Fields of Specialization

Experimental psychology investigates basic behavioural processes that are shared by various species. Experimental psychologists have sought answers to such questions as: What is the basis for love between mother and baby? Can animal reason? What is the role of the brain in memory? How do visual experiences during infancy affect later vision? They are also interested in how species are interrelated and in the evolutionary significance of certain behaviour.

Researchers in the fields of physiological psychology or neuropsychology attempt to untangle the connections between the nervous and endocrine systems and behaviour. There has been a recent explosion of interest in the way that the brain works. The researchers in this area, which is called neuroscience, investigate the workings of sensory systems, the effects of brain damage on behaviour, and the effects of various brain chemicals on psychological phenomena such as memory, pain, and motivation.

Psychologists who specialize in psychopharmacology study the relationship between drugs and behaviour. Other psychopharmacologists explore the connection between psychopharmacology and various mental disorders. Much of this research is directed at identifying drugs that affect specific receptors in the brain — receptors that may be involved in such problems as pain, anxiety, depression, memory loss, and schizophrenia.

All aspects of behavioural development over the entire life span are the concern of developmental psychology. Every psychological concept — learning, memory, motivation, perception, personality, thinking, and so on — can be examined from the standpoint of its change and development through life. Some developmental psychologists specialize in studying the capabilities of the newborn infant. Others concern themselves with the development of these capabilities in the child, and still others focus on changes through adulthood. There has been increasing interest in the developmental tasks connected with aging, and the past decade has seen the rapid growth of a life-span developmental psychology, which focuses on age-related behavioural change from birth to death.

The study of the relation between personality and behaviour is an example of research in personality psychology, a field in which individual differences in behaviour are studied. Such differences reflect the fact that not all people react the same way in the same situation, and personality psychologists attempt to explain why this is so. They also try to discover why people tend to behave in a fairly consistent manner in various situations. It is this combination of differences among individuals and consistency within individuals that creates personality, so that each of us is known for having a specific set of characteristics, our own ways of behaving, of getting along in the world, and of interacting with others.

Attempts to assess the connection between violence in the mass media and aggressive behaviour are typical of the sort of research done in the field of social psychology, which is concerned with the behaviour of people in groups. Social psychologists are especially interested in the influence of other people on the individual. They study the ways in which interpersonal relationships develop. They want to know who likes whom — and why. They are interested in the attitudes that people have toward social issues and in the way those attitudes are formed and changed by society. They also want to know how those attitudes affect our thought processes. Social psychology has become an extremely wide-ranging field of psychology. Among the topics studied are friendship formation, romantic attraction, perception of other people, social influence, behaviour in groups, bargaining, and conflict.

Educational and School Psychology investigates all the psychological aspects of the learning process. At just one professional conference, educational psychologists presented research on creative thinking in fifth graders, gender differences in mathematical ability, television’s effect on study habits, anxiety in education, teachers’ effects on students’ behaviour, the identification of gifted children, attention in learning disabled children, and a host of other topics. Most educational psychologists work in colleges or universities, where they conduct research and train teachers and psychologists. A few work on curriculum development, materials, and procedures for schools, and in government agencies, business, and the military.

Educational psychology differs considerably from school psychology. Most school psychologists work in elementary and secondary schools, where they assess children with learning or emotional problems and work out ways for parents and teachers to help them. School psychologists also administer personality, intelligence, and achievement tests in the schools.

The workings of personnel departments and the factors that influence job selection are among the topics considered in industrial psychology, in which the relationship between people and their jobs is studied. Psychologists have given increasing attention to the conditions and effects of employment. They investigate employee morale, job-related stress, the qualities that make a good boss, how to enrich jobs, and ways to make working hours more flexible.

The study, diagnosis, and treatment of abnormal behaviour are the province of clinical psychology. Clinical psychologists have developed diverse ways of treating various disorders. In studying the basis of any disorder, they look for possible biological, biochemical, educational, and environmental causes.

Some clinical psychologists who practice community psychology have the primary aim of preventing mental disorders. Their ultimate goal is to change the aspects of the environment that lead to disorder; they can be found in outpatient clinics, advising community workers on how to handle psychological problems, staffing emergency services, and supervising halfway houses and hotlines.