Areas of psychology
Each area is organised around a guiding question rather than a topic label. Begin with the area’s recommended syllabus, then follow the questions outward.
Learning & Behavior
How does experience change behavior?
How experience changes what we notice, expect, choose, and know how to do—and how learning persists or changes across situations.
6 syllabi
Cognition
How do we perceive, remember, reason, and decide?
How we perceive and attend, remember and understand, use language, solve problems, reason, and decide—and how evidence can distinguish explanations of these processes.
8 syllabi
Development
How do minds and behavior change across the lifespan?
Changing bodies, abilities, relationships, and goals, from infancy through old age—and the contexts that shape their course.
8 syllabi
Social Psychology
How do other people and social situations shape us?
How we understand ourselves and others, influence one another, form relationships, act in groups, and respond to cooperation, conflict, and inequality.
9 syllabi
Individual Differences
How do we describe, measure, and explain differences between people?
Intelligence, cognitive abilities, personality, and other differences between people: how we measure them, where they come from, and what they help us understand.
6 syllabi
Biological Psychology
How do biological processes support psychological functioning?
How nervous systems, bodily regulation, development, and evolution help explain what organisms perceive, feel, learn, and do.
8 syllabi
Psychopathology
How should we understand, explain, and classify psychological problems?
How psychological disorders are defined, how they develop and persist, and what evidence helps explain their different patterns and courses.
14 syllabi
Psychotherapy & Psychological Change
How does psychological treatment produce change, and how would we know?
How psychological treatments produce change, how benefits and harms are evaluated, and how relationships, development, context and services shape care.
10 syllabi
Culture & Psychology
How do cultural worlds and psychological processes shape one another?
Culture, mind and behavior: locally grounded concepts, cross-cultural comparisons, shared practices and institutions, and the processes of cultural continuity and change.
9 syllabi
Methods, Measurement & Scientific Reasoning
What makes a psychological claim convincing?
How psychological claims depend on theory, measurement, research design, situated evidence, and the interpretation and synthesis of findings.
10 syllabi