Research is an important part of the study of psychology. Studying how the brain works, and how that affects personality, perception, and every other part of how people live and experience their lives. Although there are many different topics to study, psychology research can be divided into three common areas.
Mental illnesses affect the way that a person perceives and interacts with the world around him. Psychologists study this issue, along with several others, as part of the first area of psychological research. Behavioral and evolutionary neuroscience is the branch of psychology research that deals with the biological reasons for the way people act.
This research area focuses specifically on how brain processes affect the way people function. Psychologists research phases of development from infancy through old age, causes of mental illness, along with how and why human behavior has evolved over time. Part of this research also includes looking at how the endocrine system, which regulates hormones and glands, can affect behavior.
Psychologists also research how individuals are able to learn complicated languages and how accurately people can remember long lists of words. The second area of psychological research is in cognition, development, and perception. Cognitive researchers study how people learn, store, and retrieve information. This includes language, memory, and the way people perceive their surroundings and the events in their lives. Human development, with an emphasis on mental processes and understanding, is also studied. This area of psychology research is the most well known, with studies on how people learn languages, store memories and develop abilities.
The way people act is often determined by previous experiences, their current state of mind, and the way they believe that they are supposed to act. The third main area of psychology research is personality and social psychology. One of the biggest areas of this research is on emotions, and how they can affect other cognitive processes. How people meet and relate to others is another large area of research. Personality traits and how they develop and change as people grow up, go through adulthood, and enter old age, is also studied.
The psychology research that goes on in labs, universities, and clinics around the world is very important to understanding how people function. There are hundreds of different topics for study within these three common areas that researchers can choose to dedicate their time to. This research has led to breakthroughs in medical conditions such as depression, Alzheimer's, and other mental disorders, as well as providing an in depth look at how and why people think, learn, and behave in certain ways.