Introduction Psychology is a broad aspect that entails the study of the soul, mind and behavior of organisms especially in human beings. Psychology helps in describing an individual’s behavior and also explaining the reasons why he or she behaves in a specified manner. ‘‘Psychology studies the various activities of man, both bodily and mental that he performs while dealing with the environment of objects and persons’’ (Mohsin 3). It also allows for prediction of how a certain behavior could be affected by some changes as well as controlling and improving behavior through the application of the changes in an appropriate manner. The word psychology comes from Greek roots, psyche and logos meaning mind and study respectively hence it’s the study of the mind [1] (Nevid 4). There are many principles that make up the psychology field some of which are general while others are specific to the particular branches of psychology. This piece of work gives an insight of the importance of the principles of psychology in our day to day life and how they can help make the world a better place giving much emphasis on the areas of focus and schools of thought in psychology, the basic principles of psychology and their importance, the branches of psychology, how knowledge on psychology may be attained and their importance in enhancing people’s lives. Areas of focus and schools of thought in psychology ‘‘Psychology as a science has two major areas of focus’’ (Tsivkin 1) [2] . The two major areas are academic psychology and applied psychology. Academic psychology [3] is involved with the study of the various divisions or subtopics in the field of psychology. The subtopics may include personality psychology, developmental psychology, biological psychology, industrial psychology, health psychology, educational psychology and social psychology all aiming at broadening the theoretical understanding and knowledge of psychology among the learners. Applied psychology [4] on the other hand is broad and aims at solving the problems and challenges encountered by individuals in their day to day activities and practices. This is usually through the application of the various psychological principles and it is utilized in various careers for instance medicine, ergonomics, and forensics and industrial areas among others (Tsivkin 2) [5] . The are a variety of schools of thoughts in psychology some of which are; behaviorism psychology which focuses on behavior and learning and how they are affected by the environment, and psychodynamic psychology which studies the unconscious mental processes and explains the psychological behavior in human individuals in regard to the interaction of the conscious and unconscious processes. There is also the post-structuralism psychology also known as post-modernism, critical or socio- constructionism psychology. This focuses on the compound nature of subjectivity where there is dependence of knowledge and reality on the social relations and practices of human beings. Phenomenological or humanistic psychology on the other hand deals with the subjective and unique nature of events showing the meaning and importance of existence while cognitive psych