Diverse Nature of Psychology
PSY/490
March 4, 2013
Diversity of Psychology
Psychology is defined as the study of the mind and behavior from functions of the brain to child development (APA, 2013). Within the field of psychology there are many areas and specializations, the American Psychological Association (APA) recognizes four specialties in psychology (Landrum & Davis, 2010). These specialties then have subcategories; this is then when it goes into greater detail. Within this paper it will be discussed about the influence of diversity on psychology’s major concepts, examples of sub disciplines and subtopics within psychology, how these sub disciplines and subtopics can be applied to other disciplines and venues in contemporary society, how they relate to theoretical perspectives and my psychological contribution to society in the areas of work, education, health and leisure.
Influence of Diversity on Psychology’s Major Concepts
There are many areas and specializations in the field of psychology, the APA recognizes four specialties with psychology, those being; clinical, counseling, school and Industrial/Organizational psychology. After these, the rest are considered to be subtopics or subfields, within the subfields there are many areas. These divisions are impressive because they constitute a diversity that other sciences usually do not (Landrum & Davis, 2010)). It would be extremely hard to understand the specialties of psychology without the breakdown of the subfields. Just like the specialization of clinical psychology, there could be many subfields that would fall under these specializations, and it is extremely important to understand each one. The major concepts start to recognize the certain aspects of psychology, the subfields then try and define and explain in more detail of that particular behavior (Landrum & Davis, 2010).
Sub Disciplines and Subtopics
Abnormal psychology is often...