My career in psychology

My Career in Psychology

September, 2013

Career in Psychology

The Psychology (from Greek: ψυχή – soul, spirit, λόγος – science) is a science, studying the mental processes and behavior of people or animals, often apply the scientific method in laboratory studies. Psychology also includes the application of this knowledge in various fields, including problems of daily life and treatment of mental illnesses. Some of the main objects of study of psychology are perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, brain functions, behavior and interpersonal relationships. Some scientists included in this list and the unconscious (Sigmund Freud). In their research psychologists use methods to determine the causal correlations between psychosocial variables. In addition to the empirical and deductive methods, some clinical psychologists rely on the interpretation of symbols and other techniques.

Even if the knowledge of psychology is used for measuring and treatment of mental illnesses and behavior, it can be used in many other areas. Some of the subfields of psychology are: Clinical, Community, Counseling, Developmental, Educational, Environmental, Experimental, Family, Forensic, Geriatric, Health, Organizational, School, Social and Sport. Because human behavior is so varied, the number of subfields is constantly growing. Psychology can be divided into two major sections: research, which seeks to increase our knowledge base, and practice, through which our knowledge is applied to solving problems in the real world and deal with issues affecting their ability to deal with every day life.
There has been a growing movement to integrate the various therapeutic approaches, especially with an increased understanding of issues regarding culture, gender, spirituality, and sexual-orientation. Health and disease are reviewed over biological, psychological and social factors. Biological determinants consist of genetic conditions and inherited personality traits. Psychological factors are anxiety levels, personality features and lifestyle. Social determinants consist of cultural views, family relationships and support systems. The Health Psychology may be divided into three main areas. Research - Health psychologists conduct studies on a variety of health-related concerns. For instance, researchers may concentrate on investigating effective preventative measures, explore health promotion techniques, study the causes of health problems, investigate how to motivate people to seek treatment, and how to assist people cope with illness or pain. The second one is Public Policy Work: Health psychologists may work in private or government settings and have a role in making public policy on health related issues. Their business might point to advising executive groups on health care improvement, address disparities in health care, or lobby government agencies. The third one and preferred from me is the Clinical Work: In medical and clinical surroundings, health psychologists regularly administer behavioral evaluations, participate in clinical interviews and conduct personality tests. They often participate in managing interventions with individuals or groups which relate to training people about anxiety reduction methods, offer addiction cessation advice and teach people how to refrain from unhealthy ways of life.

Every individual has his own interests and spheres he/she would like to evolve in, based on environment, previous experience and personality. However, the main field which I’m interested in is Clinical psychology – the largest specialty in this discipline. One of the particular reasons for my attraction to this part of psychology and generally in Health Psychology, is my passion to medicine, as for me the most rewarding profession is one that helps people.
There are certain qualities a person need to posses in order to be proper for this profession. A genuine desire to help others and the ability to understand their pain and problems is necessary in order to help patients feel that you're truly invested in helping them solve their issues. Empathy – this quality can help you to look from your patients view. Other useful quality is to understand the inside mechanism of the individual’s mind and to discover why different people act and react the way they do. If the psychologist is curious about the life of the patient he will receive more and more details provided after questions asked. This way psychologist can learn more about patient’s beliefs and values, instead of advocate his own. So curiosity should be other main factor in the personality of a psychologist. And maybe the most important thing is to be clear and stable about your own personality - interests, beliefs, values and motivations, before giving advices and looking into those of others.

One of the most important responsibilities a clinical psychologist has, is to earn the patients trust, so he can share essential information about his/her past without any hesitations. A psychologist should be able to set clear goals for the patient, so after reaching them, the patient can feel better from the already achieved, and can trust the psychologist more, which can lead to more extensive researches, helping the patients with mental disorders or behavior issues to manage their illnesses. A good psychologist should always track the responsiveness of the patient to the particular treatment. They have to be able to tell if the methods and approaches used during the practice are helping the patient to resolve his problem related with mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders.

A job like a health psychologist can be practiced at in a wide variety of settings including hospitals, health care clinics, private corporations and universities. Some health psychologists work in settings that specialize in a particular area of health care such as oncology, pain management and women’s health programs. Other health psychologists work in government settings, often administering community health programs or influencing public policy.

Most positions in Clinical psychology require a doctoral degree in psychology. In order to become a licensed clinical psychologist, you need an undergraduate degree (4 to 5 years of college) plus a doctorate degree in psychology (4D to 7 years of graduate school). For this specialty area, most people will spend between 8 to 12 years in a higher education setting. There are two major training models for doctoral degrees. The traditional Ph.D. in Psychology (or Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology) emphasizes the role of the research and science, typically university-based and emphasize doctoral level training in conducting research as well as provision and evaluation of clinical services. The Psy.D. Degree (Doctor of Psychology) is primarily focused on clinical and practitioner work, which provide training to practice psychology at the doctoral level. Related fields that offer doctoral level training are counseling psychology and educational psychology Psy.D. Programs are attractive to many students because they typically take approximately a year less time to complete than a Ph.D. On the other hand, Ph.D. programs tend to provide better funding of graduate students.

As I have mentioned, the job which can satisfy me the most is one that help others. In my opinion the fulfillment after a successful treatment cannot be replaced by any other profession. Followed by the number of jobs for clinical psychologists which is increasing much faster than that for other jobs and the good annual payment, the Health Psychologist is becoming one of the promising careers of the near future.