Psychology encompasses a vast domain, and includes many different approaches to the study of mental processes and behavior. Below are the major areas of inquiry that taken together constitute psychology. A comprehensive list of the sub-fields and areas within psychology can be found at the list of psychology topics and list of psychology disciplines.

Divisions

Abnormal

Abnormal psychology is the study of abnormal behavior in order to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning. Abnormal psychology studies the nature of psychopathology and its causes, and this knowledge is applied in clinical psychology to treat patients with psychological disorders.

It can be difficult to draw the line between normal and abnormal behaviors. In general, abnormal behaviors must be maladaptive and cause an individual significant discomfort in order to be of clinical and research interest. According to the DSM-IV-TR, behaviors may be considered abnormal if they are associated with disability, personal distress, the violation of social norms, or dysfunction.Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR Fourth Edition (Text Revision) by the American Psychiatric Association.

Anomalistic

Anomalistic psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience connected with what is often called the paranormal, without the assumption that there is anything paranormal involved.Nicola Holt, Christine Simmonds-Moore, David Luke, Christopher French. (2012). Anomalistic Psychology (Palgrave Insights in Psychology). Palgrave Macmillan. Researchers involved with anomalistic psychology try to provide plausible non-paranormal accounts, supported by empirical evidence, of how psychological and physical factors might combine to give the impression of paranormal activity when there had been none. Apart from deception or self-deception such explanations might involve cognitive biases, anomalous psychological states, dissociative states, hallucinations, personality factors, developmental issues and the nature of memory.What is Anomalistic Psychology? A notable researcher in the field of anomalistic psychology is the British psychologist Chris French who set up the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit (APRU) in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London.Anomalistic psychology: What is it and why bother? by Chris French

Behavioral genetics

Behavioural genetics uses genetically informative designs to understand the nature and origins of individual differences in behavior. In focusing on the causes of individual differences, behavioral genetics is distinct from evolutionary psychology, which tends to focus on human universals. Behavioral genetics has thus been associated strongly with the diathesis stress model of psychopathology as well as the nature/nurture debate. Behavioral genetics research was pioneered by Francis Galton and his seminal work in family studies and twin studies after falling out of favor during the eugenics movement during the first part of the 20th century up until World War II. A resurgence of behavioral genetics research began in the 1960s and rose into prominence in the 1980s and beyond. During this time twin study and adoption studies were conducted on a wide array of behavioral traits, including personality, cognitive ability, psychiatric illness, medical illness, and many others. The general conclusion of this large body of work is that every behavioral and medical trait, and indeed measures of the environment is heritable to some moderate degree. Taking advantage of the Human Genome Project more recent work in behavioral genetics uses recent technologies in array-based genotyping, genome sequencing, and other omics to measure genetic variants directly. These genetic variants can then be tested for association with behavioral traits and disorders, for example through genome-wide association studies. This approach to understanding the genetic influences on behavior have seen recent successes in, for example, schizophrenia. Psychiatric genetics is a subfield of behavioral genetics.

Biological

Biological psychology is the scientific study of the biological substrates of behavior and mental states. Seeing all behavior as intertwined with the nervous system, biological psychologists feel it is sensible to study how the brain functions in order to understand behavior. This is the approach taken in behavioral neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychology. Neuropsychology is the branch of psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relate to specific behavioral and psychological processes. Neuropsychology is particularly concerned with the understanding of brain injury in an attempt to work out normal psychological function. Cognitive neuroscientists often use neuroimaging tools, which can help them to observe which areas of the brain are active during a particular task.

Clinical

Clinical psychology includes the study and application of psychology for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development. Central to its practice are psychological assessment and psychotherapy, although clinical psychologists may also engage in research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program development and administration.Brain, Christine. (2002). Advanced psychology: applications, issues and perspectives. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. Some clinical psychologists may focus on the clinical management of patients with brain injury—this area is known as clinical neuropsychology. In many countries clinical psychology is a regulated mental health profession.

The work performed by clinical psychologists tends to be influenced by various therapeutic approaches, all of which involve a formal relationship between professional and client (usually an individual, couple, family, or small group). The various therapeutic approaches and practices are associated with different theoretical perspectives and employ different procedures intended to form a therapeutic alliance, explore the nature of psychological problems, and encourage new ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving. Four major theoretical perspectives are psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, existential-humanistic, and systems or family therapy. There has been a growing movement to integrate the various therapeutic approaches, especially with an increased understanding of issues regarding culture, gender, spirituality, and sexual-orientation. With the advent of more robust research findings regarding psychotherapy, there is evidence that most of the major therapies are about of equal effectiveness, with the key common element being a strong therapeutic alliance.Leichsenring, Falk & Leibing, Eric. (2003). The effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy and cognitive behavior therapy in the treatment of personality disorders: A meta-analysis. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 160(7), 1223-1233.Reisner, Andrew. (2005). The common factors, empirically validated treatments, and recovery models of therapeutic change. The Psychological Record, 55(3), 377-400. Because of this, more training programs and psychologists are now adopting an eclectic therapeutic orientation.Jensen JP, Bergin AE, Greaves DW (1990). The meaning of eclecticism: New survey and analysis of components. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 21(2), pp. 124-130.Palmer S, Woolfe R (eds.) (1999). Integrative and eclectic counselling and psychotherapy. London: Sage.Clarkson P (1996). The eclectic and integrative paradigm: Between the Scylla of confluence and the Charybdis of confusion. In Handbook of Counselling Psychology (R Woolfe & WL Dryden, eds.). London: Sage, pp. 258-283. Goldfried MR, Wolfe BE (1998). Toward a more clinically valid approach to therapy research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66(1), pp. 143-150.Seligman MEP (1995). The effectiveness of psychotherapy: The Consumer Reports study. American Psychologist, 50(12), pp. 965-974.

Cognitive

Cognitive psychology studies cognition, the mental processes underlying mental activity. Perception, learning, problem solving, reasoning, thinking, memory, attention, language and emotion are areas of research. Classical cognitive psychology is associated with a school of thought known as cognitivism, whose adherents argue for an information processing model of mental function, informed by functionalism and experimental psychology.

On a broader level, cognitive science is an interdisciplinary enterprise of cognitive psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, researchers in artificial intelligence, linguists, human–computer interaction, computational neuroscience, logicians and social scientists. Computational models are sometimes used to simulate phenomena of interest. Computational models provide a tool for studying the functional organization of the mind whereas neuroscience provides measures of brain activity.

Community

Community psychology deals with the relationships of the individual to communities and the wider society. Community psychologists seek to understand the quality of life of individuals, communities, and society. Their aim is to enhance quality of life through collaborative research and action.

Community psychology makes use of various perspectives within and outside of psychology to address issues of communities, the relationships within them, and people's attitudes about them. Through collaborative research and action, community psychologists (practitioners and researchers) seek to understand and to enhance quality of life for individuals, communities, and society. Community psychology takes a public health approach and focuses on prevention and early intervention as a means to solve problems in addition to treatment. Rappaport (1977) discusses the perspective of community psychology as an ecological perspective with the person-environment fit being the focus of study and action instead of attempting to change the person or the environment when an individual is seen as having a problem.

Comparative

Comparative psychology refers to the study of the behavior and mental life of animals other than human beings. It is related to disciplines outside of psychology that study animal behavior such as ethology. Although the field of psychology is primarily concerned with humans the behavior and mental processes of animals is also an important part of psychological research. This being either as a subject in its own right (e.g., animal cognition and ethology) or with strong emphasis about evolutionary links, and somewhat more controversially, as a way of gaining an insight into human psychology. This is achieved by means of comparison or via animal models of emotional and behavior systems as seen in neuroscience of psychology (e.g., affective neuroscience and social neuroscience).

Consulting

Consulting psychology includes the application of psychology to consulting contexts at the individual, group and organizational levels. The field specializes in assessment and intervention, particularly in business and organizational applications but also is concerned with the consulting process used to assess and facilitate change in any area of psychology. LowmanLowman, R.L. (Ed.) (2002). Handbook of organizational consulting psychology. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (2002) provides an overview of the field, including the relevance of individual, group and organizational levels to consulting psychologists.

Counseling