modificaion of abilities, attitudes and interest and other problems of applied psychology related to education.

Experimental psychology it studies mental processes and behaviour in laboratories with the help of experiements.

General psychology it sutdies the behaviour of human organism in general. Its scope is very large but generally it studies normal organisms. It is the mother of all other branches of psychology.

Genetic psychology it is concerned with development stages of an individual.

Individual psychology it deals with the variation in human beings. No two persons are alike. They differ in their behaviour according to their intelligence, race and sex. They also differ in behaviour in other factors such as interests, philosophy and education.

Military psychology it is concerned with various aspects of military personnel and techniques