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NARRATOR: Psychology is the study of thought, behavior and emotion.

DAVID MEYERS, PHD: Psychology is the most fascinating field. First of all, because it's about us and how we function, how we relate to one another and what are we more interested in than ourselves.

DANA DUNN, PHD: The wonder of psychology is it informs you about other people and informs you about yourself.

NARRATOR: Psychology is concerned with some of life's fundamental questions. What makes us the way we are? How much control do we have over our own thoughts and actions? Psychology relies on science in an attempt to answer these questions.

NATHAN DEWALL, PHD: Psychology is as much a science as any other scientific discipline. We use the scientific method. The same method that biologists, physicists and chemists use to test their questions. The main differences is we test it about ourselves, about other people, about other cultures.

JOANNE DAVILA, PHD: People who are psychologists really need to understand neuroanatomy. They need to understand biology, chemistry, neurocognitive functioning. There's a lot more traditional hard sciences that are now necessary for anyone who wants to study psychology.

NARRATOR: Psychology is a wide ranging field. Whatever your topic of interest, it's likely to be studied by at least one area of psychology. And the field attracts practitioners for all sorts of reasons.

JANE HALONEN, PHD: I actually felt like I had a calling into psychology. I had an impulse to help people and that very first class snagged me.

JA LI LIU: I have a sister at home who is mentally ill and growing up in an immigrant household. I was the translator for all of her doctor's appointments and treatment meetings. That was what inspired me to major in psychology in college.

CHRISTINE SMALL: I had a really great childhood growing up and I think within my own community, I've seen friends and family who didn't have the same experiences I did. I want to make sure that there are intervention programs available for families that may need a little extra support.

JOANNE DAVILA, PHD: The things that got me first interested were really this idea of why do some people who have some similar circumstances do well and other people do poorly in those circumstances? So what makes some people resilient? What makes some people not?

NARRATOR: Many people associate psychology with talk therapy, but clinical psychology is just one application. People with psychology degrees work in a range of fields.

NATHAN DEWALL, PHD: When people say they are a psychologist, that can mean lots of different things. They may be a clinical psychologist working with people with various forms of psychopathology. They might be a developmental psychologist, who works with children. They might be a cognitive psychologist, who's really interested in focusing on human thought.

DANA DUNN, PHD: The challenge is finding what do you want to know. What is really the topic that turns you on? Whether it's clinical psychology or personality psychology or social psychology or cognitive psychology or neuroscience, really explore.

JOANNE DAVILA, PHD: I always knew that I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. Clinical psychology is a really flexible area of psychology. So I get to do research. As a psychology professor, I get to teach. But I also get to do clinical work, which means I can do therapy with people. And that's what's exciting to me.

NARRATOR: Rapid advances in imaging have also given psychologists a powerful tool that helps answer questions about the relationship between brain and behavior.

NATHAN DEWALL, PHD: It's a field that knows no limits. Whatever's interesting, you can study. I'm a social psychologist, but I can use tools in neuroscience to answer neuroscientific questions and also social psychological questions.

NARRATOR: What is psychology? Psychology is the study of us.

DAVID MEYERS, PHD: Psychology has practical insights that inform our lives, help us think smarter, teach us about ourselves.

JOANNE DAVILA, PHD: A degree in psychology prepares you for lots of different things— in terms of your being able to think critically, in terms of your people skills, in terms of your research ability. And that fits really nicely into many different fields.

NATHAN DEWALL, PHD: If you're a computer programmer, it helps you become a better member of a team. If you become an entrepreneur, you can better understand your customers. Also, it makes you a better consumer of knowledge.

JANE HALONEN, PHD: It opens a door that you walk through and you're glad forever.

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