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Psychology is such a broad field that conveying its depth and breadth can be difficult. As a result, a number of unique and distinctive branches of psychology have emerged, each one dealing with specific psychological areas within the study of the mind, brain, and behavior.

Understanding what these subtopics represent can help you decide where your interests may lie. Here is more information about 18 major types of psychology if you are interested in studying, earning your degree, or creating a career in this expansive field.

Overview of the Branches of Psychology

The major areas of psychology include:

• Abnormal psychology
• Behavioral psychology
• Biopsychology
• Clinical psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Comparative psychology
• Counseling psychology
• Cross-cultural psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Educational psychology
• Experimental psychology
• Forensic psychology
• Health psychology
• Industrial-organizational psychology
• Personality psychology
• School psychology
• Social psychology
• Sports psychology

Each of these psychological areas looks at questions and problems from a different perspective. While they all have their own focus, they still share a common goal of studying and explaining human thought and behavior.

Because human behavior is so varied, the number of subfields in psychology is constantly growing and evolving. Some of these subfields have been firmly established as areas of interest, and many colleges and universities offer courses and degree programs in these topics. 

Each type of psychology represents a specific area of study focused on a particular topic. Oftentimes, psychologists specialize in one of these as a career. The following are just some of the major branches of psychology. For many of these, working in that specific area requires graduate study in that particular field.

Abnormal Psychology

Abnormal psychology looks at psychopathology and abnormal behavior. It involves the study of people’s emotional, thought, and behavior patterns to identify, understand, and potentially resolve any issues that may be negatively affecting a person’s life.

Mental health professionals in this branch of psychology assess, diagnose, and treat a wide variety of psychological disorders, including anxiety and depression. Counselors, clinical psychologists, and psychotherapists often work directly in this field.

Behavioral Psychology

Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Behavioral strategies such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning are often utilized to teach or modify behaviors.

While this type of psychology dominated the field during the first part of the twentieth century, it became less prominent during the 1950s. However, behavioral techniques remain a mainstay in therapy, education, and many other areas.

Biopsychology

Biopsychology is a psychological area focused on how the brain, neurons, and nervous system influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The biopsychology field draws upon many different disciplines, including basic psychology, cognitive psychology, experimental psychology, biology, physiology, and neuroscience.

Biopsychology is also sometimes referred to as physiological psychology, behavioral neuroscience, or psychobiology. So, if you are interested in studying or earning a degree in this psychology branch, you may want to look for courses or programs with these names.

Clinical Psychology

Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental illness, abnormal behavior, and psychiatric disorders. Clinicians often work in private practices, but many also work in community centers or at universities and colleges.

You can even find clinical psychology professionals in hospital settings and mental health clinics. In these organizations, they often work as part of a collaborative team that may include physicians, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals.

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is a psychological area that focuses on internal mental states. This area has continued to grow since it emerged in the 1960s and is centered on the science of how people think, learn, and remember.

Professionals who work in this type of psychology typically study cognitive functions such as perception, motivation, emotion, language, learning, memory, attention, decision-making, and problem-solving.

Comparative Psychology

Comparative psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the study of animal behavior. This is important because the study of how animals behave can lead to a deeper and broader understanding of human psychology.

This psychology subtype has its roots in the work of researchers such as Charles Darwin and George Romanes and has grown into a highly multidisciplinary subject. In addition to psychologists contributing to this field, so do biologists, anthropologists, ecologists, geneticists, and several others.

Counseling Psychology

Counseling psychology is one of the largest areas of psychology. It is centered on treating clients in mental distress who may be experiencing a wide variety of psychological symptoms.

The Society of Counseling Psychology explains that professionals working in this type of psychology can improve their clients’ interpersonal functioning throughout life. They do this by improving the client’s social and emotional health, as well as addressing concerns about health, work, family, marriage, and more.

Cross-Cultural Psychology

Cross-cultural psychology is a branch of psychology that looks at how cultural factors influence human behavior. This may involve looking at differences between collective and individualist cultures, for instance. Cross-cultural psychologists might also look at how cultures vary in terms of emotion, personality, or child development.

The International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) was established in 1972. This type of psychology has continued to grow and develop since that time, with increasing numbers of psychologists investigating how behavior differs among cultures throughout the world.

Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology focuses on how people change and grow throughout life. This area of psychology seeks to understand and explain how and why people change. Developmental psychologists study physical growth, intellectual development, emotional changes, social growth, and perceptual changes that occur throughout the lifespan.

Some professionals may specialize in infant, child, adolescent, or geriatric development, while others might primarily study the effects of developmental delays. This psychology branch covers a huge range of topics, ranging from prenatal development to Alzheimer’s disease.

Educational Psychology

Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with schools, teaching psychology, educational issues, and student concerns. Educational psychologists often study how students learn. They may also work directly with students, parents, teachers, and administrators to improve student outcomes.

Professionals in this type of psychology sometimes study how different variables influence individual students. They may also study learning disabilities, giftedness, and the instructional process.

Experimental Psychology

Experimental psychology is the psychological area that utilizes scientific methods to research the brain and behavior. Many of these techniques are also used in other psychology areas to study everything from childhood development to social issues.

Experimental psychologists work in a wide variety of settings, including colleges, universities, research centers, government, and private businesses. They utilize the scientific method to study a range of human behaviors and psychological phenomena.

Forensic Psychology

Forensic psychology deals with issues related to psychology and the law. Those who work in this branch apply psychological principles to legal issues. This may involve studying criminal behavior and treatment or working directly in the court system.

Forensic psychologists perform a wide variety of duties, including providing testimony in court cases, assessing children in suspected child abuse cases, preparing children to give testimony, and evaluating the mental competence of criminal suspects.

Health Psychology

Health psychology (also sometimes called medical psychology or behavioral medicine) focuses on how biology, psychology, behavior, and social factors influence health and illness. This area of psychology involves the promotion of health across a wide variety of domains, as well as the prevention and treatment of disease and illness.

Health psychologists often deal with health-related issues such as weight management, smoking cessation, stress management, and nutrition. They might also research how people cope with illnesses, helping patients learn more effective coping strategies.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Industrial-organizational psychology applies psychological principles to workplace issues. This psychological area, often referred to as I/O psychology, seeks to improve productivity and efficiency in the workplace while maximizing the well-being of employees. It includes areas such as human factors.

Human factors psychology focuses on human error, product design, ergonomics, human capability, and human-computer interaction. Its goal is to improve how people interact with products and machines. This might involve helping to design products intended to minimize injury or creating workplaces that promote greater accuracy and safety.

Personality Psychology

Personality psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on the study of thought patterns, feelings, and behaviors that make each individual unique. Classic theories of personality include Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality and Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development.

Personality psychologists might look at how different factors (such as genetics, parenting, and social experiences) influence personality development and change. They may also be involved in the creation or administration of personality tests.

School Psychology

School psychology is a type of psychology that involves working in schools to help kids deal with academic, emotional, and social issues. School psychologists also collaborate with teachers, students, and parents to help create a healthy learning environment.

Most school psychologists work in elementary and secondary schools, but others can be found in private clinics, hospitals, state agencies, and universities. Some go into private practice and serve as consultants—especially those with a doctoral degree in school psychology.

Social Psychology

Social psychology seeks to understand and explain social behavior. It looks at diverse topics including group behavior, social interactions and perceptions, leadership, nonverbal communication, and social influences on decision-making.

Social influences on behavior are a major interest in social psychology, but these types of psychologists are also focused on how people perceive and interact with others. This branch of psychology also includes topics such as conformity, aggression, and prejudice.

Sports Psychology

Sports psychology is the study of how psychology influences sports, athletic performance, exercise, and physical activity. Individuals may work with a sports psychologist to improve their focus, develop mental toughness, increase motivation, or reduce sports-related anxiety.

Some sports psychologists work with professional athletes such as pro sports players and top Olympians. Others utilize exercise and sports to enhance the health and well-being of non-athletes throughout their lifespan.

Brainspotting therapy is a type of alternative therapy that uses spots in a person’s visual field to help them process trauma. It accesses trauma trapped in the subcortical brain, the area of the brain responsible for motion, consciousness, emotions, and learning. 

This type of therapy was discovered in 2003 by David Grand, PhD, as an advancement of his work in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. Grand had observed a client getting “stuck” in one spot. While staying in this one spot, Grand observed her going deeper than ever before and Brainspotting was born.

One of the purported benefits of Brainspotting therapy over EMDR is that one does not need to “relive” the trauma in order to facilitate its release from the body.

How Brainspotting Therapy Works

Brainspotting works on the theory that feelings from trauma can become stuck in the body, leading to both physical and mental ailments. It is believed that the brain’s memory of a particular trauma or incident is “reset” in the body and brain through Brainspotting.

Grand described this “stuckness” as “frozen maladaptive homeostasis.” Our bodies are generally meant to be in a state of homeostasis, attempting to maintain a stable environment, but this particular kind of homeostasis is not helpful. Brainspotting accesses this and attempts to integrate this interrupted processing of the trauma.

It is one of a few types of emerging therapies focusing on the brain-body connection, including Somatic Experiencing and EMDR. Traditional talk therapy is known as a “top-down” therapy. That is, traditional therapy tries to solve problems with the conscious mind.

These brain-body therapies are known as “bottom up” therapy, which aims to release the physical stress in the body, thereby leading to release the emotional stress in the body as well.

Brainspotting therapy works on the midbrain, which controls parts of the central nervous system that are responsible for processes such as vision, hearing, sleep, and motor control. When trauma occurs, this part of the brain typically goes into freeze mode to conserve resources for the body to be in defense mode.

This is necessary if you’re, say, fighting a tiger, but is less helpful for psychological trauma—but our bodies can’t distinguish between the two.

Techniques 

Although Brainspotting therapy is a bit more fluid and doesn’t have a set standard protocol, most sessions follow at least a general blueprint. Here’s how you might expect a session to go.

At the end of the session, you will again rate your level of distress—typically it will be lower than it was when you started. Some people report feeling a sense of release either mentally or even physically, through a mild tingling sensation or mild shaking as though you have the chills.

Following the session, you may feel exhausted or more emotional than usual. Additionally, more difficult feelings may continue to surface. This is all part of the process, but if the feelings become too much to handle, reach out to your therapist or a crisis hotline if necessary.

What Brainspotting Therapy Can Help With

Though Brainspotting therapy is primarily focused on discovering and alleviating trauma, it can help many different types of issues, especially since trauma’s effects are so far-reaching.

• Anxiety
• Attachment issues 
• Substance use
• Posttraumatic stress disorder 
• Chronic pain
• Major depressive disorder 

Benefits of Brainspotting Therapy 

In one small study, participants experienced a reduction in PTSD, anxiety, and depression symptoms within a few sessions. Other benefits:

• Reduction in pain
• Memories become less painful
• Negative thought patterns are reduced
• Better sleep
• Increased energy

Effectiveness

Although research remains scant on this modality, one study found Brainspotting to be more effective than either EMDR or CBT—and patients even continued to get better following their treatment being over. All other modalities showed patients’ symptoms returning at the 6-month follow-up. 

Things to Consider

As Brainspotting is still somewhat new and considered somewhat of an alternative treatment, there is still little research on it and any possible long-term effects.

How to Get Started

Because Brainspotting is a type of therapy requiring specialized training, it is best to find a therapist who is certified in Brainspotting therapy. Brainspotting has a directory of therapists who are certified (which includes completing two courses and at least 50 hours of practicing Brainspotting on clients). Alternatively, you can search online directories of therapists to find ones who specialize in Brainspotting.

Typically, Brainspotting treatment lasts for about six sessions, as opposed to EMDR, which may take up to eight or 10 sessions.

Communication is one of the most essential components of any interpersonal relationship, it allows us to feel both seen and heard in our lives. If you want to know what your communication style is, take this free quiz and find out!

Who Is This Communication Style Quiz for?

This quiz is for everyone! Even if you think you utilize the most constructive communication strategies ever, you can still benefit from knowing your specific style and how it relates to the others.

Knowing your communication style can also help you identify better ways to address and resolve conflict—something most of us could improve on. And even if you learn that your communication style is one of the less effective ones, there are plenty of ways to adjust your behavior to practice more effective approaches.

The Four Communication Styles

There are four distinct styles that heavily influence how someone’s message is conveyed. These are passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive, and assertive. In a perfect world, everyone would have the skills to express their feelings and needs in a healthy way but in reality, we all develop our own patterns learned from what is modeled around us—for better or worse.

We’re not saying any particular communication style is wrong, just that some methods will be more effective than others. The way you communicate can easily strengthen a bond, or it can cause stress and tension. In order to avoid misunderstanding, it helps to understand your own and your loved ones’ communication style.

Passive

People with a passive communication style are generally more quiet, reserved, and less likely to openly express their feelings. They prefer to be supportive and defer decisions to others and have a tendency to be overly apologetic.

Passive communicators don’t like to be the center of attention so they rarely speak up, nor do they like to take a hard stance on anything. This doesn’t mean they don’t have opinions, they just may not feel comfortable sharing them, especially at the risk of conflict or upsetting someone.

While it’s good to be laid back in many circumstances, it can be tough for people with a passive communication style to have their needs met if they aren’t being emotionally honest.

Passive communication avoids conflict at the cost of unmet needs. People who communicate passively often suppress their emotions and struggle to stand up for themselves.

—
SABRINA ROMANOFF, PSYD

Aggressive

People with an aggressive communication style tend to be overly direct and dominant, often with minimal consideration for others. This often takes the form of yelling, shouting, dominating the conversation, and speaking forcefully before thinking. They can come across as defensive or even hostile when sharing their feelings. This behavior can be hurtful and alienating to anyone on the receiving end.

Aggressive communicators might feel good at getting a point across in what they perceive to be an efficient manner, but when the message is shared harshly—or at the expense of others’ feelings—it makes it hard for people to hear it and respond in a regulated way. Whether intentional or not, this communication style frequently triggers bigger arguments or animosity, due to the insensitive nature of how they phrase their message.

Passive-Aggressive

People with a passive-aggressive communication style tend to have a disconnect between their strong emotions and how those emotions are expressed. While they might seem passive on the surface, their behavior often manifests as covert aggression. They might make sarcastic comments, give the silent treatment, sulk, or procrastinate to show they don’t want to do something. 

This behavior can be really frustrating when the person on the receiving end has to do so much interpreting in order to figure out what the passive-aggressive person actually wants. And it makes the passive-aggressive communicator equally frustrated when they just can’t seem to get the message across clearly.

Assertive

Assertive communication is generally considered the most effective communication style because it’s both emotionally honest and considerate of other people’s feelings. When it comes to sharing their thoughts and needs, assertive people are able to be direct, clear, and respectful. They don’t play mind games with hidden meaning, nor are they overly confrontational.

Assertive communication promotes open, honest, and respectful dialogue. Effective communication often involves respecting others and expressing oneself clearly and confidently.

—
SABRINA ROMANOFF, PSYD

Thus, assertive communicators generally have fewer conflicts and lower stress levels than people with other communication styles because they aren’t bottling anything up or communicating in ineffectual ways.

Tips for Improving Your Communication Skills

Becoming a good communicator can be a lifelong process. When we all have different ways of relating to one another it takes real consideration and intentionality to know how to approach what we want to express successfully.

Luckily, there are lots of strategies for improving our communication, and the healthiest methods are most aligned with the assertive communication style.

Consider what you want to say ahead of time

Being prepared and avoiding impulsivity when communicating is one of the first steps to success. You want to be direct and timely when sharing your feelings or needs, but it helps to give yourself a little time to gather your thoughts and key points before sharing.

Be as clear and concise as possible

Once you figure out generally what you plan to say, it’s important to be as direct and succinct as you can be. Of course, many conversations will unfold with more detail and exploration, but it will save you a lot of stress if you stick to a clear point when initially approaching someone about your needs.

Practice active listening

Healthy communication is never one-sided, so you should be prepared to fully absorb what the other person is saying in response to you. Instead of preparing your rebuttal as someone is speaking, practice listening and really hearing what they are saying, asking questions for clarification for better understanding as needed.

A lot of us tend to only listen to respond, which prevents us from being effective communicators. After the person you’re talking to says their piece, try taking a pause or a breath before replying..

This can be especially helpful when you’re talking to someone with a very different communication style than you because it’ll give you a chance to process why their approach to the conversation might be a little bit different from yours.

Make sure you’re feeling level-headed

If you’re someone who has a more aggressively coded communication style, it’s worth giving yourself the space to get centered before sharing your feelings. It’s tough to be a concise communicator when you’re feeling angry, so even if it’s tempting to talk to someone at the height of passion you’re a lot less likely to have your needs met.

This is especially true if you’re talking to someone with a passive communication style, as any overly intense energy will make them even less likely to open up.

Avoid “Kitchen-Sinking”

When you are ready to communicate about one issue in particular, make sure you get clarity on what you want to talk about and focus on that topic. It can be easy to become distracted and go off on tangents or start bringing in other topics (known as “kitchen sinking”—when someone can’t stay on topic and starts bringing in other issues or problems), but in order to work through or effectively address what you want to discuss, it is important to focus and stay on one topic at a time.

Use “I ” statements

This is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but for good reason: using “I” statements makes the conversation a reflection of your perception of the situation instead of a commentary on what someone else is doing.

For instance, if you are talking to your boss about a work challenge you’ll have more success when you say something like “I am having a hard time with this project and I feel like I could improve if I had a little more support” as opposed to “This project is really difficult and you’re not giving me enough support”.

Practice empathy and non-judgement

At the end of the day, it’s essential to remember that everyone you interact with is coming to a conversation with their own unique way of seeing the world. This translates as all the varied communication styles.

Regardless of what communication you have or are aspiring towards having, it is important for all of us to practice empathy, compassion, respect, and patience when we’re interacting with one another. The things that are stressful or triggering for one person to talk about might not be the same for you, and this is a good thing to be mindful of.

Cognitive reframing is a technique used to shift your mindset so you’re able to look at a situation, person, or relationship from a slightly different perspective. Cognitive reframing is something that you can do at home or anytime you experience distorted thinking.

It can sometimes be helpful to have a therapist’s assistance, particularly if you are caught in a negative thought pattern. When the technique is used in a therapeutic setting and practiced with the help of a therapist, it is known as cognitive restructuring.

Another way to understand the concept of reframing is to imagine looking through a camera lens. The picture seen through the lens can be changed to a view that is closer or further away. By slightly changing what is seen in the camera, the picture is both viewed and experienced differently.

Techniques of Cognitive Reframing

Reframing may be used to change the way people think, feel, and behave. Here are a few examples of how reframing may be used in therapy.

Family Therapy

In a family therapy session, Carla complains bitterly that her mother is overly involved in her life, constantly nagging her about what she should be doing. In attempting to shift Carla’s negative view of her mother, the therapist offers this reframe: “Isn’t it loving of your mother to teach you ways to take care of yourself so you’ll be prepared to live on your own without her?”

This reframing allows Carla to see another side of the story – her mother’s side – in order to help her feel less aggravated about her mother’s involvement in her life.

Individual Therapy

A person in individual therapy is struggling to accept the limitations of having a chronic illness. The therapist attempts to reframe how they view their illness by saying, “Can you think of your illness as a built-in reminder to take care of your health throughout your life?”

A client is upset that they weren’t chosen for a promotion. The therapist asks them what positive things could come from not being promoted. They might note that the new job came with some unwanted additional stresses and that they might be able to work toward another role that is better suited to their needs and long-term career goals.

Someone is angry about getting a ticket for texting while driving, so their therapist talks about the dangers of texting while driving. Eventually, the person is able to see that the ticket might help deter them from engaging in the dangerous behavior again in the future.

What Cognitive Reframing Can Help With

Cognitive restructuring can be used to treat a wide variety of conditions, including:

In addition to mental health conditions, cognitive restructuring has also been found to help people cope with:

Benefits of Cognitive Reframing

Cognitive reframing, whether it is practiced independently or with the help of a therapist, can be a helpful way to turn problems or negative thoughts into opportunities for change and growth.

While this technique is often used in therapy, it’s something that you can use at home as well. With practice, you can learn to remind yourself that your initial conclusion is only one possible explanation.

So, what can cognitive reframing help you with?

Change Your Point of View

It’s easy to get into the mindset that your initial outlook is the only way to look at a problem. Cognitive reframing teaches you to ask yourself questions like, “Is there another way to look at this situation?” or “What are some other possible reasons this could have happened?”

Validate Emotions

Don’t try to deny or invalidate what you are feeling. If you are helping a child or teen reframe a situation, remember to validate their feelings by saying, “I know you are nervous that they haven’t called you back. I know when I feel nervous I always imagine the worst-case scenarios but often, those things I imagine aren’t true.”

Cognitive reframing actually encourages you to feel the emotions you are feeling in order to examine them and, ultimately, shift them.

Show Compassion

You also might help yourself or your child stay mentally strong by asking, “What would you say to a friend who had this problem?” You may find that you’re more likely to speak to others in a kinder and more compassionate way than you talk to yourself.

The goal should be to help develop healthy self-talk. Eventually, you’ll learn to recognize there are many ways to view the same situation.

Effectiveness of Cognitive Reframing

There have been numerous studies on the therapeutic effects of cognitive restructuring for patients as well as the benefits of cognitive reframing for providers and caregivers in terms of preventing burnout. For example:

• Cognitive reframing has been proven effective to help minimize anxiety and depression and enhance quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• A 2017 study on practitioners who treated individuals with substance use disorder found that cognitive reframing helped them experience less burnout and greater treatment results.
• In caregivers of individuals with dementia, cognitive reframing was found to reduce caregiver anxiety, depression, and stress and enhance communication and overall quality of life.
• One 2015 study on people with mental illness and PTSD found that cognitive restructuring reduced symptoms and improved functioning.
• A 2014 study showed that cognitive restructuring reduced post-event processing (PEP), or the reflective thoughts you have after a social situation, for individuals with social anxiety disorder.

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Things to Consider

While you can practice cognitive reframing on your own, it requires time, effort, and patience. It may be challenging to be honest with yourself and spot the negative thought patterns getting in your way on your own. When you know what to be on the lookout for, however, it becomes easier.

Some common cognitive distortions, or tendencies and patterns of thinking or believing, that can cause negative thought patterns include:

• All-or-nothing thinking: Seeing situations in absolute terms
• Blaming: Attributing complex problems to a single cause
• Catastrophizing: Always imaging the worst thing that can happen in any situation
• Discounting the positive: Ignoring or discounting the good things that happen to you
• Mental filters: Focusing only on the negatives and never on the positives
• “Should” statements: Always feeling like you’ve failed to live up to expectations of what you “should” do in a situation

Consider whether it’s best to address these cognitive distortions on your own, or to work with a therapist to identify and develop coping strategies. Especially if you’re experiencing suicidal ideation, it’s imperative to speak with a mental health professional.

How to Get Started

If you are ready to try cognitive reframing, start by noticing your own thoughts. Pay attention to any negative or distorted thinking. Ask yourself: Do I always react the same way to a stressor or difficult situation? Is that reaction helping me or hurting me?

Next, work on evaluating the evidence that supports or disputes your thoughts. Note things that might contradict your interpretation. Why am I convinced that I made my coworker angry when they are still talking to me in the friendly way they always do?

It is also important to work on being compassionate to yourself. Using positive self-talk and practicing gratitude are two ways that you can shift into a more positive mindset. You might say to yourself: I made a mistake, but the world didn’t end. I can learn from this experience and do better next time.

If you want to try cognitive reframing with the help of a therapist, there are some steps that you can take to help find the best therapist for your needs:

• Get a referral. Talk to your doctor for a referral to a therapist. You can also ask friends and family if they have recommendations of therapists they’ve had good experiences with.
• Look in a directory: Online therapy directories are basically online phonebooks of available therapists. For example, you could check out the directory of certified therapists offered by the National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists to locate a licensed professional in your area.
• Ask about insurance. Contact your prospective therapy provider to be sure that they take your insurance, and check with your insurance provider about how many sessions they cover per year. You can also ask your insurance provider for a list of in-network therapists in your area.
• Weigh your options. Are you more comfortable with in-person therapy or online therapy? Are there more therapists available online than in-person? Are you willing to travel to see a therapist in-person or would it be more convenient to have online therapy from home?
• Think about what brought you to therapy. Are you ready to tackle the issues that made you seek out a therapist in the first place? Be ready to share these issues with your therapist, and be prepared to answer questions about your medical and personal history.

ADHD masking is when someone with ADHD presents in a way that makes them seem like they are not living with the disorder. It’s also called “impression management.” The term was coined by psychologist Russell Barkley, who said it occurs in about one-third of all people with ADHD.

ADHD masking may also be called “camouflaging.” This is when someone with ADHD tries to cover up their symptoms by copying the behaviors of people who don’t have it. ADHD masking may be a way for some people with ADHD to fit in socially, avoid being stigmatized, or feel more accepted.

Types of ADHD masking include hiding hyperactivity with calmness, sitting quietly at a desk without squirming in one’s seat, or responding as you are expected to do during class discussions even though your mind may feel chaotic. Masking may also include over-focusing on a teacher, task, or activity to avoid distractions and impulsivity.

History and Prevalence of ADHD Masking

In 2015, Barkley wrote about the ADHD masking phenomenon in his book, “Taking Charge of Adult ADHD.” He said that some people with ADHD try and show others they have it under control by controlling their symptoms.

Research on ADHD masking is still limited, and it has not been studied extensively. Barkley said that this is due to the fact that ADHD masking is a very difficult concept for people without ADHD to understand, so they may find it hard to believe.

What’s more, people with ADHD may be ashamed to admit they are “faking” it, and doctors don’t always ask patients about the possibility. In other words, it may be that ADHD masking is more common than we know.

Examples of ADHD Masking

ADHD masking is a way of hiding symptoms through learned behaviors that can be healthy or unhealthy. Many people with ADHD break social rules through their behaviors and may face shame and ridicule. As a result, they develop coping strategies to hide parts of themselves.

ADHD masking can be used as a coping mechanism and sometimes may help people get by when they are young and trying to make sense of the world around them. But eventually, this behavior becomes difficult to manage on its own.

Below are some examples of ADHD masking.

• Staying too quiet and being overly careful about what you say to avoid talking too much or interrupting people
• Obsessively checking your belongings to make sure that you don’t lose things
• Reacting as you are expected to during class instead of how you feel inside
• Seeming “fine” and not showing any signs that there is a problem when in reality, you are struggling to keep up or maintain relationships
• Being overly conscientious about how clean the house looks even though you may be overwhelmed by all the work it takes to keep it tidy
• Hiding hyperactivity through calmness, so people think everything is fine, but in reality, you have trouble focusing because your mind jumps from one thing to another too quickly to process what anyone around you is saying at the moment
• Being unable to relax leading up to appointments and arriving much too early, as a way to ensure that you are not late due to time blindness
• Listening carefully and focusing too hard when someone is talking to not miss anything they say
• Excessively writing everything down so you don’t forget it later because of memory issues with ADHD
• Obsessively organizing paperwork and creating systems to make sure you can find what you need
• Bottling up intense emotions until you feel sick inside without knowing why (this can sometimes also lead to depression)
• Calling in sick to avoid being placed in stressful or anxiety-inducing situations
• Being irritable when you force yourself to concentrate on something that doesn’t interest you for an extended period of time
• Taking on too much responsibility to make up for what you perceive as your faults
• Attempting to cope with the world by developing perfectionistic tendencies (e.g., expecting that you will never do anything wrong)
• Overdoing something until exhaustion sets in so that others see how capable and reliable you are even though deep down you are struggling
• Hiding that you may feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities leads to feelings of shame and guilt.
• A need to always appear in control to avoid feeling ashamed about whether others see your struggles
• Suppressing stimming behaviors like leg bouncing so you don’t disturb others even though you feel uncomfortable sitting still
• Mimicking or copying other people in social situations so that you will be accepted

Impact of ADHD Masking

Below are some of the potential negative impacts of engaging in ADHD masking.

• ADHD masking can hide symptoms, which may lead to a delay in diagnosis.
• People who engage in ADHD masking might be unaware that they have undiagnosed ADHD, which can lead them to develop depression and anxiety.
• If you are very good at masking your ADHD symptoms, people may not believe you when you tell them that something is wrong or that you are struggling.
• People who engage in ADHD masking might also be at higher risk for developing substance abuse problems to cope with how they feel inside, which can lead to even more health issues down the line.
• ADHD masking replaces outward stress with internal stress. People who engage in ADHD masking can continue to go undiagnosed for years because they are able to hide their struggles well.
• ADHD masking can make it hard for you to know what is real and what is an act. You may feel as if you are not able to be yourself and instead turn into someone else so that others will like you.

Coping With ADHD Masking

When you can identify that ADHD masking is taking place, you can start learning ways to cope without turning into someone else. You might be surprised at how much more enjoyable life becomes when you learn new skills for managing instead of hiding your struggles.

Below are some ideas to get started:

• Identify which form of ADHD masking behaviors are healthy and which are hurting you. For example, learning to keep a reasonably tidy home might be helpful, whereas needing everything to be perfect would be harmful.
• Learn how to deal with your emotions instead of avoiding them. Seek out a therapist or coach who understands what you are going through.
• Understand that you are not alone in how you experience life. Connect with other people going through the same struggles so that you can feel less alone. For example, join a support group for people living with ADHD. Find an online community where it will be safe to express yourself without judgment.

Final Thoughts

ADHD masking is a way of coping that feels easier in the moment but does nothing to help you deal with what truly needs attention inside yourself. By understanding how you cope, recognizing when your behavior becomes too much, and learning new tools for dealing with stress, it is possible for you to finally start living life more fully.

Cognitive psychology is the study of internal mental processes—all of the workings inside your brain, including perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, problem-solving, and learning. Learning about how people think and process information helps researchers and psychologists understand the human brain and assist people with psychological difficulties.

This article discusses what cognitive psychology is—its history, current trends, practical applications, and career paths.

Topics in Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychologists explore a wide variety of topics related to thinking processes. Some of these include: 

• Attention–our ability to process information in the environment while tuning out irrelevant details
• Choice-based behavior–actions driven by a choice among other possibilities
• Decision-making
• Forgetting
• Information processing
• Language acquisition–how we learn to read, write, and express ourselves
• Memory
• Problem-solving
• Speech perception-how we process what others are saying
• Visual perception–how we see the physical world around us

History of Cognitive Psychology

Although it is a relatively young branch of psychology, it has quickly grown to become one of the most popular subfields. Cognitive psychology grew into prominence between the 1950s and 1970s.

Prior to this time, behaviorism was the dominant perspective in psychology. This theory holds that we learn all our behaviors from interacting with our environment. It focuses strictly on observable behavior, not thought and emotion. Then, researchers became more interested in the internal processes that affect behavior instead of just the behavior itself. 

This shift is often referred to as the cognitive revolution in psychology. During this time, a great deal of research on topics including memory, attention, and language acquisition began to emerge. 

In 1967, the psychologist Ulric Neisser introduced the term cognitive psychology, which he defined as the study of the processes behind the perception, transformation, storage, and recovery of information.

Current Research in Cognitive Psychology

The field of cognitive psychology is both broad and diverse. It touches on many aspects of daily life. There are numerous practical applications for this research, such as providing help coping with memory disorders, making better decisions, recovering from brain injury, treating learning disorders, and structuring educational curricula to enhance learning.

Current research on cognitive psychology helps play a role in how professionals approach the treatment of mental illness, traumatic brain injury, and degenerative brain diseases.

Thanks to the work of cognitive psychologists, we can better pinpoint ways to measure human intellectual abilities, develop new strategies to combat memory problems, and decode the workings of the human brain—all of which ultimately have a powerful impact on how we treat cognitive disorders.

The field of cognitive psychology is a rapidly growing area that continues to add to our understanding of the many influences that mental processes have on our health and daily lives.

The Cognitive Approach in Practice

In addition to adding to our understanding of how the human mind works, the field of cognitive psychology has also had an impact on approaches to mental health. Before the 1970s, many mental health treatments were focused more on psychoanalytic, behavioral, and humanistic approaches.

The so-called “cognitive revolution” put a greater emphasis on understanding the way people process information and how thinking patterns might contribute to psychological distress. Thanks to research in this area, new approaches to treatment were developed to help treat depression, anxiety, phobias, and other psychological disorders.

Cognitive behavioral therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy are two methods in which clients and therapists focus on the underlying cognitions, or thoughts, that contribute to psychological distress.

If you are experiencing symptoms of a psychological disorder that would benefit from the use of cognitive approaches, you might see a psychologist who has specific training in these cognitive treatment methods.

These professionals frequently go by titles other than cognitive psychologists, such as psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, or counseling psychologists, but many of the strategies they use are rooted in the cognitive tradition.

Careers in Cognitive Psychology

Many cognitive psychologists specialize in research with universities or government agencies. Others take a clinical focus and work directly with people who are experiencing challenges related to mental processes. They work in hospitals, mental health clinics, and private practices.

Research psychologists in this area often concentrate on a particular topic, such as memory. Others work directly on health concerns related to cognition, such as degenerative brain disorders and brain injuries.

Treatments rooted in cognitive research focus on helping people replace negative thought patterns with more positive, realistic ones. With the help of cognitive psychologists, people are often able to find ways to cope and even overcome such difficulties.

How Cognitive Psychology Differs From Other Branches of Psychology

Whereas behavioral and some other realms of psychology focus on actions–which are external and observable–cognitive psychology is instead concerned with the thought processes behind the behavior. Cognitive psychologists see the mind as if it were a computer, taking in and processing information, and seek to understand the various factors involved.