Psychology is the scientific study of people, the mind and behaviour. It is both a thriving academic discipline and a vital professional practice. A psychologist is an expert in psychology, who studies and applies psychology for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development. Psychologists apply their knowledge to a wide range of endeavors, including health and human services, management, education, law, and sports. In addition to a variety of work settings, psychologists generally specialize in one of a number of different areas.

Psychologists can specialize in the following, among others:

• Clinical Psychology
• Counselling Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Organizational/Occupational Psychology
• Health Psychology
• Sports Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Forensic psychology
• Academic psychologists

Clinical Psychologists
Clinical psychologists—who constitute the largest specialty—generally work in counselling clinics, independent or group practices, or in health maintenance organizations such as hospitals. They assist mentally or emotionally disturbed clients adjust to life and may help medical and surgical patients deal with their illnesses or injuries. They help people deal with times of personal crisis, such as relationship issues or the death of a loved one. Clinical psychologists often interview patients and give diagnostic tests. They may provide individual, family, and group psychotherapy, and design and implement behavior modification programs. Some clinical psychologists collaborate with physicians and other specialists to develop and implement treatment and intervention programs that patients can understand and comply with. Central to clinical and counseling psychology is the practice of psychotherapy, which uses a wide range of techniques to change thoughts, feelings, or behaviors in service to enhancing subjective well-being, mental health, and life functioning. Clinical psychologists can work with individuals, couples, children, older adults, families, small groups, and communities. Top ∧

Counselling Psychologists
Counselling psychologists make use of psychotherapy as an interpersonal and relational intervention to aid clients in problems of living. This usually includes increasing individual sense of well-being and reducing subjective discomforting experiences. Counselling psychologists employ a range of techniques based on experiential relationship building, dialogue, communication and behaviour change and that are designed to improve the mental health of a client or patient, or to improve group relationships, such as in a family. They also use interviewing and testing to advise people on how to deal with problems of everyday living. They work in settings such as university counseling centers, hospitals, and individual or group practices. Top ∧

Educational Psychologists
An educational psychologist, or school psychologist, is specifically trained to provide psychological services to the school age population (3-18 yrs), frequently with a particular focus on the teaching-learning process and how this can be enhanced for the individual child through specific intervention measures that are implemented in school, home and other educational settings. Difficulties related to development, learning, behaviour and emotions are those that are most likely to require the intervention of an educational psychologist. Assessments using standardised tests are frequently carried out in order to identify areas of individual strength and need. Educational psychologists work with the child within the wider context of home and school, therefore also working directly with school teachers, parents/family and other professionals who are involved in the student’s life. Educational psychologists are also often involved in training of school staff and in providing consultation to schools. Top ∧

Organizational (Occupational) Psychologists
Organizational psychologists apply psychological principles and research methods to the workplace in the interest of improving productivity and the quality of worklife. They also are involved in research into management and marketing problems. They conduct applicant screening, training and development, counseling, and organizational development and analysis. An industrial psychologist might work with management to reorganize the work setting to improve productivity or quality of life in the workplace. They frequently act as consultants, brought in by management in order to solve a particular problem. Top ∧

Health Psychologist
Health psychology is concerned with understanding how biology, behavior, and social context influence health and illness. Health psychologists generally work alongside other medical professionals in clinical settings, although many also teach and conduct research Although its early beginnings can be traced to the kindred field of clinical psychology, four different approaches to health psychology have been defined: clinical, public health, community and critical health psychology. Health psychologists promote good health through health maintenance counseling programs that are designed to help people achieve goals such as to stop smoking or lose weight. Top ∧

Sport Psychologist
Sports psychology is the study of people's behaviour within a context of sport. It is a specialization focusing on brain psychology and kinesiology that seeks to understand psychological/mental factors that affect performance in sports and physical activity and apply these to enhance individual and team performance. It deals with increasing performance by managing emotions and minimizing the psychological effects of injury and poor performance. It also looks into whether participation in sport and exercise affects a person’s psychological well-being. Top ∧

Social Psychologists
Social psychologists examine people’s interactions with others and with the social environment. They work in organizational consultation, marketing research, systems design, or other applied psychology fields. Prominent areas of study include group behavior, leadership, attitudes, and perception. Top ∧

Forensic psychologists
Forensic Psychology is devoted to psychological aspects of legal processes in courts. The term is also often used to refer to investigative and criminological psychology: applying psychological theory to criminal investigation, understanding psychological problems associated with criminal behaviour, and the treatment of criminals. Key tasks undertaken by forensic psychologists include piloting and implementing treatment programmes; modifying offender behaviour; responding to the changing needs of staff and prisoners; reducing stress for staff and prisoners; providing hard research evidence to support practice; undertaking statistical analysis for prisoner profiling; giving evidence in court; advising parole boards and mental health tribunals; crime analysis. Top ∧

Academic psychologists
Academic psychology (i.e., research and teaching) can be regarded as the bedrock on which applied psychology rests. Without the research findings from universities, or trained psychological practitioners (i.e. people like you potentially will be), there would be no applied psychology. Academic psychologists work in universities and other centres for teaching and research. Their job is broadly about teaching the next generation of psychologists (that’s you again), conducting research, and developing theories that build on and extend the research findings. Academic psychologists may work in areas that are “pure”, i.e., they have no immediate applied relevance, or they may work in areas that are more clearly applied. Some people have argued against the utility and value of pure research; however, even if the applications are not immediately apparent, it often transpires that it is today’s pure research that becomes the foundation for tomorrow’s applied research. Top ∧

The earning of a psychologist can vary. The gross salary of a psychologist in the public sector is around €12,880 while those working in the private sector can earn over €25,000. Psychologists involved in academia can earn in the range of €16,100 - €32,200.