• Question: what’s ur favourite area of psychology?

    Asked by anon-283706 on 8 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: Alex Baxendale

      Alex Baxendale answered on 8 Mar 2021:

      I really like Cognitive Psychology! We study the ways our brains process information it receives, and there are a bunch of tricky ways that it does it. For example, we have a type of memory called ‘working memory’ where we can store information for a short period of time and manipulate it (think of a triangle, then rotate that triangle). Well, that memory is broken up in to two types that hold visual information (like shapes) and verbal information (like words and numbers). We can only hold about 7 or so individual items (like the numbers 8 4 9 2 7 5 0) but we can store way more items by ‘chunking’ them – we can break up super long strings of information in to individual chunks of information to store more! (so you might turns 4 8 2 9 5 0 3 6 5 9 1 4 0 6 in to 48 29 50 36 59 14 06, turning 14 pieces of information in to 7 pieces!)

    • Photo: Ellen Smith

      Ellen Smith answered on 8 Mar 2021: last edited 8 Mar 2021 8:21 pm

      My favourite area is Psychobiology – which looks at the interaction between biological systems and behaviour. My specific area is Nutritional psychobiology, so we look at how foods can impact on the brain and behaviour, and what the potential biological mechanisms are that underlie this.

    • Photo: Lisa Orchard

      Lisa Orchard answered on 8 Mar 2021:

      Hi Abby. My favourite area is cyberpsychology. Ever since I had access to the Internet for the first time, I was fascinated by how people talk online and how people represent themselves. I remember joining a discussion board and finding it so amazing to talk to others who shared my interests, and finding ‘friends’ that I never actually met! I love that the Internet changes so rapidly, so there are always new trends to consider. Everyday I use the Internet I find myself forming research questions – and I love that!

    • Photo: Dennis Relojo-Howell

      Dennis Relojo-Howell answered on 8 Mar 2021:

      My favourite is clinical psychology. Clinical psychology is a subfield in psychology which focuses on the prevention and treatment of mental disorders.

      Right now, I’m doing a PhD in clinical psychology and my research looks into whether we can use blogs to identify depressive and anxiety symptoms among adolescents to manage suicidal thoughts (that’s the prevention bit).

      Part of my project also explores whether we can use blogs to enhance resilience among vulnerable adolescents (that’s the treatment bit). Clinical psychology – just like most of the subfields in psychology – is a glorious blend of theory, research, and application.

    • Photo: Amrita Bains

      Amrita Bains answered on 9 Mar 2021:

      My favourite area is cognitive psychology and neuroscience. We can use cognitive psychology to try and understand the different behaviours we have as humans for example decision-making, memory and learning languages. But by using neuroscience we can try to understand which brain areas relate to which behaviours (which can be a bit tricky!). For example, there are brain areas like the striatum and nucleus accumbens which can be related to feelings of reward. Or, how your frontal lobe is supposed to be involved with executive functioning which includes behaviours like attention or planning.

    • Photo: Anon

      Anon answered on 9 Mar 2021:

      I love social psychology and I use it a lot in my work. Humans are social creatures, good relationships and feelings of belonging are so important for our happiness. We also need other people in order to learn – they tell us new things, show us what to do and how to behave. Most people with a younger sibling or family member can remember being told to “set a good example”!

    • Photo: Harry Piper

      Harry Piper answered on 9 Mar 2021:

      That’s really tough to answer! I love social-cognitive psychology as that’s where I have landed and where my research is rooted! But I also love health psychology and could definitely see myself dipping my toes back into that in the future!

    • Photo: David McGonigle

      David McGonigle answered on 12 Mar 2021:

      Hi Abby! To be honest, it’s something that changes from day today! While I focus on using big machines to study the human brain, like most jobs, sometimes you really want a wee change. So it’s really refreshing to listen to a talk from other psychologists in my department and think about people studying brain development in babies, or the ethics around driverless cars. or even defining risk and behaviour in climate change. As you can see, Psychology is a vast subject! What is your favourite area, Abby?

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 25 Mar 2021:

      Hi Abby,
      For me it has to be clinical psychology. How can the brain go so wrong that some people (like schizophrenia) see and hear things others don’t? Believe that MI5 is watching them with full conviction? I find this absolutely fascinating!

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