Educational Assistance

When an athlete runs a triathlon, his goal is to beat his opponents and win.  When a person engages in an intense workout, there is a weight goal that he or she would like to meet. When you apply for a job, your goal is to pass the interview and get accepted.  As you may notice, it is important to set a goal for yourself so that you can meet a particular objective.  Without goals, your actions will all be for nothing.  This is the reason why goal setting is important. When dealing with your career, your finances or even your personal life, setting goals for yourself will allow you to create an action plan so that you can work towards, and eventually meet those goals. The Numerous Advantages of Goal SettingAs a whole, goal setting will allow you to turn your future plans into a reality. Here are the numerous advantages that you can get to enjoy with the help of goal setting: 1.    Setting long-term goals for yourself will give you that drive to work harder in meeting your career or your personal objectives. 2.    Setting short-term goals can be a great motivator, especially if you monitor your progress and celebrate your successes in each small accomplishment that you have. 3.    Goal setting will allow you to determine the possible distractions that you may deal with in the process of meeting your long-term goals.  Once these distractions are identified, you can exert an extra effort so that you will not be lured away from your goals. 4.    Goal setting is the key to effective time management. 5.    Goal setting will boost your self-esteem since it improves the quality of your life by letting you know exactly where you are headed in the future. Getting a Head Start in Goal SettingNow that you know all about the importance of goal setting, how can you begin setting such goals for yourself? Here are some useful goal setting tips that you can follow: ?    Start by creating a list of your short-term goals while still keeping your lifetime goals in mind.?    As you slowly progress and each of your short-term goals are being met, you can move on to a broader picture: by setting your long-term goals. ?    Your long-term goals should span your personal, professional, financial, physical, educational, and even your public service goals.  Answer these questions:- How would you like to see yourself a few years from now? – How would you like to make a difference in the lives of others? – What long-term financial goals would you like to meet?- What are your travel plans in the near future? ?    Remember that whether you are setting long-term or short-term goals for yourself, they should still be realistic. Knowing what you want out of life is the best way to set realistic goals for yourself. To sum it all up, goal setting is all a matter of deciding what is important for you to achieve in this lifetime.  Removing distractions, motivating yourself and boosting your confidence are the steps that you need to follow in order to meet the goals that you have set for yourself. Committing yourself to achieving your goals is what will make your journey in life more fun, enriching and meaningful.

Psychology is one the major subjects of study which is applied in many professions.  It is an academic and applied discipline which involves systematic and scientific study of the mental and behavioral functioning of humans and animals.  Psychology also draws a lot from symbolic interpretation and critical analysis of information. Psychology involves study of different phenomena like perception, cognition, emotion, motivation, behavior, personality, relationships, and others. Due to its application in different professionals and relationship with different disciplines, there are different fields of study in psychology.

Major Fields in psychology

The major fields of study in psychology include abnormal psychology, clinical psychology, comparative psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, industrial psychology, and social psychology (Hergenhahn, 2005). Each of these fields is clearly described below:

Abnormal psychology –

This field of psychology is involved with the study of behavior disorders in disturbed individual. There are different areas of study in the field mainly on personal disorders especially mental and behavioral disorders (Fox et al., 2009).

Clinical psychology –

This field relies on the understanding from developmental and abnormal psychology in diagnosing and treating mental disorders and other exhibited adjustment problems (Hergenhahn, 2005).  This field is closely related to medical field and both interact in different areas of learning.

Comparative psychology –

Comparative psychology looks into the differences and similarities in behavior of different animal species.  This field study in details the activities, needs, abilities and other aspects of animal species and consequently make a comparative analysis with human beings.  This field is related to evolution biology (Hergenhahn, 2005).

Developmental psychology –

Developmental psychology involves the study of emotions, intellectual, and the social changes in the lifespan of human beings (Hergenhahn, 2005). Development psychology is important in understand the cycle of human development from infancy to late adulthood.

Educational psychology –

This field of psychology deals with the field of education. It works to improve materials, teaching method, solving learners’ problems, and measuring the ability and the progress of students in education.  It may involve development of assessment tests, teaching methods, and investigation of student learning process (Hergenhahn, 2005).

Industrial psychology –

Industrial psychology involves the study of people at work (Fox et al., 2009).  This field of study investigates matters relating to work place interaction, employee motivation through rewarding and other strategies that motivate employees.  Psychologists in the field may also study personnel selection, leadership, and management issues. This field is also closely related to organizational psychology (Hergenhahn, 2005).

Social psychology –

Social psychology is a field that studies the social behavior of both individuals and groups.  This field lays more emphasis on how individual and group behavior is essentially affected by presence and the influence of others. Social psychologists mostly concentrate on the process of communication, political behavior, and the formation of individual attitudes (Hergenhahn, 2005).

The above are the main fields of psychology. However there are other fields of psychology which are related to the above fields.  These fields include: learning psychology which deal with how lasting images in individual behavior are influenced by experience, practice and training; motivation which deals with study of conscious and unconsciousness forces influence individual behavior; perception which study how organism become aware of their surrounding through sense; personality with deals with characteristics of individual persons; and physiological  which looks into relationship between behavior and boy structures (Dweck, 2007).

Field I am interested in

Among all these fields, I am more interested in industrial psychology. I have been interested in human resource management and I find that this field of psychology is more allied to human resource management. If I have to pursue a career as a human resource management, industrial psychology will come in hand as it will help me in understanding how to relate with employees. It will also assist me in understanding the most working strategies that can be used to motivate employees in order to increase their output. This field of psychology is therefore the most relevant to my aspirations to work as a human resource manager.

Conclusion

Psychology is a discipline that deals with mental and behavioral functioning of human beings. It is a wide discipline which is related to many other disciplines. The main fields of study in psychology include abnormal psychology, clinical psychology, comparative psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, industrial psychology, and social psychology. I am more interested in studying industrial psychology since I plan to pursue a career in human resource management.

Are you working in your dreamed career field? If you are one of those who can’ made your dreamed career comes true, online education will be your best path to earn a career degree to enter a career field that was your career goal when you were at college. With the available of online education programs, going back to study is easier than ever, you can even do it without the need to quit your current job or affecting your family and social commitments.With the growing trend of online education programs, you can find almost any career related online courses offered by accredited online schools. Many of these online education programs are designed for working adults who want to earn a certification or degree in their area of interest without having to stop life on its course. The key elements that make online education the best option for working individuals are flexible learning environment and remote log on to the online classes from any location have made easy for working adults to go for study in their favorite subjects while maintaining their current job and lifestyle.Here are a few steps to find an online education program that meets your career goals:1. Identify Education Requirements Before you start searching for an online education program, you need to identify what are the education requirements in order for you to get the career you want. For example, if you want to become an accountant, you need to earn at least of bachelor or master’s degree in finance; and you may need to have a forensic accounting degree if you want to become a forensic accountant. Then, identify the level of degree you want to pursue, such as bachelor, master or PhD.2. Search For Online Education ProgramsOnce you know what type of online education programs to look for, search for a list of online education programs offered by various accredited online schools that meet your goals. Usually, you will find many similar online education programs offered by different online schools. You may need to short list them with a few criteria such as the school reputation, program cost, and the courses of the online education programs that best fit your needs.3. Request Information From Online SchoolsThe information about the online education programs found at the school’s website may not be detailed enough for you to make your decision. Hence, you should request the schools to send you the details information about the education programs so that you can review and compare them before you make any decision. Most online schools are providing free information packs on their education programs, what you need to do is fill up a simple form to let the schools know what type of online education programs you are interested in and where to send you those information.4. Apply For Admission & Earn The DegreeOnce your have decided an online education program to go for, admission application is simple and it can be done online. You need to fulfill all the admission requirements in order to be accepted by the online school. Then, you should work hard and smart to complete the program to earn the degree that is required to make a career switch.SummaryOnline education has made easy for working adults to go back for study without the need to give up their current job. You can get the career you want by earning a career related degree through online education program without give up your monthly pay check.