While other scientific fields, such as neuroscience, focus their studies on the physical structures of the brain, psychologists examine human actions to better understand the mind. Because the brain is the guiding force behind practically all behaviors, studying people's actions provides psychologists empirical insights into the way the mind operates.<br>Contemporary psychology uses different theories to understand behavior. Although many people think of psychology as focused on human behavior, psychologists may study everything from chimpanzees to pigeons to amoebas. <br>Some psychologists believe it is most important to understand physiological processes (biological approach), others rarely, if ever, consider physiology. Some psychologists insist that we must investigate the deepest thoughts of the unconscious mind (psychoanalysis), others seek to understand mental structures and processes that underlie human performance (cognitivists). Meanwhile, others study the situated actions of organisms and deny that mind can be separated from this level of analysis (behaviorism). Psychology is far from being a unified field of research and practice. This will be one of the questions you will have to answer for yourself: which field, or perspective, of psychology is the most interesting to you.<br><br>Areas of study include the physiology of the brain and nervous system, cognition, learning, child psychology, abnormal psychology and animal behavior.