What are the goals or objectives of psychology? What are the different branches of psychology and how do they differ from school of psychology?

-- Aimee Ricafrente (Miechie_17@Yahoo.com), July 03, 2002

Answers

This is an enormously broad question that cannot be answered in any complete way here. If I understand the second question, by "branches" you mean things like "social psych., cognitive psych., clinical psych., as opposed to the old "schools" such as structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, and gestalt. The main difference is that the branches pursue different topics within psychology relatively independently of each other. The schools, by contrast, attempted to find a single perspective from which all topics in psychology could be examined.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), July 03, 2002.

One way to approach this question would be to look at the various divisions of the American Psychological Association which are listed at http://www.apa.org/about/division.html The various divisions websites provide information about the focus of the division, and this will give you an idea of the broad range of goals and objectives of those who call themselves psychologists.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), July 03, 2002.