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  • The subfields of psychology can be likened to an extended family.
  • One way to identify the key subfields is to look at some of the basic questions about behavior they address.
    • Behavioral neuroscience is the subfield of psychology that mainly examines how the brain and nervous system determine behavior.
    • Experimental psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the processes of sensing, perceiving, learning, and thinking about the world.
    • Cognitive psychology focuses on higher mental processes, including thinking, memory, reasoning, problem solving, judging, decision making, and language.
    • Developmental psychology studies how people grow and change from the moment of conception through death.
    • Personality psychology focuses on the consistency in people's behavior over time and the traits that differentiate one person from another.
    • Clinical psychology deals with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological disorders.
    • Social psychology is the study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by others.
    • Cross-cultural psychology investigates the similarities and differences in and across various cultures and ethnic groups.
    • Clinical neuropsychology focuses on the origin of psychological disorders in biological factors.
    • Evolutionary psychology considers how behavior is influenced by our genetic inheritance from our ancestors.
  • Psychology's roots can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans.
  • Wilhelm Wundt set up the first psychology laboratory in 1879.
    • Wundt presented people with a stimulus and asked them to describe what they were experiencing.
    • Over time, psychologists became dissatisfied with the assumption that introspection could unlock the fundamental elements of the mind.
  • The main perspective that came to replace structuralism as psychology evolved is known as functionalism.
    • Functionalism concentrated on what the mind does and how behavior functions.
    • Another outgrowth is Gestalt psychology, which focuses on how perception is organized.







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