What are some different experiences in different fields of Psychology?
I know I want to study Psychology, but want some details on experiences regarding different types of Psychology (clinical, research, etc.) #psychology
2 answers
Linda Ann’s Answer
Hi Noemi,
there are over 4 dozen sub-disciplines within the field of psychology. Some of those sub-disciplines overlap in terms of what they do. When you say "research" for example, there are different types of research that are done. Some research involves testing new interventions (i.e., new therapies), others involve basic research on the neurobiological underpinnings of say learning. Then of course there are applied psychologists who treat patients (clinical psychologists) or apply psychological principles to the workplace (I-O Psychology) or educational settings (school psychologists) or to sports....the list goes on.
So what I recommend is that you browse around the website of the American Psychological Association: www.apa.org. I suggest that you explore in two different areas.
- First, go to the Divisions tab. Read about each of the divisions from this tab. You probably won't be able to do this in one sitting, because as I noted in my first sentence, there are over 4 dozen sub-disciplines)
- Second, read some articles that are published in the monthly magazine. It's called the APA Monitor. Most of the other publications that you will find at the website require membership in the APA. The Monitor does not - so you can browse articles written by psychologists about psychologists to get a better idea about the vastness of what psychology is.
Have fun reading.
Linda Ann recommends the following next steps:
Catalina’s Answer
In Psychology there is a lot of fields of study, you can work in:
- Clinical Psychology: consider this if you have a good basics of understanding the human behavior and if you want to work with different kinds of problems and provide therapy to the people, and don't feel overwhelmed with the problematics of your patients
- Social Psychology: If you like to work with communities in complex social dynamics and understand what are their social behaviours and help them to solve conflicts and be a part of positive impact into their community
- Scholar Psychology: If you like to work with kids and teenagers that could be a good space for you, consider that is important give a good guidance and support to them, usually when you work with this field, is not easy see strong changes in the people because exist other factors that make it complex, like the community where the person is, the family environment
- Legal Psychology: here you have to like with really complex cases of abuse, or drugs or other cases that are related with crimes and legal situations
- Organizational Psychology: Here there is a lot of things to do, is basically more focus on how you can create a better environment to the people at work and understand the dynamics in the work.
Those are the fields where I know more people or have a better approach, my best recommendation is try to read more, research, articles, or talking with your teachers to understand better what they do, and see what are your strengths to start exploring your career
Good luck in your process and my best desires for you :)