Online Psychology Degrees: A Look Inside

A Psychology degree, due to its versatility and broad spectrum of fascinating topics, often catches the eye of prospective students. The psychology field is experiencing a boom in almost every area, from educational opportunities to degree popularity to career outlook.  For these reasons, psychology has been repeatedly ranked among the most popular majors.  However, many students experience an almost dizzying effect when trying to discern their place within the discipline.

At its core, psychology is the study of human beings.  Psychology delves into human processes, such as the way humans think, interact with each other and react to different situations.  More specifically, psychology can be broken down into a series of subcategories, including clinical, forensic, cognitive, social, industrial and abnormal.  If you are considering a profession in psychology, consider doing a little research to clarify your long-term, professional goals.  The following information, though not exhaustive, will give you a jump start on your academic search, as well as a brief look at the discipline’s main subcategories.

• Clinical Psychology: Clinical psychology is mainly focused on the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.  This specialization aims to train graduates with the ability to apply psychological theory to real-life cases and establish a plan that will be of the greatest benefit to the client.  Clinical psychology covers a range of special topics, including disease warning signs, psychological theories, practical application, medicine administration, therapy methods, behavior modification techniques, intervention skills and psychotherapy.  This field of study requires a graduate level degree in order to practice. 
  
  
• Forensic Psychology:  This area of specialty revolves around the application of psychological theories and practices to legal procedures and investigation.  Forensic psychology students are trained to perform several professional duties, including counseling a mentally ill client, completing a psychological evaluation, serving as an advisor to a law firm, supplying  court testimony when requested and determining the mental health capacity of a client.  Therefore, students focus their studies on patterns of human behavior, diagnosis, violence and risk factors, counseling methods, and intervention strategies.  Due to its relation to the legal system, forensic psychology also places emphasis on knowledge of legal procedures, public policy and ethics.
  
  
• Cognitive Psychology: Cognitive psychology, generally, focuses on the study of brain processes and their relation to human behavior.  This sub-field places a particular interest on how the brain acquires information and other functions of learning. Cognitive psychology examines how the brain functions through a series of stages, including perception, processing and information storage.  The discipline is typically broken down into two approaches: the developmental approach and the information-processing approach. The developmental approach, traced back to the work of Jean Piaget, asserts that the brain forms mental “schema” in order to classify and understand its surroundings.  The second method, the information-processing model, compares the human mind to that of a complex computer system.
  
  
• Social Psychology: Social psychology is often considered the bridge between psychology and sociology.  Social psychology emphasizes how human’s emotions and behaviors are affected by societal factors, including human interaction, media outlets and cultural norms.  Social psychologists tend to believe that if one was to change the social ties a person has, one would inevitably change the essence of that person and his/her cognitive and emotional capacities.  Students in this field will take courses in the following areas: social cognition, gender, race, group behavior, human sexuality, research methods and industrial-organizational psychology.
  
  
• Industrial Organizational Psychology: This specialized field examines how human behavior is formed, affected and produced in work settings. Industrial organizational psychology observes how workplace management influences the behaviors and attitudes of the labor force.  The field is especially concerned with the physical and emotional concerns faced by employees in their work environment. Topics covered in this area of psychology may include organization development, leadership, training and evaluation, group behavior, and social cognition.
  
  
• Abnormal Psychology: While often a popular elective for students, abnormal psychology is, in actuality, a rigorous field focused on the study of mental and emotional disorders.  In fact, abnormal psychology analyzes the abnormal brain functions that may produce off-pattern behavior.  Professionals in the abnormal psychology field aim to identify these abnormal human patterns in order to classify, predict and provide treatment for individuals unable to function in society.  Possible courses in this sub-field include behavioral patterns, mental processes and disorders, genetics, learning processes and reasoning, and socialization.

If you are interested in learning more about the psychology field, check out the following distance learning programs in psychology.