Explain any five theoretical branches of Psychology.

Some theoretical branches of Psychology are as follows:

Child Psychology: It deals with the biological, psychological, and emotional changes that occur during childhood. These changes occur as the individual progresses from being dependent to becoming independent. Child psychologists study problems related to children such as lying, bunking school, stealing, bedwetting. They also conduct researches on effective child-rearing practices and the role of reinforcement in motivating children.

Social Psychology: It studies how an individual influences other people and gets influenced by them. According to Myers, Social Psychology is the scientific study of how an individual’s behaviour is affected by others. The primary focus of Social Psychology is to understand how individuals are affected by other people. It examines issues such as cooperation or conflicts within groups, attitudes, prejudices, friendliness, and leadership qualities of an individual.

Experimental Psychology: It attempts to understand the fundamental causes of behaviour. It studies how people learn, remembers, reason, and respond emotionally. It deals with problems related to sensation, perception, learning and memory. Experimental psychologists conduct laboratory experiments to study how people react to sensory stimuli and perceive the world.

Cognitive Psychology: It concentrates on higher mental processes such as thinking, reasoning, and decision making. It also answers questions related to the disruption of memory, different types of learning styles and disorders, causes of speech impairment as well as the functioning of decision-making mechanisms.

Abnormal Psychology: It studies unusual patterns of behaviour, emotions, and thinking. It aims to study the causes and factors leading to abnormal reactions such as excessive suspiciousness, extreme mood swings, perceiving objects or situations which are not real, mental retardation, extreme fear of objects, animals, or situations, etc.