PSY4101: Introduction to Psychology​

ICBT Campus - Higher Diploma in Psychology​

Session 6
Branches of Psychology

Denista Perera (she/her)

[email protected]
 Session Outline
• Overview
• Different branches of psychology
– Developmental Psychology
– Educational Psychology
– Forensic Psychology
– Industrial-Organizational Psychology
– C linical Psychology
– C ounselling Psychology
• Cultural psychology & Cross-cultural research
 Overview
• The field of psychology has quickly established itself as one of the broadest
scientific disciplines.

• From researching unusual behaviors to helping athletes harness their peak

performance, psychologists work in a wide-range of settings.

• There are different types of psychology that serve different purposes.

• There is no fixed way of classifying them, but there are some common types.
What we’re doing today
• Educational Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Counselling
• Developmental Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Industrial- Organizational Psychology
• Neuropsychology
 What we’re not doing today
• Evolutionary psychology

• Biological psychology

• C ognitive psychology

• Behaviourist psychology
Developmental Psychology
 Educational Psychology
• Educational psychologists study factors that impact learning, including
learning methods and how information is processed and absorbed.
• Memory, concepts, and individual differences all affect how a person learns.
• In researching these processes, psychologists apply theories of human
development to better understand how to improve the instructional process.
• Educational psychologists apply theories of human development to understand
individual learning and inform the instructional process.
• While interaction with teachers and students in school settings is an important
part of their work, it isn’t the only facet of the job.
 Educational Psychology
• Psychologists working in education study the social, emotional and cognitive
processes involved in learning and apply their findings to improve the
learning process.
• Educational psychologists can work in primary and secondary schools as well as
universities.
• They can provide counsel to students who struggle to learn with disorders such as
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Dyslexia.

• ADHD can affect a student’s focus on important classwork while dyslexia can affect
reading fluency, comprehension and spelling, among other symptoms. How much
does the time of day when new information is introduced influence whether a
person retains that information?
• What does culture have to do with how we process new ideas?
• How does age affect our ability to develop new skills, like language?
• How is in-person learning different from remote learning using technology?
 Educational Psychology
• Instructional design: Designing learning materials

• Special education: Helping students who may need specialized instruction

• Curriculum development: Creating coursework that will maximize learning

• Organizational learning: Studying how people learn in organizational settings

• Gifted learners: Helping students who are identified as gifted learners

 Clinical Psychology
• Clinical psychology integrates science, theory, and practice in order to understand, predict
and relieve problems with adjustment, disability,and discomfort.
• Clinical psychology relates to psychologists directly providing comprehensive
healthcare to patients who are suffering from mental illness.
• They also help us to understand, prevent, and alleviate psychologically-caused
distress or dysfunction,and promote an individual’s well-being and personal
development.
 Clinical Psychology
• Clinical psychologists interact with patients through observations, interviews and tests before making a
diagnosis and coming up with a plan to deal with the symptoms of a mental illness.
• Many psychologists in this field use psychoanalysis,a psychological theory and form of therapy for
treating mental disorders in patients.
• Over the course of multiple visits,psychologists delve into the emotions and experiences of apatient to
provide insight into the illness.
• Psychological assessment and psychotherapy are central to the practice of clinical psychology, but clinical
psychologists are often also involved in research,training, forensic testimony, and other areas.
 Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
• Existential therapy
• Family therapy
• Art therapy
• Systematic desensitisation
• Aversion therapy
• Psychoanalytic therapy
• Hypnotherapy
• Counselling
 Counselling Psychology
C ounselling can be used to help with:
– Mental health conditions, like depression, anxiety, or an
eating disorder
– Physical health conditions that one might find
upsetting,such as infertility
– Bereavement,a relationship break up or work-
related stress
– Difficult emotions, for example, low self-esteem or
anger
– Other issues, including sexual identity
 Counselling Psychology
• Counseling psychologists treat patients who
are experiencing an emotional strain caused
by social or physical factors.
• This differs from clinical psychologists, who
treat and diagnose patients with mental
disorders.
• Marriage and grief counselors would be
considered part of counseling
psychology.
 Developmental Psychology
• This is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes that a
person experiences over the life span, often referred to as human
development.
• It focuses not only on infants and young children but also teenagers,
adults, and older people.
• Factors include motor skills, problem solving, moral
understanding, acquiring language, emotions, personality, self-
concept, and identity formation.
• It also looks at innate mental structures against learning through
experience, or how a person’s characteristics interact with
environmental factors and how this impacts development.
• Developmental psychology overlaps with fields such as linguistics.
 Developmental Psychology
• One of the most famous developmental psychologists
is Jean Piaget
• He proposed a theory of cognitive development in
children
– Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
– Preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7
– Concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11
– Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up

Piaget theorized that children learn best through experience, actively exploring and discovering new items and
outcomes to save in their memory banks and use as building blocks for more exploration in the future.
 Developmental Psychology
Other very interesting topics in developmental psychology include
• The development of emotion
• Children’s perceptions of the outgroup
• Play and cognitive development
• Early social learning
• Drawing and it’s effects on memory
• Children’s developing understanding of knowledge
• Learning from others
• Developmental disorders and educational challenges
• Children as witnesses
 What is Forensic Psychology?

• It is the activities of all psychologists whose work is related to and impacts

the criminal justice system
• It is not always related to profiling and crime scene investigations
• Forensic psychologists must know the legal framework (law and criminal
justice system), about offender, witness, victims etc., treatments, and have
experience.
• There are major ethical considerations in research within this topic: e.g.
measuring violence, studying jury behaviour directly, measuring abuse.
 Forensic Psychology

• Forensic psychology involves applying psychology to criminal investigation and the

law.
• It involves assessing the psychological factors that might influence a case or behavior
and presenting the findings in court.
• How does psychology help progress of justice?
– by informing the issue of eyewitness testimony
– studying the nature of prejudice on police practice and judicial matters
– The development of treatment of offenders.
 Forensic Psychology
• Offender profiling
• Personality psychology
• Sexual offenders
• Genetics
• Psychopaths
• Sociopaths
• Victimology
 Theories of Crime
Cultivation Theory (Gerbner, 1972)
• Idea that mass media and TV are means of cultural transmission.
• TV fails to capture the essence of real-life crime. Eg: biased towards violent acts by
strangers.
• Heavy TV viewers have different distorted perceptions of crime than light TV viewers.
• There is a weak relationship between heavy-viewing and having a distorted
perception of crime.The relationship does not occur in all communities (like UK).

Trigger warning for slide after next: pedophiles/child abuse/sexual abuse/rape

 Theories of Crime
Availability Heuristic Theory (Shrum, 1996)
• Suggests the extent to which the media creates a vivid picture of crime and
this imagery is accessed readily by the individual, determining their fear of
crime.
• Shrum studied the content of TV soap operas which had a lot of rape crime in it,
making heavy viewers of the programs have more readily accessible rape imagery
than non-viewers.
• Heavy-viewers answered rape-related questions much faster than non-viewers.
• Higher levels of fear were related to general levels of anxiety.
 Pedophiles and Child Molesters
• Offenders tend to lack self-esteem, have emotional congruence
with children, social arousal by children, lack of effective social
skills, blockages preventing adult contact, hormonal imbalances,
and maybe from an incest-tolerant subculture (Araji & Finkelhor,
1985)
• Psychotherapeutic/cognitive model – there are 4 steps that
pedophiles face: distorted thinking, grooming, planning through
fantasy and denial.
• Integrated theory of sexual offending (Ward & Beech, 2006) –
includes brain development, neuropsychological functioning,
and clinical symptoms.
 Rapists
Three theories of rape
• Feminist theory:rape is motivated by the desire for power and dominance instead of sexual desire and
is associated with inequality in status and power between men and women.
• Social learning theory:rapists learn to become rapists through pro-rape beliefs and attitudes.
• Evolutionary theory:tendency to rape due to genetic influence, target rape victims of
reproductive age.

• A phallometer is a device that measures the size of a penis as in indicator of sexual arousal.
– There are two types: volume phallometry and circumference phallometry.
 Treating Offenders
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) aims to correct cognitive deficits in
offenders such as:
– critical reasoning
– interpersonal problem-solving
– self-control
– social perspective taking
– values
• Core programs are designed to help motivate not to reoffend and
to develop relapse prevention skills.
• Usually, there are 20 treatment sessions divided into: cognitive
modification and relapse prevention.
 Treating Offenders
Anger management courses focus on cognitive components of anger and the process of
appraisal.
• E.g., Components of National Anger Management Package: introduction changing
behavior changing thoughts controlling arousal assertiveness handling
criticism and insults overview and review

• A high-risk offender program is the Clearwater Sex Offender Treatment Program.

– There are specific groups e.g. disclosure group, social skills group, intimacy and
relationships group, empathy and victim awareness group etc.
 Prison
• Boxer et al. (2009) in their study, showed that those who encountered violence in prison
were more likely to be aggressive and show anti-social tendencies.
• Women prisoners attempt suicide more than male prisoners.
• Suicide is more common in shared cells than single-occupied cells (Ruback and Innes,
1988).

Effective Prison
• A therapeutic community prison includes: ongoing evaluation and monitoring, skills-
oriented program, thorough care, sufficient amounts of treatment, shared
responsibility, openness between inmates and staff, democratic decision-making.

Trigger warning for next slide: shooting/murder/gun violence

Columbine High School Massacre
• The Columbine High School massacre was a school
shooting and attempted bombing that occurred on April
20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine,
Colorado, United States.

• The perpetrators were 12th grade students Eric Harris and

Dylan Klebold

• They murdered 12 students and one teacher.

• Twenty-one additional people were injured by gunshots.

Trigger warning for next slide: shooting/murder/gun violence

 Columbine High School Massacre
Multiple factors contribute to shooting
• Most shooters in these cases had led difficult lives, the studies find.

The role of mental health problems

• Mental health issues don't cause school shootings.
• Mental health problems are a risk factor.
• Many, though not all, of the perpetrators have experienced childhood traumas such as
physical or emotional abuse, and unstable families, with violent, absent or alcoholic
parents or siblings, for example.
 Columbine High School Massacre
Feeling like an outcast at school may also play a role
• Studies show that social rejection at school is associated with higher levels
of anxiety, depression, aggression and antisocial behavior in children.
• A 2004 study by the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education found that
nearly ¾ of school shooters had been bullied or harassed at school.
• Marginalized kids don't have anchors at school
• The absence of social support at the school can be a big risk factor.
 Columbine High School Massacre
What about video games and violence?

What is the relationship here?

D o you think video games lead to real-life violent behaviour?

O r are video games a channel of expression? A cathartic experience?

In this case, is it less likely to lead to real-life violence?

 Columbine High School Massacre
• Violent video games were also blamed.
• Parents of some of the victims filed several unsuccessful
lawsuits against video game manufacturers.
• Block (2007) believes their immersion in a virtual world best explains the
massacre.
• Harris and Klebold were both fans of shooter video games such as Doom,
Quake, Duke Nukem 3D and Postal.A file on Harris's computer read the
massacre will be like the LA riots, the Oklahoma bombing,WWII,Vietnam,
Duke and Doom all mixed together.
 Neuropsychology
• Neuropsychology looks at the structure and function of the brain in relation to
behaviors and psychological processes.

• It involves examining lesions in the brain, and assessments such as EEG

that record electrical activity in the brain.

• A neuropsychological evaluation is used to determine whether a person is likely

to experience behavioral problems following suspected or diagnosed brain

injury, such as a stroke

 Industrial-O r ganizational Psychology

• Industrial-Organizational Psychology, also known as I/O psychology, serves to study

how human behavior impacts industry and organizations.

• I/O psychologists evaluate a work situation and develop a plan for the optimal
performance and work-life balance in that situation for the employees.

• They study decision-making theories, workplace set ups, productivity etc.

 Industrial-O r ganizational Psychology
• One of the most famous I/O psychologists is Anita
Woolley.

• Woolley has spent her career researching and publishing

papers on the idea of collective intelligence, or the shared
intelligence from a group that arises from collaborative
efforts.

• Woolley’s research found that when more women are

added to a team, collective intelligence rises.

Not A nita W oolley

N eu r o p s y c h o l o g y
• Neuropsychology looks at the structure and function of the brain in relation to
behaviors and psychological processes.
• It involves examining regions in the brain, and assessments such as EEG
that record electrical activity in the brain.
• A neuropsychological evaluation is used to determine whether a person is likely
to experience behavioral problems following suspected or diagnosed brain injury,
such as a stroke.
 Industrial-Organizational Psychology

• Industrial-Organizational Psychology, also known as I/O

psychology, serves to study how human behavior impacts
industry and organizations.

• I/O psychologists evaluate a work situation and develop a plan for

the optimal performance and work-life balance in that situation for
the employees.

• They study decision-making theories, workplace set ups,

productivity etc.
 Industrial-Organizational Psychology

• One of the most famous I/O psychologists is Anita

Woolley.

• Woolley has spent her career researching and publishing

papers on the idea of collective intelligence, or the shared
intelligence from a group that arises from collaborative
efforts.

• Woolley’s research found that when more women are added

to a team, collective intelligence rises.
 Cultural Psychology
What is Culture?
Culture is “still composed of socially shared elements,
socially shared norms, codes of behavior, values, and
assumptions about the world that clearly distinguish
one socio-cultural group from another” (Trueba, 1993,
p. 34)

Culture is a transactional process

• It is during the cultural transmission from one
generation to another that culture is being recreated,
redefined and restructured by those involved
• Culture is not static

• It has the ability to acquire new characteristics and forms

• It is dynamic

E.g.,Third culture children or third culture individuals

• People who were raised in a culture other than their parents' or
the culture of their country of nationality, and also live in a
different environment during a significant part of their child
development years
Why do we need to study it?

Different from Mainstream Psychology:

–Consideration of culture
–Comparative approach
–Often Interdisciplinary
–Not in search for universals
–Acknowledges cultural variability

Mainstream Psychology can be WEIRD

(Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010)
–Participants are overwhelmingly Western,
educated, and from industrialized, rich and
democratic countries.
–Western college students are not the best
representatives of human emotion, attitudes
and behavior
Topics in Cultural Psychology

•Individualism vs
Collectivism

•Honor vs Dignity Cultures

•Language Acquisition

•Emotion
s
• Any topic in Social Psychology!
 Cultural Differences

Marriage to Diego Rivera

in Language
Kuuk Thaayorre People
• Kuuk Thaayorre people that live in
Pormpuraaw (Boroditsky & Gaby, 2010)
• a remote Australian Aboriginal community
–Don’t use words like ’left’ or ‘right’
–“Hello!”
–”Hi, north north-east in the far east
direction, how about you?”
• Better oriented spatially

• A qualitatively different set of representations of time,

with time organized in a coordinate frame that is
independent from others reported previously

• conceptions of even such fundamental domains as

time and directions can differ dramatically across
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k
cultures
 Identity, Culture and Language

For most learners, the process of discovering or rediscovering their

personal and cultural identity is crucial in initiating the journey toward
wellness

Traditional language is “the foundation of a collective identity” that

can foster identity for Indigenous youth (O ster et al,2014, p.4)

A group of teachers were interviewed twice a year for three years (Moore,
2019)

• The study used narrative methods to give voice to the teachers’

experiences through their personal stories of learning Inuktitut.
• The narratives obtained reflected how language learning may contribute
to an increased awareness of,and connection to, one’s Indigenous
group.
• The strengthening of cultural identity can enhance wellbeing, which has
implications for the learning of these teachers and the impact on their
future students.
 Some issues in the field

• Culture is not static, it is dynamic and ever-changing

• W hat about individual differences?
• Cross-cultural studies sometimes fail to consider bicultural & multicultural people
• Often categorizes cultures which can lead to stigma
• Measurement equivalence issues (van de Vijver & Leung, 1997)
• Adaption and back-translation issues
• Many cultural variables are abstract (Adamopoulos & Lonner, 2001)
 References
• Boroditsky, L., & Gaby,A. (2010). Remembrances of times
East: absolute spatial representations of time in an Australian
aboriginal community. Psychological science, 21(11), 1635-1639.

• Henrich, J.,Heine, S. J.,& Norenzayan,A. (2010).The weirdest

people in the world?. Behavioral and brain sciences,33(2-3),
61-83.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k
• Masuda,T., Ellsworth, P.C., Mesquita, B.,Leu, J.,Tanida,S.,&Van
de Veerdonk, E. (2008). Placing the face in context: cultural
differences in the perception of facial emotion. Journal of
personality and social psychology, 94(3), 365.

• Huitt,W., & Hummel, J.(2003). Piaget's theory of cognitive

development. Educational psychology interactive,3(2), 1-5.

• Moore, S. (2019). Language and identity in an

Indigenous teacher education program. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k
International Journal of Circumpolar Health,78(2),
1506213.