Career in Psychology.

[Patrick-Ruff]

Hey all, I've been considering for a while a career in psychology. I don't know if this is the right forum to post this but there are so many people using this forum and the ubuntu community is so diverse that I figured there may be some psychologists using this that know their field.

I was mainly wondering what are the job oprotunitys in psychology, and where to start and all that.


so I hope I can get some insight through the experiences of others, and knowledge of what is out there.

[diablo75]

Read some Carl Jung before you get stuck in a stuffy room with some old Freudians. And don't pursue this academic path if you think you might be doing it to learn about you or resolve some personal issue you have with yourself or life. I had an ex who decided to study psychology because she wanted to understand why she had depression, after having convincing herself that "all" depression is genetic and that she'd have to find the best way to treat the symptoms (while not addressing/confronting the causes). I think the reasons she was depressed was obvious: She's a 21 year old mother of a ******* child, her own mother passed away from a brain aneurysm while her and I were dating, another brother of her attempted suicide a decade ago and is now blind, another brother lost his wife and kids in a house fire... Anybody would be depressed when placed in her position.

Blah blah, sorry for rambling.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

[DeadZedz]

I used to be interested in psychology (social sciences generally). Ive read college books "Introduction to Psychology", "Sociology", econonmics etc.
Ask yourself if you can get a job in the field of psychology and if you see yourself as someone working in that field.
I have visited a practicing psychologist.
I work as a bricklayer now and consider myself to be more useful than some pshychologist.

[Patrick-Ruff]

hmm thanks for the info. I'm certainly not doing this to solve my own problems, more or less. it's more of understanding how everything works, even down to the simple details of people operating in life, structures of relationships and solutions to mental problems, including anxiety stress, depression, anything.

the subject really just fascinates me in general.

[mips]

Psychology in my view is a load of BS. You can help more people via Hypnotheraphy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy) and regression theraphy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_life_regression)

I've done a few courses where we even had clinical Psychologist (and if you ask me they are more whacked out than their patients) present.
http://www.hypnotherapy.co.za/

[wersdaluv]

I'm currently taking up AB-Psychology. I'm planning to work for an HR (human resource) Department of a good company when I graduate. I had a seminar on job opportunities and what pleased me most is the idea that psychology graduates have a lot of opportunities in the industrial world because almost every (if not all) big company has an HR Department.

[Presto123]

Hey!

I'm taking psychology and will eventually center on disaster psychology and crisis management.

Ah. Fun stuff. :)

I agree with diablo, read some Carl Jung...probably Memories, Dreams, Reflections would be a good starting point.

[Linuxratty]

Psychology in my view is a load of BS. You can help more people via Hypnotheraphy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy) and regression theraphy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_life_regression)

I feel just the opposite.
You can help more people using psychotherapy than hypnotherapy.Regressive "therapy" is pure" ,unadulterated 100 % BS..
One thing to keep in mind is you will be dealing with people's problems week in,week out and it's really easy to burn out really fast.
I've taken a lot of psych. courses in college and i really enjoyed it.

[Zarckon]

Tough question to answer without a lot more information. There are jobs in psychology at all levels (High School Graduate, Bachelor, Masters, and Doctor). I kind of assume you're in college, but you didn't say whether you already have a Bachelors or are still an undergraduate.

The guys that said it's all BS do have some points. There have been a couple of well written books by conservatives that have some points to that effect. I tend to go more with the research by Scott Miller that indicates that there is real effectiveness to therapy. It also indicates that the more education that you have the less effective (in general). So, the person who posted about psychologists being crazy is partly right (especially with Phds).

So, you might want to also consider whether an MSW degree would take you in the direction you want to go. They have a huge national lobby and a lot of states prefer them over any kind of psychologist.

You really sound like it's more of an interest than anything at this point. If you're still an undergraduate I'd say take some classes in psychology, social work, and sociology and see what if any of those really appeal to you.

And just so you can have some idea of how many grains of salt to take all this with... I'm a Masters level psychologist. I'm licensed as an Individual, Marriage and Family Therapist. I've been working in the field for about 30 years. I've been practising on a little rock surrounded by an ocean for the last 22 of those years (a little rock with a population of about 150K).

BTW, the Pink Floyd reference, IMHO is an indication that psychology may really be a path that will appeal to you.

[Dutchmaster]

My opinions for what it's worth -

Some suggestions I might offer:

If a masters degree is your level of education choice:

I chose the Master of Social Work degree over psychology in order to practice as a mental health therapist because it is, hands down, the most versatile Masters level degree for the whole spectrum of human services work. After 15 years of practice, I still find it was the best choice - even more so in the current environment. I can do everything I could do with a psych masters, but can additionally choose a zillion other job paths with the MSW that psychology is not qualified for.

A Master of Counseling (or some similar label) is a solid preparation to do counseling, but can be limited in scope of opportunities.

If Ph.D. is your education choice:

Consider student loan debt if that is an issue. I have talked to more than one Ph.D psychologist who found that, in the current environment, the pay is not worth the debt at that level (btw choose clincal psychology rather than educational psychologist [Psy.D.] for versatility).

As for the job opportunities, I defer to the MSW again, but both should grow. The age levels of practitioners is creeping upward - openings will be fine for both disciplines.

One more thing: Check the basic belief systems and perspectives of each practice upfront to see which is more congruent with yours.

[Mazza558]

hmm thanks for the info. I'm certainly not doing this to solve my own problems, more or less. it's more of understanding how everything works, even down to the simple details of people operating in life, structures of relationships and solutions to mental problems, including anxiety stress, depression, anything.

the subject really just fascinates me in general.

Do sociology, it sounds much more like the thing you're looking for. You learn about theories on the family, the education system, crime, deviance, methodologies, etc.

[Chessmaster]

Depends on what areas of psychology you want to get into.

Do you want to help people / council people etc? Or perhaps you want to do experimental psychology? social psychology? cognitive psychology? evolutionary psychology? developmental psychology?...the list goes on....

A few people have said "psychology is a load of BS etc" but it really depends what area of psychology you are in. In most subject areas there is some BS and loads of really great stuff. Most criticism seems to be directed at therapy style psychology but that is only one of the many different areas. Seeing as you want to "find out what goes on in the head" you might be more interested in the other fields in psychology. Cognitive science is also very cool and interesting, especially with the crossover with AI and Connectionist modelling etc.

I would have a look around some of the university web sites to see the kind of stuff that is available and some of the fields they specialise in. Usually they have research papers online which are nice to look at to get a feel for the kind of stuff they do.

Wikipedia also has a list of all the different sub fields there are. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology

[mips]

The guys that said it's all BS do have some points. There have been a couple of well written books by conservatives that have some points to that effect. I tend to go more with the research by Scott Miller that indicates that there is real effectiveness to therapy. It also indicates that the more education that you have the less effective (in general). So, the person who posted about psychologists being crazy is partly right (especially with Phds).

Yeah, I believe many of them to be more whacky than their patients. I remember the one clinical psyc in HR at work was like that. For someone as educated and trained as she was she came across as irrational, childish and always had these very unprofessional emotional outburst when things did not go her way (especially with computers). Then there was the potential 'date' I had that also studied psyc and I also thought she was not quite normal. Generally I find psyc people to over analyze things when you try and have a normal conversation with them.

I would like to agree with the correlation between effectiveness and level of education.

Lot's of times people say 'you are not qualified to help so & so' as a normal person. If you have had certain experiences or problems in life and overcame them then I would say you are qualified to help others with the same problems. At least your imput comes from reality as opposed to some book someone read somewhere.

Hypnotheraphy has helped many people. I for one know of it helping people that have spent many sessions with shrinks and got nowhere. A few hypnotheraphy sessions on the other hand worked for these people. So saying it is BS is ignorant. Some Psycs practice hypnotheraphy & regression theraphy. Just because soemthing does not comform to western medicine does not make it irrelevant in the least. My friend is Physiotheraphist (not related to metal issues) and uses both western & easter tecniques in her practice and so do many other practitioners.

[mrgnash]

Psychology in my view is a load of BS. You can help more people via Hypnotheraphy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy) and regression theraphy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_life_regression)

I've done a few courses where we even had clinical Psychologist (and if you ask me they are more whacked out than their patients) present.
http://www.hypnotherapy.co.za/

Utter nonsense. No scientific evidence exists to support the efficacy of regression therapy, and hypnotherapy has a limited range of applications compared to, say, something like cognitive behavioural therapy (for which, plenty of scientific evidence exists). Also, it's worth pointing out that there the 'Eastern Medicine'/'Western Medicine' dichotomy is a complete red-herring. There is scientific medicine, and then there is crap.

As far as the OPs questions go, if you want to understand the various topics you brought up, and would even be interested in a career in psychology somewhere down the road, then you might want to look into doing a psych major. Typically, you'll cover the following areas relevant to the kinds of topics you mentioned:

solutions to mental problems, including anxiety stress, depression, anything -- abnormal/personality psychology and cognitive science
people operating in life -- development/social psychology
structures of relationships -- social psychology

As well as a lot of other areas that pretty much cover the gamut of 'how everything works' as far as the mind goes -- not that we understand everything yet, of course ;)

[Patrick-Ruff]

I think experimental psychology would be interesting. I'm really into thinking outside the box when it comes to psychology. The little bit I know, I try to build more off of, expand the idea.

Also, I'm only a Junior in high school, I'm just planning ahead, trying to get a grip on what I might want to do before I get in college. (and yes I know I should probably chill out as college is still a while away . . . I just think I'll feel a bit better if I have a better idea of what is out there in this carreer.)

[Chessmaster]

Beware of people claiming that X is crap because their experience of X is crap - mostly they don't know what they are talking about or at least making generalisations from an incredibly small set of data.

A few people have said "I went to a clinical psychologist and they were rubbish" etc. but anecdotal evidence is hardly a sufficient to form a reasonable appraisal of the profession let alone the entire subject.

There are sooooooo many fields on offer in Psych (some good, some bad) that you will no doubt find something of interest. As another poster suggested, best to take some intro psych course and find out what you are interested in.

As for "alternative" therapies....there is generally a reason why they are alternative and have been for a very long time....and always will be...because they are, by an large, a load of BS....

[mips]

Utter nonsense. No scientific evidence exists to support the efficacy of regression therapy, and hypnotherapy has a limited range of applications compared to, say, something like cognitive behavioural therapy (for which, plenty of scientific evidence exists). Also, it's worth pointing out that there the 'Eastern Medicine'/'Western Medicine' dichotomy is a complete red-herring. There is scientific medicine, and then there is crap.


You are completely entitled to your opinion whatever you believe. I myself speak from personal experience and the experiances of others (patients) so you can't really tell me it is crap. Psyc is just another indoctrination of how things should be done according to western medicine and totally excludes other practices. When patients go to shrinks for years and get no results but the go to a hyonotherapist and get a result is the patients outcome a load of BS?

[Chessmaster]

You are completely entitled to your opinion whatever you believe. I myself speak from personal experience and the experiances of others (patients) so you can't really tell me it is crap. Psyc is just another indoctrination of how things should be done according to western medicine and totally excludes other practices. When patients go to shrinks for years and get no results but the go to a hyonotherapist and get a result is the patients outcome a load of BS?

Anecdotal evidence, show me the data that this is the case. As in some cold hard evidence, not opinion.

[Depressed Man]

Do sociology, it sounds much more like the thing you're looking for. You learn about theories on the family, the education system, crime, deviance, methodologies, etc.

Correction. Social Psychology (which Sociology also falls into, it's a field shared by both psychologists and sociologists). Then there's several types of interaction you can study, depending on what school you fall into (symbolic interactionism, social exchange, etc..).

Anyway, as a person majoring, and later on making a living doing Psychology related work, know at least the first two things.

1) Your going need AT LEAST a Masters to do anything worthwhile in Psychology. Be sure that your willing to put in the time and effort. A BA or BS in Psychology is pretty much worthless if you want to make any money. You won't even be able to do the good stuff with just a BA or BS.

2) Psychology is everywhere. It's not just counseling, not just clinical, not just social. Hell I didn't even know much about the cognitive, human engineering, and other aspects of psychology till I went to college. I went for counseling and now I'm going be applying to graduate school in human engineering (a subsection of cognitive psychology). The pay also is different. ;)

3) Psychology, it'll help you understand how people work and how you work. But it won't do much about any problems that you think you have (and not to mention after getting into the DSM IV when taking an abnormal psychology class you'll think you'll have every disorder). And sometimes the psychology majors are the "crazies" themselves.

[Bubba64]

The work required to becoming an state accredited Psychologist is a long and difficult process even if you only reach a masters level of education. Actually knowing what is wrong with other people is not a cut and dry situation. This is due to a generally accepted Idea in Psychology or Social Sciences that we all live in our own reality and that all of our perceptions are based on this personal reality. One of the things about any work in all the fields mentioned in his thread is Transference and Counter Transference.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countertransference
This can be a positive or negative part of the encounter and everything in between. What works for any person short of a psychosis with a medical intervention is what works for them. Talk therapy has shown to be as effective as Cognitive Behavioral. As a professor in a counseling course told us you may have clients commit suicide you have to be prepared for this sort of thing to happen. In the end probably one of the hardest types of work out there Psychology, being that it is a soft science and very few exacting answers, it seems that there are, but it t is our brains coming to conclusions that are unanswerable in order to not be confused and to feed Leon Festingers concept call Cognitive Dissonance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_Dissonance

[Ripfox]

You are completely entitled to your opinion whatever you believe. I myself speak from personal experience and the experiances of others (patients) so you can't really tell me it is crap. Psyc is just another indoctrination of how things should be done according to western medicine and totally excludes other practices. When patients go to shrinks for years and get no results but the go to a hyonotherapist and get a result is the patients outcome a load of BS?

I think people who really WANT help believe what they want to believe, whatever it may be they have gotten themselves into to work through their problems...be it hypnotherapy, seeing a psychologist or diving head first into some freezing lake. If you don't believe it it won't happen.

Tada...my .2

[Bubba64]

I think people who really WANT help believe what they want to believe, whatever it may be they have gotten themselves into to work through their problems...be it hypnotherapy, seeing a psychologist or diving head first into some freezing lake. If you don't believe it it won't happen.

Tada...my .2

I use this quote as a representation of some of the course material we studied in a counseling course. In a counseling situation you have to be aware of the cultural influence in regards to a single persons perceptions of Psychology or whatever your practicing. Some cultures are more spiritual, I will leave out any specificities here so as not to offend anyone. To some cultures Psychology is not even considered. So this is where ethics is a huge deal you have to be able to treat somebody within their own perceptions or refer them to somebody that can. So the idea that a large educational history doesn't help or is a disqualifying factor is actually wrong. First of all you have to have a license to practice and the testing is rigorous and very difficult to pass. Like an MD you can't just call yourself a practicing therapist without the accreditation. If your able to reach a level of understand of the human condition to realize that you really know very little, and that every interaction you have with others is based on projections of your own realities towards each other and at best you realize that what you think or say is perceived differently by others no matter how clearly you think you have explained it or they say they understand; your on your way to being an effective helper.

[Ripfox]

I use this quote as a representation of some of the course material we studied in a counseling course. In a counseling situation you have to be aware of the cultural influence in regards to a single persons perceptions of Psychology or whatever your practicing. Some cultures are more spiritual, I will leave out any specificities here so as not to offend anyone. To some cultures Psychology is not even considered. So this is where ethics is a huge deal you have to be able to treat somebody within their own perceptions or refer them to somebody that can. So the idea that a large educational history doesn't help or is a disqualifying factor is actually wrong. First of all you have to have a license to practice and the testing is rigorous and very difficult to pass. Like an MD you can't just call yourself a practicing therapist without the accreditation. If your able to reach a level of understand of the human condition to realize that you really know very little, and that every interaction you have with others is based on projections of your own realities towards each other and at best you realize that what you think or say is perceived differently by others no matter how clearly you think you have explained it or they say they understand; your on your way to being an effective helper.

As long as you believe that, it is true. :)

[Patrick-Ruff]

just for the record, I do know a psychologist that has impressed upon me, a true perspective of the whole idea of psychology, and uses it wisely. I was merely wondering about what feilds so I will have a better idea of what my choices are.

[chucky chuckaluck]

i may be wrong, but i feel fairly strongly that hypnotherapy and regression therapy is pure fiction. i'm not a big fan of psychology either, except that it does seem to help some people. if it helps people, then fine. it's probably interesting work, but i'm sure it also can get annoying and frustrating as well.

anthropologist: so, what's the easiest profession to catch?

cannibal: psychologists, for sure.

anthropologists: so, i guess you must eat a lot of psychologists?

cannibal: oh, hell no!

anthropologist: (stunned) why is that?

cannibal: well sure, they're the easiest to catch, but they're also the hardest to clean.

[Bubba64]

just for the record, I do know a psychologist that has impressed upon me, a true perspective of the whole idea of psychology, and uses it wisely. I was merely wondering about what fields so I will have a better idea of what my choices are.

Because of the vast amount of opportunities as far as employment either as self employed or by organizations, clinics, hospitals. business, etc here is a link to a cursory description.
http://www.psychwww.com/careers/index.htm
I hear though that industrial psychology is the hottest field for actually finding work.
Personally I am looking toward Clinical Psychology as my Goal.

[Zarckon]

There have been some very thoughtful posts from many sides of the spectrum here. Kind of an interesting discussion has been generated though it has been straying a bit from the original question. :)

There has been a bit of a discussion regarding hypnotherapy in general and hypnotic regression in particular. I have been trained in Ericksonian hypnotherapy (that's Milton Erickson for those unfamiliar with the area). I rarely use formal hypnosis in therapy (just doesn't fit the type of practice that I've developed). There is actually a large scientific literature on hypnosis and it's effectiveness. Erickson did a lot of peer reviewed stuff in the 30s and 40s (yes, that's old. He pretty much pioneered the research in the U.S. But, there is a lot of more modern research if a person takes the time to check it out).

Bander and Grinder who developed NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming), studied Erickson, Satire, Haley, and others. While NLP is more of a cult thing at this point, their theoretical work is very interesting and depends heavily on patterns of interactions that they found useful from hypnotherapy.

Brief therapy as practised by In Soo Berg and her associates is a combination of Ericksonian hypnotherapy techniques and systems theory.

For all of these there are peer reviewed scientific research studies.

Regression therapy has always struck me as something that is way out there. But, I haven't taken the time to do a literature search to see what if any scientific studies have been done. I do have some experience with regression having facilitated it with friends. I find the experiences very compelling, but there are a number of alternative explanations for the experiences. It does take a very "good" hypnotic subject to do a regression, not just something anyone can do. This leads to a number of alternative conjectures that we have no real way of choosing between at this point of knowledge.

Someone brought up Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) praising it as scientifically based. I've had CBT training as well. From my perspective it's very limited. That's precisely why it's studied. It's easy to do "pure" research with it. But, when you do "pure" research you have to choose "pure" subjects as well. That is people who only have the "problem" that you're studying. So, the only people that the research directly applies to are people who only have that "problem". But, the real world is much more messy than that. Research like that actually applies to only a very small portion of the real world.

I'd like to point to Scott Miller's research again. He and his group have been doing some very clever research for at least the last twenty years on outcomes in therapy. They have shown that all therapies work, but that the brand of therapy only has about 15% influence on the outcome of therapy. That the major factor in a positive outcome (60%) is relationship with the therapist. It's more important to like and or trust your therapist than whether he, she, or it is a Freudian, hypnotherapist, systems theorist, rogerian, gestaltist, cbt practitioner, or what have you.

Science is a great method for finding out if what we believe is true in some objective sense or not. But, it's not as simple as it's scientific or it's crap. For one thing if you think about it everything we believe at the moment started out as an "alternative" hypothesis at some point. And some of what we believe today that is supported by our scientific theories now, will be proven to be "crap" at some point in the future. Some of our "alternatives" will turn out to be "true" and some won't. I think it's important to remember that there are simply more things out there to be studied than there is time and people to study them, so some things that are "alternative" that are "true" will not be studied for some time. We can't say whether something is either "true" or "crap" until it's been studied.

Finally I think it's important to remember that there are some questions that science per se can't answer. Science has at times denied the mind entirely. Or reduces the mind to an epiphenomenon of the electrical and chemical processes of the brain. I think Ken Wilber addresses this in some particularly clever ways and introduces some interesting methods for studying the "validity" of some of the more subjective aspects of human existence and experience.

[Chessmaster]

Zarcon, you make some interesting points.

Although I always understood alternative in a different sense. You say
But, it's not as simple as it's scientific or it's crap. For one thing if you think about it everything we believe at the moment started out as an "alternative" hypothesis at some point

I take "alternative" to be a methodological claim i.e. alternative therapies etc don't tend to use operate by the same methodologies of science, and scientific critique. Of course, within science itself there are "alternative hypotheses" - otherwise there would be nothing to test! - but that is different from "alternative methodologies". So I think that there is a real difference between science and crap (i.e. pseudo-science). (Peer review would be a good start!) Not that science is perfect, nor that the boundaries between science and non-science is always clear cut. But it is the most successful method of investigating the world. And it works pretty damn well as I am sure you will agree.

As for
Finally I think it's important to remember that there are some questions that science per se can't answer.

Is that an epistemological claim or a metaphysical one? I can agree with the former, but as the mad dog materialist that I am I think that everything is, in principle, describable by science and hence disagree with the latter.

[mips]

Is that an epistemological claim or a metaphysical one? I can agree with the former, but as the mad dog materialist that I am I think that everything is, in principle, describable by science and hence disagree with the latter.

And there lies the problem. You cannot describe everything with science, science does not have all the answers.

[Patrick-Ruff]

hmm, some interesting posts up there. thanks for the advice people and for paying attention to this thread. I'm going to continue to check back as it seems people still have something to say.

[Depressed Man]

As my Criminology teacher said, in the social sciences your lucky if your theory works 25% of the entire population, if your 75% your a god.

[Inferied]

In my opinion, Psychology really sucks. I went to about ~5 psychologists in my childhood and none of them did anything. Seriously, you will learn more about the functions of society by learning Biology.

[sanderella]

Hey all, I've been considering for a while a career in psychology. I don't know if this is the right forum to post this but there are so many people using this forum and the ubuntu community is so diverse that I figured there may be some psychologists using this that know their field.

I was mainly wondering what are the job oprotunitys in psychology, and where to start and all that.


so I hope I can get some insight through the experiences of others, and knowledge of what is out there.

I was a Registered Mental Health nurse before I retired. I think there has never been such a good time as now to take up a career in psychology. The old theories of Jung, Freud, et al are dead and gone, and modern psychology is based on scientific research, so it is more accurate and effective. There are many ways of helping people with mental health problems that are effective, I wish we had had all the resources that are available now.

There are different specialties for psychologists too. You can work in mental health or sports or industry, and many other fields. Forensic psychology is particularly interesting.

I wish I was young again like you, I would go into psychology again it's so interesting and useful. I hope you do choose it as a career, good luck.:KS

[Patrick-Ruff]

thanks that was exactly the response I was hoping for. the main person who has influenced my idea most is a damn good psychologist, he didn't even have his master's and he was damn good.

I can't really describe it, it's just all the things he picked up about people that he probably didn't learn in school make him such an all around good psychologist. though, he was also in viet nam and I don't think he got into psychology till his 30's.

[mips]

the main person who has influenced my idea most is a damn good psychologist, he didn't even have his master's and he was damn good.

So what does that tell you about actual education?

Some people are just very good at understanding other people and I don't believe that is what you get from books. You get talkers and you get listeners. If you are a talker I would say you have little hope, if however you are the observant listener type it does not take you long to get to grips whith what a person is all about.

[Bubba64]

The education is only part of what might give any single person good skills as a therapist. I think some of you might not realize that you have to pass very difficult state required tests to be called a Psychologist, it is not just a degree in Psychology. You cannot pass these tests without an education and around 2000 hrs of work in a supervised clinical setting or like an MD what is called a residency. Even if a person is a good therapist and you trust in them, if they are calling themselves a Psychologist with less than a masters degree and the state required accreditation they are breaking the law. I think the definition of Psychologist is being attached to other types of helping situations..Like a Lawyer cannot practice law with just a law degree;but has to pass the bar exam to practice law. There are people who call themselves therapists or counselors without state accreditation, but they are careful to word what they call themselves and what they are practicing so as to not break the state by state individual laws. I suspect a lot of them probably are helping people, but like another person in this thread commented on that they knew a person with a PhD in psychology, and they seemed a little unhinged. We have to remember that we are dealing with human beings we all have faults and idiosyncrasies that make us individuals at least in our own minds. Having an open mind and looking at any interaction with another person from not only your point of view but theirs as well is a key to having a more realistic understanding of the affect your having on the interaction. Like an artist who paints pictures the more you know about technique and how to mix colors and textures the better your finished product will be, not in a pop culture sense but actual achievement. You wouldn't let somebody do brain surgery on you that wasn't a certified Neurosurgeon.

[Patrick-Ruff]

In my own experience, everyone has the opprotunity to analyse how someone works, what drives them from the inside, and many other things. I do a lot of reading about psychology online, I do a lot of observation whenever I feel like it (I don't let it consume my life, but I do it enough to learn a lot.)

Through observation, reading, and exposure to people who seem to be good in the field, I feel that I already have a good portion of the knowledge I need to help people.

If you didn't get it from the above mips, I believe that I am more of a listener (though I work on being more social.)

[Bubba64]

In my own experience, everyone has the opprotunity to analyse how someone works, what drives them from the inside, and many other things. I do a lot of reading about psychology online, I do a lot of observation whenever I feel like it (I don't let it consume my life, but I do it enough to learn a lot.)

Through observation, reading, and exposure to people who seem to be good in the field, I feel that I already have a good portion of the knowledge I need to help people.

If you didn't get it from the above mips, I believe that I am more of a listener (though I work on being more social.)

You believe it must be true. GOOD LUCK

[Depressed Man]

thanks that was exactly the response I was hoping for. the main person who has influenced my idea most is a damn good psychologist, he didn't even have his master's and he was damn good.

I can't really describe it, it's just all the things he picked up about people that he probably didn't learn in school make him such an all around good psychologist. though, he was also in viet nam and I don't think he got into psychology till his 30's.

If you think about it, it's not that surprising. Most psychologists that are in the textbooks were never psychologists to begin with. Most came from other fields that had insights into human behavior. Heck my dad never took a psychology course yet some of the questions he raises about human behavior and so on along with his insights (or rather they'd be called theories) sound plausible.

I like modern psychology, I think if I were stuck in the ages of psychcoanalytic or behaviorial dominance periods I would've chosen another field.