Psychology major?

<p>Okay I have a two part question: </p>

<p>Say I was to go to a basic public state college (ex. Michigan State, Arizona State, Kansas etc.) that offered psychology as a major, would I be able to specialize in a sub-field of psychology (clinical, community, IOP etc.) under the general major of psychology, or is that something that varies from school to school? Or would I have to get a bachelor degree in Psych first then go to grad school to further study a sub-field? </p>

<p>Other question is in order to study human behavior, say while they're in relationships or male female interaction while trying to build a relationship, I guess kind of studying love and the way one sex acts towards another sex with sexual intentions, things like that, would that be under personality psych or social psych? Or a different sub-field? </p>

<p>(Apologies for the run-on sentence. Obviously not an English major) </p>

<p>Any help will be much appreciated, thank you.</p>

<p>Psychology programs are structured to get your toes wet in the basics of various sub-fields, such social psychology, personality, abnormal, developmental, counseling, and others. Some programs do have “tracks” that allow you to take a few additional courses on a particular subject, but it depends on the department and the variety of professors/courses offered. Some programs will have what’s called an “independent study” course where you do in-depth research on a topic of your choice, resulting in an experiment and/or writing a long paper. It is not a classroom course; you typically choose a professor as an advisor and plan meetings with them periodically throughout the semester while doing your own independent research. You can also get involved in research labs if a professor is doing research on a topic that interests you. This is valuable experience if you are interested in graduate school.</p>

<p>Interpersonal/intergroup relations would fall under social psychology; how average groups of people typically interact in specific situations. Personality is more internal, although the two can overlap at times (such as studying how people with narcissistic personality disorder develop relationships).</p>