There are four main branches of psychology.

David Tolan Psychology LO1 Question two

There are four main branches of psychology, and this essay will set out to explain and outline the main points of each branch in turn.Firstly there is CLINICAL psychology, this is probably the branch that people are most

familiar with and most people would say that this is when you lie on a couch and talk about your problems. But this is a generalisation as clinical psychology is much more than this.Clinical psychologists are qualified to assess the mentally handicapped, administer psychological tests to people with brain-damage caused by blows to the head in accidents such as car crashes, or violent attacks. They are involved in the devising and developing of rehabilitation programmes for long-term psychiatric patients. Furthermore they also plan and carry out behaviour therapy and modification programmes and work in law enforcement assessing the mental state of defendants and witnesses in court cases, and they are also involved in assessment of

patients in prisons and prison hospitals such as Carstairs or Broadmoor.

ACADEMIC psychologists can be found in teaching posts in universities and polytechnic colleges.They are also involved in research, dealing in ways in

which knowledge is attained, retained and used. This includes area’s such as, memory, perception, problem solving and reasoning . This is usually pure (applied) research , carried out in the name of science, the work of people like Pavlov and Skinner are good examples of work in this field. Academic psychologists are also used by business organisations to carry out research on their behalf.

EDUCATIONAL ...