An Intro to Psychology & Mental Health
- BetweenThoughts
- Jul 3, 2025
- 3 min read
Hello and welcome to Between Thoughts’ first informational blog post for Episode 1! Today’s topic is an overview of the main focuses of our platform, psychology and mental health: what are they, what’s the difference, and why are they important? Here's what you need to know!
Psychology is the scientific & academic study of the mind, mental processes, and behavior. It explores things like thought processes, personality, mental & cognitive development, emotions, and cognition. Many people think that psychology is just mental health, but it goes so much further than that. While things like mental health disorders are an important part of psychology, so is the rest of it.
One of Hannah’s favorite parts of psychology to learn about is behavioral psychology, and how our behavior is learned. She finds classical & operant conditioning both very interesting (more about those concepts another time!) because it shows how our perception of things and behaviors towards them can be manipulated through conditioning & our environment. This is just one example of the many concepts of psychology that are an integral part of our lives.
There are many different facets of psychology, and many subfields to go into in the psychology field. Some of these include but are not limited to:
Clinical
This field of psychology specializes in diagnosing and treating people who struggle with emotional, mental, and behavioral disorders. Psychologists in this field focus on mixing the science of psychology with treatment of complex human struggles.
Forensic
Forensic psychology is the study of psychology that is characterized by the application of scientific knowledge and methods that are used to assist in legal activities. They evaluate cases on a psychological level.
Developmental
This field is where people study human growth over the lifespan. This includes evaluation of physical, social, and cognitive growth.
Industrial-organizational
This is a scientific field of study where you study human behavior in organizations and workplaces. It's a newer psychology field but it focuses on improving things like employee performance, motivation, and productivity.
Behavioral
Behavioral psychology is a field which studies how the environment shapes the behavior of people. It's basically the analysis of behavior through observation.
Cognitive
This is the science of how we think. This psychology field studies our cognition at work.
Personality
Personality psychology looks into how the personality of a person is developed. It studies how personality affects all aspects of oneself and how personalities are developed. They try to better understand how personality influences our behaviors and thoughts.
Something not a lot of people realize is how broad of a science psychology is, and that there are more kinds of psychology professionals than ones that help treat mental illnesses or help evaluate criminals. Psychology is such an interesting and inclusive field, and that is why we are determined to help educate youth about it more!
Psychology plays such a big role in our day-to-day life, and we should all know as much as possible about it.
Mental health is our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It is a part of psychology and a large area of employment for many people with a background/degree in psychology. Our mental health is a large part of who we are and how we may interact in our day-to-day life. It affects how we interact with others, feel, think, and act. It can affect how we handle change, major life events, and day-to-day stressors.
Mental health disorders are characterized by irregular behaviors that affect your mood, behavior, and thoughts. There are personality disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, behavior disorders, and more. Being educated about mental health in youth is very important, especially in today’s day and age.
According to the World Health Organization; 1 in 7 10-19-year-olds globally experience a mental disorder, and this makes up 15% of diseases this age group has globally. Many unfortunately go untreated. Some of the leading mental illnesses in adolescents are anxiety, depression, and behavioral disorders. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death in youth ages 15-29. Failing to address mental illnesses during youth or adolescence can cause it to progress into more mental health struggles throughout adulthood.
Youth mental health is essential mental health.
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