Explore various psychology specialties and educational pathways to choose the right one for you.
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Updated June 13, 2025
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A psychology specialty focuses your educational journey and aligns with your interests, but choosing one requires careful consideration.
This guide profiles specializations in psychology to help you identify a path to follow in school and your future career.
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Considerations when Choosing a Psychology Specialization
With many available psychology specialities, choosing a subfield can seem daunting. You can start by determining how each specialization aligns with your interests, preferences, and career goals.
Personal Interests
When choosing a psychology specialization, it’s important to consider your personal strengths, skills, values, and areas of curiosity. For example, do you have a particular interest in the legal system, youth mental health, or workplace dynamics? Visualize your long-term future and consider the type of psychology career you would find the most engaging.
Some important personal qualities of psychologists include compassion, patience, and integrity. You will also need to demonstrate skills in analytical thinking, interpersonal and professional communication, problem-solving, and observation.
Education Requirements
Typically, the more education you need to enter a particular specialty, the more money and time you will spend on schooling. If cost is a major factor, or you’re not interested in earning a doctorate or practicing as a clinical psychologist, consider psychology specializations that do not require a doctoral degree.
For example, you can practice industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology with a master’s degree, and you do not need a license in this field.
Work Environment
Psychology professionals work in many settings, including offices, hospitals, inpatient and outpatient clinics, schools, court systems, and correctional facilities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), psychologists most often work in the following environments:
Self-employment: 26%
K-12 schools: 24%
Outpatient healthcare facilities: 23%
Government: 8%
Hospitals: 4%
Consider your work environment preferences and research specializations that interest you to see where practitioners in those specialties usually practice.
Job Market Demand
Demand for various psychology specialties changes over time, often in response to shifts in the general population. For example, the American Psychological Association (APA) anticipates high demand for geropsychologists to meet the mental health needs of the aging U.S. population. Additionally, the BLS projects particularly high job growth for clinical and counseling psychologists from 2023-33.
Choosing an in-demand subfield puts you in a good position to capitalize on such trends. For ideas, start by exploring some of psychology’s fastest-growing careers and note that the BLS projects particularly high job growth for clinical and counseling psychologists from 2023-33.
Salary Potential
Advanced psychology careers tend to pay well, but salary ranges vary significantly across various specializations. Your geographic location, experience, and professional reputation can also impact your earning potential.
First, consider median salaries for the following psychology specialties, as reported by the BLS using data from May 2024:
When choosing a specialization, personal interests usually play a predominant role. If you can find a way to leverage your passions in the field, this is a great way to find a specialization that suits you and to build a career that you will love. Making sure your specialization is marketable is a great way to stand out among other professionals and ensure your income potential. If you prioritize these two factors, you will likely have carved out an enjoyable and lucrative niche with which to build a career.
Exploring Available Psychology Specialties
Discover descriptions of 15 psychology specialities recognized by the American Psychological Association (APA). The profiles highlight each specialization’s distinctive features. Compare them to see which pathways best align with your personal and professional interests.
The related fields of behavioral psychology and cognitive psychology seek to help people at all stages of life identify and overcome impediments to their behavioral, cognitive, and emotional health. They treat many different conditions, from mood disorders and substance use to trauma and emotional dysregulation.
Behavioral and cognitive psychologists use specialized techniques, including applied behavior analysis, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and social and emotional learning theories.
This psychology specialty applies the principles and techniques of clinical psychology to developmental, emotional, and behavioral issues that children and adolescents face. Clinical child and adolescent psychology also covers challenges related to family dynamics, trauma, health issues, and peer groups.
Specialists can practice as child psychologists once they earn a doctorate and a license.
Health psychologists specialize in the crossover between physical and mental health. They treat clients of all ages, helping them use psychological tools to deal with or overcome health-related challenges.
Health psychologists frequently apply the biopsychosocial model in their work. This paradigm holds that biological, psychological, and social factors combine to affect individuals’ health outcomes.
Specialists in neuropsychology concentrate on the biology, physical structure, and the human brain. They examine relationships between brain function and human behavior, and often work with clients experiencing changes, deficits, or declines in their mental faculties.
In this context, neuropsychologists may work with people experiencing:
Developmental or learning disorders
Head or brain injuries
Medical conditions affecting the brain
Psychopharmacologists specialize in the mental health applications of psychotropic medications. Psychotropic medications deliberately alter chemical processes in the brain, potentially impacting thoughts, mood, emotions, behaviors, and perception of oneself or one’s surroundings.
In most cases, psychopharmacologists engage in research or treat behavioral, emotional, or mental health disorders requiring medicinal interventions.
Clinical psychologists help clients manage complex personal and interpersonal conditions that impact their behavioral, cognitive, and emotional health. Drawing on multiple psychology disciplines, clinical psychology also integrates behavioral science, talk-based therapeutics, and many other adjacent specializations.
Clinical psychologists rely heavily on firsthand observations obtained through interviews and other forms of direct client contact. They then apply those observations to help clients improve their mental health, coping skills, and social functioning.
Working exclusively with couples and families, these specialists help clients build healthier and more supportive interpersonal dynamics. They assess, diagnose, and design interventions to address general or specific issues that affect both the individual members of a couple or family and the group as a whole.
This generalist branch of psychological practice applies talk therapies and other evidence-based techniques to help clients understand and overcome problems impacting their daily lives. It particularly emphasizes the social and environmental factors that define the context of mental health challenges, and emphasizes cultural sensitivity in addressing those challenges.
Counseling psychologists work in many settings, including hospitals, inpatient and outpatient care centers, and private practices.
In 2001, forensic psychology became an APA-recognized psychology specialty. This subfield applies psychological practice to criminality and crime investigations. Forensic psychologists create psychological portraits of unidentified people accused of committing crimes, assess the rehabilitation potential of incarcerated people, and serve as expert witnesses in legal proceedings.
In these contexts, they may work alongside:
Investigators and law enforcement officials
Legal professionals
Criminal offenders
Crime victims and their families
Geropsychology is the psychology of aging. These specialists work with older individuals, helping them optimize their quality of life. Geropsychologists also guide clients through age-related challenges, including acute or chronic illness, declining physical and mental function, and end-of-life planning.
With the U.S. population continuing to age, the APA recognizes geropsychology as a high-growth specialization.
I-O psychologists focus on individual and group dynamics in employment contexts. Specifically, they apply behavioral science techniques to help employers improve productivity, motivate their teams, and build positive workplace cultures.
Industrial-organizational psychology is rare among psychology specialties: It is one of the few that does not require a doctoral degree or a license.
This psychology specialty engages the theory that subconscious influences profoundly shape human actions and behaviors. Within this context, it applies specialized techniques such as psychodynamic therapy to help clients understand how these influences affect their daily lives and how to gain more control over their impacts.
Rehabilitation psychologists primarily work with clients experiencing physical disabilities due to illnesses, medical conditions, or injuries. They also work with caregivers and family members. These specialists apply therapeutic techniques to help clients adjust to their physical limitations, maximize their functionality, and optimize the mental aspects of their quality of life.
Working with K-12 students, school psychologists help young people navigate general or specific social, behavioral, and academic challenges. They also help design support programs for learners with disabilities and work with families to address complex situations in school and home environments.
Notably, many states require only a master’s degree for licensure. You do not necessarily need a doctorate to enter this career path.
Sports psychologists examine the many ways in which psychology intersects with physical activity and exercise. These professionals may engage with regular populations, helping them stay motivated and overcome psychological barriers to physical activity. Some work with high-level amateur and professional athletes seeking more control over the mental aspects of peak performance.
The APA identifies sports psychology as another high-growth specialization area.
Psychology Specializations
Expert Advice
Megan Pietrucha, Psy.D.Contributing Reviewer
If you are unsure of what subfield to choose, it helps to start by researching the variety of options available. Once you have considered what area(s) of psychology interest you, finding professionals whom you can interview or shadow can be a good step in deciding if the day-to-day work in this subfield meets your expectations. The American Psychological Association has 54 divisions, reflecting many of the specialization areas in psychology and opportunities to become involved. For example, once I decided to pursue sport and exercise psychology, I joined division 47 and the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, became a student leader and started attending conferences to meet other people with similar interests and learn more about what I could do with this specialization.
Frequently Asked Questions About Psychology Specializations
No psychology specialization is inherently “better” than any other, so it depends on your interests and professional goals. To choose the right specialization for you, consider your aptitudes, educational requirements, earning potential, labor market demand, and projected growth rates.
Clinical psychology, child and adolescent psychology, behavioral and cognitive psychology, and counseling psychology are the most common psychology specialities, according to a 2024 APA analysis. Similarly, BLS data from 2023 indicates that clinical, counseling, and school psychologists account for about 69% of all psychologist employment.
Practitioners in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “psychologists, all other” category earn the highest annual median salaries. This category includes rehabilitation psychologists, forensic psychologists, neuropsychologists, psychopharmacologists, health psychologists, and other professionals who do not fit into other BLS classifications.
Clinical and counseling psychologists are in high demand. The BLS projects 13% job growth for these specialists from 2023 to 2033 due to increased needs for mental health services across various settings, including schools, hospitals, and mental health centers.
