Comprehensive Overview of Contemporary Psychology Branches and Applications

the goal of this lecture is going to be to talk about contemporary psychology so let's start by talking about some of

the branches within psychology as a discipline as it exists today so we'll start with biopsychology

we'll talk about evolutionary psychology sensation and perception cognitive psychology

developmental psychology personality psychology social psychology positive psychology

Health psychology industrial organizational psychology Sports and exercise psychology Clinical

Psychology and then finally forensic psychology now a lot of these branches of

psychology if you've looked ahead in the syllabus you'll notice that we'll be covering these with each we'll have a

chapter dedicated to them so for example sensation and perception will spend a chapter talking about that we'll have a

chapter on developmental on personality on social psychology some of the other uh branches of psychology like sports

and exercise we won't devote an entire chapter to but we will talk about issues that are relevant to those sorts of

topics throughout the semester so let's go through and give a brief overview of each of these separate

branches of psychology so let's start with biopsychology so biological psychologists study how the

structure and function of the nervous system generates Behavior so research within this area can focus on sensory

and motor systems issues relevant to sleep would be of interest to biopsychologist drug use and abuse would

certainly be of interest to biopsychologists things like ingestive behaviors reproductive behaviors

neurodevelopment plasticity of the nervous system biological correlates of psychological

disorder so for example what are the sorts of biochemistry issues and people who are experiencing depression for

example and if we can identify what those biochemical issues are can we then try to correct those sorts of issues

with things like medication for example the second branch of psychology is evolutionary psychology we've mentioned

evolutionary psychology as a perspective previously but the central premise is that issues surrounding natural

selection and sexual selection occurs for Behavioral traits as well as physical characteristics this really

came to fruition in the 1980s as as a separate Branch within psychology folks like David Buss Martin Daly Margo Wilson

Lita cosmides and John tube were among the the Pioneers in this particular branch of psychology

uh issues surrounding natural selection have been studied for issues pertaining things like mating preferences so for

example who are really high value sorts of mating Partners issues surrounding jealousy when are the sorts of

situations that might cue individuals become romantically jealous in different situations things like aggression sexual

behavior language decision-making personality development all of those have been things that have been of

tremendous interest to evolutionary psychologists this is a really interesting perspective

and it's become more popular in recent decades but there are certainly some criticisms uh for example one of the

most common criticisms of evolutionary psychology is that sometimes it seems as if they are creating just those sorts of

stories right so the idea is what evolutionary psychologists are trying to do is they're trying to create an

explanation an ultimate explanation for how certain behaviors and mental processes may have emerged over the

course of human evolution however we don't necessarily have a great deal of information about what our

behaviors let alone our mental processes were in our ancestral past and so sometimes one of the criticisms

is that evolutionary psychologists are coming up with stories to to explain what they think is going

on rather than finding real empirical information so for example if we contrast uh evolutionary psychology with

evolutionary biology where evolutionary biologists can use things like they can use things like

genetic similarities to to ancient samples they can do things like look at the fossil record to see how organisms

have changed over the course of uh evolution of a particular species in contrast when we're looking at things

like behavioral patterns and mental processes it's it's much more it's much more difficult to find good evidence of

information from our deep ancestral past for example our behavioral patterns don't leave fossil records right in the

same way that our biological change like for example in our bone structure would would leave

there's also sensation and perception as I mentioned we'll spend an entire chapter on sensation and perception so I

really just want to introduce the idea very briefly today so the focus of sensation perception is going to be on

the physiological aspects of our sensory systems and the psychological experience of those of that sort of sensory

information so sensation itself is about sensory information it's seeing something it's

hearing something it's touching something it's smelling something perception is going to be how we make

sense of the world around us right where do we focus our attention based on previous experiences cultural

backgrounds and basically how are we making sense of this sensory information that's coming into our bodies and so

we'll talk a lot about sensation and perception soon but uh just to give a quick example

going back something we talked about with Gestalt psychology previously if you look at the image down here at the

bottom of the screen right if you look at it and think about it in one way you might see a rabbit so for example if

that's the eye of the rabbit that's mouth those are its ears and it's kind of maybe kind of sitting up and looking

in this direction however you could also see exactly this same image as being a duck right so

there's the eye of the duck the back of the duck's head and there's its bill right so now the duck is looking that

way in this case right regardless of whether you see a duck or a rabbit right it's

the same sensory information that's coming in right the same image is on the retina of your eye right but your

perception of that right the way in which your brain makes sense of what it's seen can vary dramatically

depending on whether or not you're seeing it as being a duck or as a rabbit cognitive psychology is a very prominent

discipline Branch within psychology what cognitive psychology focuses on in the mental processes and activities that are

involved in perceiving Remembering thinking learning and communicating as well as the acts of actually going about

using those processes we'll talk a lot about cognitive psychology we'll have an entire chapter devoted to it we'll talk

about it in other contexts as well developmental psychology focuses on the physical and mental mental attributes of

aging and maturation so for example when we talk about developmental psychology in a chapter

later this semester we'll talk about uh developmental changes and how people think about moral sorts of issues our

moral reasoning how that changes across the lifespan we'll talk about cognitive skills and how they change through

maturation we'll talk about social issues as well uh the image here is of a gentleman and

Jean Piaget who is really famous for his series regarding uh the maturation of cognitive abilities as we move from

infancy to adulthood so we'll talk about some of Piaget's work when we get to developmental psychology soon

also we'll we want to talk about personality psychology so I've mentioned previously that I'm a social personality

psychologist so personality is is one of one of my areas of specialization what personality psychologists focus on

are behaviors and thought patterns that are unique to each individual right and how we can look at those across uh wide

expanses of the population so for example personality psychologists are likely to be interested in things

like the structure of Personality right particular personality traits that people may possess in varying degrees as

well as things like personality processes right how do how people go about responding to situational input

based on the sorts of traits that they possess for example the diagram here is of something called

the five Factor model of Personality which is going to be by far the most popular model for understanding human

personality the idea behind the five Factor model is there are five different dimensions of

personality and that all of us are all of us possess each of these five Dimensions to varying

degrees so the First Dimension is something called openness so this involves things

like imagination feelings actions and ideas people who are really high in openness are curious they have a lot of

interest they're really kind of independent in contrast people who are low in openness tend to be fairly

practical and conventional and they tend to prefer routine so for example I would probably be somewhere on on the low to

moderate side and openness I I really enjoy routines I do have a decent range of interest but I I'm definitely not

terribly high in openness uh the second dimension is conscientiousness conscientious refers

to things like competence self-discipline thoughtfulness being goal driven people who are high in

conscientiousness tend to be very hard working they're Dependable they're organized people who are relatively low

in conscients tend to be impulsive careless and disorganized right and again conscientiousness is a Continuum

right any of us all of us will fall somewhere on that Continuum some of us are very very low in conscientiousness

some of us may be very very high but the idea is that there's a Continuum and all of us Falls somewhere on that continuum

the next of the five Dimensions is extraversion extroversion refers to our associate ability how assertive we are

the way in which we express our emotions people who are high in extroversion tend to be very outgoing they're warm they

seek adventure for example in contrast people who are low in extroversion tend to be fairly quiet they're reserved and

they're withdrawn I would be pretty low on extroversion I'm fairly quiet when left to my own devices I prefer to spend

time with just my wife or a small group of people I'm not someone who is looking for situations in which I can be around

large groups of people right that is just it that is not the kind of person that I am

the fourth dimension is agreeableness agreeables refers to how Cooperative someone is how trustworthy how good

natured they are people who are high in agreeableness are helpful they're trusting and they're empathic uh people

who are low and agreeableness tend to be critical uncooperative and suspicious the final of the five factors for this

model of personality is something called neuroticism This is a tendency toward unstable emotional experiences people

who are high in neuroticism tend to be fairly anxious they're unhappy and they're prone to experience a lot of

negative emotions in contrast people who are low in neuroticism tend to be relatively calm

even tempered and secure so these are some of the basic personality traits and again the idea isn't that you and I

would just have one of these rather all of us are have scores on all five of these Dimensions what matters is where

we fall along the Continuum for each right for some of you you may be really high in openness but low in

conscientiousness for others you may be the opposite maybe low in openness but high in conscientiousness for example

next is social psychology social psychology involves how people into how people interact with and relate to other

people and how social interactions can influence our Behavior popular topics within the realm of

social psychology uh involve things like prejudice and discrimination issues surrounding attraction and relationship

maintenance and formation interpersonal conflicts how groups get along with each other and issues of

obedience and and uh and persuasion uh for example I have an ad here for a study that Stanley Milgram did in the

60s it's uh by far the most famous psychology study that's ever been done and it was one about obedience and so

we'll talk uh later in the semester when we cover social psychology about the role of this particular study of

obedience and how it shaped our understanding of human behavior in a way that it completely changed the way

people think about the role of obedience and we'll talk more about that later in the semester

next up is positive psychology the idea behind positive psychology is it uses Theory and research to better understand

the positive adaptive creative and fulfilling aspects of human existence so it focuses a lot on positive subjective

experiences positive individual traits and positive institutions and communities

essentially positive psychology is pretty much the exact opposite of what I do in my own research my own research

I'm very focused on the the more negative sides of of humanity so I'm a social personality psychologist I focus

a lot on the really unpleasant aspects of personality so I focus on things like narcissism psychopathy spitefulness and

so part of what positive psychology part of the reason why it came into existence is that people interested in positive

psychology thought that a lot of psychologists were like myself who are more interested in when things

go wrong and they thought that okay it's perfectly fine to study when things go wrong and what's wrong with people but

they also thought we should also focus on what's right with people as well right so it's a very nice perspective

that adds a compliment to work like the sort of work that I do where I tend to be much more focused on when things go

wrong with people right it's a positive psychology is focus on when things go right with people

in many ways positive psychology as a as a current branch of psychology involves some of those humanistic concerns that

we talked about previously right we talked about things when we talked about people like Abraham Maslow and Carl

Rogers what positive psychology really is doing is taking some of those issues about human growth and maturation and

really taking those and translating them into more testable and objective sorts of areas of psychology

there's also Health psychology it's a branch that focuses on how individual health is directly related to or

affected by biological psychological and socio-cultural factors and so often within Health psychology what these

individuals are looking at are kind of the intersection of these different forces and having an impact on our

health right so the biopsychosocial model suggests that health and illness is really determined by an interaction

of these three things social forces play a big role psychological forces play a big role and biological forces also are

obviously important as well next up is industrial organizational psychology this is a branch of

psychology that applies some of the ideas and theories and principles of psychology to to Industrial and

organizational settings so for example if we're understanding how people get along with each other in

other contexts what happens is that an industrial organizational psychologists take those ideas and try to apply them

to the best of their ability to workplace situations and so some of the issues that industrial organizational

psychologists be interested or be things that are related personnel management organizational structure and workplace

environment right how can we take the findings and ideas from other areas of psychology and apply those to our

working lives we'll also uh talk about issues connected to sports and exercise

psychology throughout uh the semester so the focus here is going to be on psychological aspects regarding Sports

and Physical performance so for example people interested in sports and exercise psychology will focus on issues like

motivation right what is that drives people to excel in these areas performance related anxiety right what

is that kind of prevents people from performing to their Peak abilities are people really anxious about performing

in front of a crowd for example right how can psychologists help individuals in these areas perform better also the

connections that General mental well-being has with sports and exercise right so for example what are the

consequences of enhancing of getting more exercise for example right does that have consequences for our general

well-being Beyond just our our physical development for example Clinical Psychology focuses on the

diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders as well as other problematic patterns of behavior even if they aren't

classified as a psychological disorder per se so for example things like relationship problems or or stress at

work even if those don't rise to the level of being a psychological disorder or are related to psychological

disorders those could also be things that clinical psychologists would focus on

um the study here is going to be on therapeutic and counseling sorts of approaches as well as understanding the

general mechanisms and issues connected with uh psychological disorders the diagram I have here on this slide is

going to be what a cognitive behavioral therapists both typically focus on cognitive behavioral therapy is a really

pervasive form of therapy used by psychologists and basically the idea is that there are important interactions

and and reciprocal interactions between the emotions that we experience the thoughts that we have in our behaviors

so for example if you are let's say for example that you're at work and your boss gives a promotion to someone else

the idea is that when you see someone else get a promotion that may cause you to have certain types of thoughts right

in response to that event so for example you may think that the uh that the other person maybe they have been working

harder maybe they're more experienced than you are maybe they deserve that promotion more than you did right so if

you have that sort of thought that may then trigger feelings of okay well it's it's not the ideal outcome but I

understand why it happened in that case you may not be terribly upset or angry right you may be a little envious of

your co-worker for getting the promotion that you would have liked but hopefully you would then be you would respond in a

way that's supportive and maybe you you uh you congratulate them on their promotion

instead if when your co-worker gets the promotion that you wanted if you think that it's unfair right if you decide no

no I deserve that promotion more than he or she does right that sort of thought May then

trigger some really kind of nasty forms of envy you may be really angry maybe you make a kind of snide comments or you

try to undermine your co-worker in some way the whole idea behind this sort of cognitive behavioral approach is that

what we do is going to be influenced and have have tremendous impact and reciprocal relationships with our

thoughts and emotions and what cognitive behavioral therapists try to do is they try to help their clients understand the

connections between the thoughts that they have their emotional experiences and their behaviors

the final branch of psychology that we want to mention today is going to be forensic psychology this branch of

psychology is going to be it's going to be involved with the justice system so oftentimes when people think about

forensic psychology it's become by by far the fastest growing in terms of interest from students in recent years

usually what students think about when they first hear forensic psychologists they think about criminal profilers for

example um who are tracking like serial killers or something of that sort and certainly

those people are often do have a background in in forensic psychology but forensic psychology is much broader than

being a criminal profiler most forensic psychologists are not criminal profilers rather they're working in other areas of

the justice system so some of the tasks that are associated with forensic psychology include things

like assessing an individual's mental competencies competency to stand trial so they may be involved in sentencing

and treatment suggestions for for offenders they may also give advice regarding eyewitness testimony when we

talk about cognition uh and memory later we'll talk about issues surrounding eyewitness testimony and forensic

psychologists one of their roles may be to help help guide eyewitness testimony and interpret eyewitness testimony to to

be to be the fairest for the for the justice system so one of the things that happens with people with the back also

forensic psychologists tend to be tend to operate in kind of every aspect of the justice system so even though we

usually think about them in terms of working for police or the FBI they work in prisons as well uh helping helping

wardens and other members of the staff kind of guide the way in Rich prisons work they may work individually with uh

with prisoners on on behave behavioral modifications sorts of things those kinds of things as well

so this field of psychology is going to require obviously a fairly good understanding of the legal system