Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Psychologists are actively involved in studying and understanding mental processes, brain functions, and behavior. The field of psychology is considered a “Hub Science” with strong connections to the medical sciences, social sciences, and education.

The discipline of psychology is broadly divisible into two parts: a large profession of practitioners and a smaller but growing science of mind, brain, and social behaviour. The two have distinctive goals, training, and practices, but some psychologists integrate the two.

Impact of Psychology
Psychology is both an applied and academic field that benefits both individuals and society as a whole. A large part of psychology is devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of mental health issues, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impact of psychology.

Some of the ways that psychology contributes to individuals and society include:

• Improving our understanding of why people behave as they do 
• Understanding the different factors that can impact the human mind and behavior
• Understanding issues that impact health, daily life, and well-being
• Improving ergonomics to improve product design
• Creating safer and more efficient workspaces
• Helping motivate people to achieve their goals
• Improving productivity

Psychologists accomplish these things by using objective scientific method to understand, explain, and predict human behavior. Psychological studies are highly structured, beginning with a hypothesis that is then empirically tested.

Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology investigates internal mental processes, such as problem solving, memory, learning, and language. It looks at how people think, perceive, communicate, remember, and learn. It is closely related to neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics.
Cognitive psychologists look at how people acquire, process, and store information.
Practical applications include how to improve memory, increase the accuracy of decision-making, or how to set up educational programs to boost learning.

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.

Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology looks at how human behavior, for example language, has been affected by psychological adjustments during evolution.
An evolutionary psychologist believes that many human psychological traits are adaptive in that they have enabled us to survive over thousands of years.

Forensic psychology
Forensic psychology involves applying psychology to criminal investigation and the law.
A forensic psychologist practices psychology as a science within the criminal justice system and civil courts.
It involves assessing the psychological factors that might influence a case or behavior and presenting the findings in court.

Health psychology
Health psychology is also called behavioral medicine or medical psychology.
It observes how behavior, biology, and social context influence illness and health.
A physician often looks first at the biological causes of a disease, but a health psychologist will focus on the whole person and what influences their health status. This may include their socioeconomic status, education, and background, and behaviors that may have an impact on the disease, such as compliance with instructions and medication.

Health psychologists usually work alongside other medical professionals in clinical settings.

Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology looks at the structure and function of the brain in relation to behaviors and psychological processes. A neuropsychology may be involved if a condition involves lesions in the brain, and assessments that involve recording 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.

The results can enable a doctor to provide treatment that may help the individual achieve possible improvements in cognitive damage that has occurred.

Occupational psychology
Occupational or organizational psychologists are involved in assessing and making recommendations about the performance of people at work and in training.

They help companies to find more effective ways to function, and to understand how people and groups behave at work.

This information can help improve effectiveness, efficiency, job satisfaction, and employee retention.

Social psychology
Social psychology uses scientific methods to understand how social influences impact human behavior. It seeks to explain how feelings, behavior, and thoughts are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other people.

A social psychologist looks at group behavior, social perception, non-verbal behavior, conformity, aggression, prejudice, and leadership. Social perception and social interaction are seen as key to understanding social behavior.

Other branches include military, consumer, educational, cross-cultural, and environmental psychology. The number of branches continues to grow.