Explore the two main career paths that are available to psychologists, namely research and practice. Elaborate on the differences between careers in psychology that involve research (which increases knowledge of the field) and practice (which is used to solve real-world problems) by creating
and completing a comparative table. Also, write a short paragraph discussing which area you would choose, research or practice, if you decided to
work in the field of psychology with your reasons.

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What are the Differences Between Research Psychology and Applied Psychology?

Overview

Are you interested in pursuing a career in a research branch of psychology, but cannot, for the life of you figure out the difference between research psychology and applied psychology? If so, you have come to the right place. To answer your question, in its simplest form, research psychology involves actual experimentation. In other words, a research psychologist conducts research studies with participants (i.e. testing how quickly toddlers learn to walk, examining how traumatic brain injury patients process information, etc.). These psychologists are “field psychologists,” which means they work in the field with people (i.e. volunteers and participants).

On the other hand, applied psychology involves applying psychological principles to the treatment of clients and patients. For example, if an individual is a school psychologist, he or she, applies clinical psychology and educational psychology principles, concepts, and theories to the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of students’ with learning disabilities, developmental delays, and behavioral problems. The goal of this article is to help you better understand these two branches of psychology.

Listed below are the differences between research psychology and applied psychology: