WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY ?

Psychology is the science of mind and behavior.Its immediate goal is to understand behavior and mental processes by researching and establishing both general principles and specific cases.For many practitioners, one goal of applied psychology is to benefit society.In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist, and can be classified as a social scientist, behavioral scientist, or cognitive scientist. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also exploring the physiological and neurobiological processes that underlie certain functions and behaviors. Psychologists explore such concepts as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Some, especially depth psychologists, also consider the unconscious mind.a Psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlational relationships between psychosocial variables. In addition, or in opposition, to employing empirical and deductive methods,some especially clinical and counseling psychologists—at times rely upon symbolic interpretation and other inductive techniques. Psychology incorporates research from the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities, such as philosophy.
While psychological knowledge is often applied to the assessment and treatment of mental health problems, it is also applied to understanding and solving problems in many different spheres of human activity. Although the majority of psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role (clinical, counseling, and school positions); many do scientific research on a wide range of topics related to mental processes and behavior (typically in university psychology departments) and teach such knowledge in academic settings; and some are employed in industrial and organizational settings, and in other areas.such as human development and aging, sports, health, the media, law, and forensics.

PSYCHOLOGY OF ABNORMAL

Abnormal psychology is devoted to the study of mental, emotional, and behavioural aberrations. It is the branch of psychology concerned with research into the classification, causation, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of psychological disorders or psychopathology. Its purview covers a broad spectrum of afflictions and includes neuroses, psychoses, personality disorders, psychophysiological disorders, organic mental syndromes, and mental retardation.
Abnormal psychology is not synonymous with clinical psychology, which is mainly concerned with professional practice and focuses primarily on diagnostic tests and the application of different treatment approaches. The essence of abnormal psychology is its emphasis on research into abnormal behaviour and its endeavour to classify the wide range of mental and emotional aberrations into coherent categories and to understand them. Abnormal psychology serves as a backdrop or guide to clinical practice.Program Descriptions
1. Looking at Abnormal Behavior
The program visits the Jackson Memorial Hospital Crisis Center in Miami, where suicidal, depressed, and schizophrenic patients meet with psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers to assess the nature and seriousness of their problems. It also introduces the various theories used to explain and treat abnormal behavior.
2. The Nature of Stress
We see that stress affects many people — from the overworked and out-of-work, to survivors of suicide and homicide, to Vietnam War veterans who continually re-experience the stress of the battlefield. The program explores the long-term effects of stress and what is known about how to reduce them.
3. The Anxiety Disorders
Even in the best of times, we all experience some anxiety. But millions of Americans suffer from major anxiety disorders. This program examines two of the most common, panic with agoraphobia and generalized anxiety disorder, and shows how psychologists are making headway in treating them.
4. Psychological Factors and Physical Illness
This program examines the relationship between emotions and health to explore how psychological treatment can improve well-being. It focuses on a teenager with migraine headaches, a dentist trying to decrease his risk for developing heart disease, and a woman with breast cancer, along with those who are treating them.
5. Personality Disorders
One in ten Americans has a personality disorder. Some are mildly annoying; others are exceedingly dangerous. Viewers will meet individuals with narcissistic, anti-social, borderline, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders, including a murderer and a group of women who mutilate themselves, and will learn about the challenges involved in both diagnosis and treatment.
6. Substance Abuse Disorders
Millions of Americans abuse alcohol, cigarettes, and cocaine. Health professionals know a great deal about these dangerous and costly disorders, including how to treat them. This program examines how the concept of treatment matching is used to help individuals overcome a variety of addictions.
7. Sexual Disorders
A man exhibits himself in public. A woman feels guilty about not desiring sex. An otherwise happy couple finds themselves at odds over sex. These people share their private problems and demonstrate how the assessment and treatment of sexual disorders has advanced in the past 25 years.
8. Mood Disorders
Depression is one of the most common psychological problems. In this program, psychologists and biologists look at the causes and treatment of both depression and bipolar disorder and show the progress that has been made in helping people return to productive and satisfying lives.
9. The Schizophrenias
In emotionally moving interviews, this program visits people who suffer from the hallucinations, paranoia, and psychological disarray of these disabling illnesses. In addition to examining symptoms and treatments, the program helps debunk some of the myths associated with the disorder and shows its human side and the strength of those who fight to overcome it.
10. Organic Mental Disorders
A teenager must relearn all the basic skills following a head injury. After years of alcohol abuse, a man loses his short-term memory. A woman sees her husband struggle against the ravages of Alzheimer's disease. Science and technology's role in treating these debilitating disorders is also examined in this program.
11. Behavior Disorders of Childhood
Almost all parents worry whether or not their child's behavior is normal. This program visits families of youngsters with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and autism. In addition, experts in child development and psychology discuss how to differentiate abnormal behavior from developmental stages.
12. Psychotherapies
This program allows viewers to "sit-in" on five distinctly different kinds of psychotherapy: psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, Gestalt, couples, and group. Theory and practice are intertwined as these patients progress through therapy, sometimes trying alternative models for the same problem.
13. An Ounce of Prevention
Imagine a society whose citizens are protected from psychological disorders. This final episode visits several programs that are attempting to eliminate known risk factors — including social isolation and inadequate parenting skills — that often lead to serious disorders. The stories are touching; the results are promising.
THESE NOTES ARE ACCORDING TO ALL GREAT PSYCHOLOGIST

PSYCHOLOGY OF BIOLOGICAL

Dr. James W. Kalat tells us that "Biological psychology is the study of behavior and experience in terms of genetics, evolution, and physiology, especially the physiology of the nervous system".
When you study biological psychology, it's likely that you will come across a number of related terms and specializations. These include:

Physiological Psychology

*  Psychobiology

Biopsychology

Neuropsychology

There is also a good chance that you will also be introduced to the field of comparative psychology, which put simply is the study of animal behaviour.biological psychology, also called physiological psychology or behavioral neuroscience, the study of the physiological bases of behaviour. Biological psychology is concerned primarily with the relationship between psychological processes and the underlying physiological events or in other words, the mind-body phenomenon.Its focus is the function of the brain and the rest of the nervous system in activities (e.g., thinking, learning, feeling, sensing, and perceiving) recognized as characteristic of humans and other animals. Biological psychology has continually been involved in studying the physical basis for the reception of internal and external stimuli by the nervous system.
THESE NOTES ARE ACCORDING TO ALL GREAT PSYCHOLOGIST

PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONALITY

Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:
Constructing a coherent picture of a person and his or her major psychological processes
Investigating individual differences, that is, how people can differ from one another
Investigating human nature, that is, how all people's behavior is similar
"Personality"can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations.The word "personality"originates from the Latin persona, which means mask. Significantly, in the theatre of the ancient Latin-speaking world, the mask was not used as a plot device to disguise the identity of a character, but rather was a convention employed to represent or typify that character.
The pioneering American psychologist Gordon Allport (1937) described two major ways to study personality: the nomothetic and the idiographic. Nomothetic psychology seeks general laws that can be applied to many different people, such as the principle of self-actualization, or the trait of extraversion. Idiographic psychology is an attempt to understand the unique aspects of a particular individual.
The study of personality has a broad and varied history in psychology, with an abundance of theoretical traditions. The major theories include dispositional (trait) perspective, psychodynamic, humanistic, biological, behaviorist and social learning perspective. There is no consensus on the definition of "personality" in psychology. Most researchers and psychologists do not explicitly identify themselves with a certain perspective and often take an eclectic approach.

PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL

According to the Social Psychology Network, social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. Common topic areas within social psychology include:

Prejudice & Discrimination

Aggression

Leadership

Attitudes

Stereotypes

Group Dynamics

Interpersonal Attraction & Perception

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all of the psychological variables that are measurable in a human being. The statement that others may be imagined or implied suggests that we are prone to social influence even when no other people are present, such as when watching television, or following internalized cultural norms.

Social psychology is an interdisciplinary domain that bridges the gap between psychology and sociology. During the years immediately following World War II,there was frequent collaboration between psychologists and sociologists.However, the two disciplines have become increasingly specialized and isolated from each other in recent years,with sociologists focusing on "macro variables" (e.g. social structure) to a much greater extent.Nevertheless, sociological approaches to social psychology remain an important counterpart to psychological research in this area.

PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALTH

The American Psychological Association states that health psychology is concerned with understanding how biology, behavior, and social context influence health and illness.
Within this framework, the division of health psychology within the British Psychological Society notes that psychological research and methods are applied to inform such issues as:

The Promotion & Maintenance of Health

The Identification of Factors Contributing to Physical Illness;

The Improvement of The Health Care System

The Formulation of Health Policy

 Health psychologists work alongside other medical professionals in clinical settings, work on behavior change in public health promotion, teach at universities, and conduct research.Although its early beginnings can be traced to the kindred field of clinical psychology, four different divisions within health psychology and one allied field have developed over time.The four divisions include clinical health psychology, public health psychology,community health psychology,and critical health psychology.The allied field is occupational health psychology.Psychologists who strive to understand how biological, behavioral, and social factors influence health and illness are called health psychologists.The term "health psychology" is often used synonymously with the terms "behavioral medicine" and "medical psychology".Health psychologists work with many different health care professionals (e.g., physicians, dentists, nurses, physician's assistants, dietitians, social workers, pharmacists, physical and occupational therapists, and chaplains) to conduct research and provide clinical assessments and treatment services.Many health psychologists focus on prevention research and interventions designed to promote health and reduce the risk of disease.While more than half of health psychologists provide clinical services as part of their duties, many health psychologists function in non-clinical roles, primarily involving teaching and research. Leading journals include Health Psychology.
THESE NOTES ARE ACCORDING TO ALL GREAT PSYCHOLOGIST

PSYCHOLOGY OF COUNSELING

According to The Society of Counseling Psychology, a division of The American Psychological Association, counseling psychology is:
A general practice and health service provider specialty in professional psychology. Counseling psychology focuses upon personal and interpersonal functioning across the life span and on emotional, social. vocational, educational, health-related, developmental and organizational concerns. It centers on typical or normal developmental issues as well as atypical or disordered development as it applies to human experience from individual, family, group, systems and organizational perspectives.
The Society of Counseling Psychology also note that counseling psychologists help people with physical, emotional and mental disorders improve well-being, alleviate distress and maladjustment, and resolve crises. Practitioners in the professional specialty also provide assessment, diagnosis and treatment of psychopathology.Counseling psychology is a psychological specialty that encompasses research and applied work in several broad domains: counseling process and outcome; supervision and training; career development and counseling; and prevention and health. Some unifying themes among counseling psychologists include a focus on assets and strengths, person–environment interactions, educational and career development, brief interactions, and a focus on intact personalities.In the United States, the premier scholarly journals of the profession are the Journal of Counseling Psychology and The Counseling Psychologist.
In Europe, the scholarly journals of the profession include the European Journal of Counselling Psychology (under the auspices of the European Association of Counselling Psychology) and the Counselling Psychology Review (under the auspices of the British Psychological Society).Counselling Psychology Quarterly is an international interdisciplinary publication of Routledge (part of the Taylor & Francis Group).
In the U.S., counseling psychology programs are accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), while counseling programs are accredited through the Counsel for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). In all 50 states, counselors can be licensed at the masters degree level, once meeting the state and national criteria. To become licensed as a counseling psychologist, one must meet the criteria for licensure as a psychologist. Both doctoral level counseling psychologists and doctoral level counselors can perform both applied work, as well as research and teaching.
These notes are according to all great Psychologist.