Exploring the Intricacies of Forensic Psychology

“Studying psychology is fun because you are always looking for the same things I think a writer should be looking for, which is the story behind the story.” – Christ Cleave. While this might be a romanticized view of psychology, I find the quote by Mr. Cleave accurate due to the high levels of observation and research associated with this field of study. There are more than a dozen specialized areas of psychology and include working with animals and people, studying behaviors, criminals, work environments. Though there are several intriguing areas of psychology, the two that interest me most are experimental psychology and forensic psychology.

With forensic psychology, you will need educational background in psychology, criminal justice, and forensics. Most often, forensic psychologists will obtain a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus on criminal justice or possibly the reverse with a bachelor’s in criminal justice with their focus in psychology. The ability to pursue a career in forensic psychology requires more

Further education is necessary, including a Master’s degree as well as a Doctoral degree and can be done sequentially or the degrees can be broken up with periods of hands on work and research. As one would surmount from the title, this type of psychology has a deep rooted focus on research and experimentation.

Experimental psychology utilizes the scientific method to create and empirically test hypotheses to answer questions, including those related to behavior and the mind. With enough research, experimental psychologists can even develop theories that allow them to describe, explain, and predict human behaviors. Humans are not the only subjects studied by experimental psychologists; animals are studied and included in experiments, and of course treated with humane