Info on the job of a psychologist

Faerie

I was considering doing Psychology in University next year because I've always found it interesting but now I'm having second thoughts, I'm not sure it would suit my personality at all!
Anyway I was wondering to be a psychologist do you have to be the sort of person who can remain unmoved by their work or at least be able to leave their work at work? Also do you have to find to be one of those really friendly, approachable outgoing people who can chat to anyone? I can be extremely shy at times!
Another thing that worries me is the places psychologists work. I could never work in a hospital because just being in one for an hour or two makes be depressed and I have a phobia of blood! I know I wouldn't have to work in a hospital when I'm qualified but is it necessary for work experience?
Any info at all would be appreciated! Thanks!

ST*

Faerie wrote:

I'm not sure it would suit my personality at all! ..
Anyway I was wondering to be a psychologist do you have to be the sort of person who can remain unmoved by their work or at least be able to leave their work at work? .. Also do you have to find to be one of those really friendly, approachable outgoing people who can chat to anyone? I can be extremely shy at times!
Another thing that worries me is the places psychologists work. I could never work in a hospital because just being in one for an hour or two makes be depressed and I have a phobia of blood! I know I wouldn't have to work in a hospital when I'm qualified but is it necessary for work experience?

Faerie, you would not want to touch psychology if your heart isn't truly in it.You seem to have rather trival problems holding you back from studying the subject. I'm studying psychology at the moment, and its the best thing I could have done.

No one here can actually say whether psychology is for you or not. With knowledge comes confidence. So I wouldnt worry to much about being shy/nervous with clients.

Im guessing you are heading for your leaving cert - so what I suggest you do is go to your local library and take out a book called 'Simply psychology'. This will give you an insight to the subject. In my opinion, school leavers dive into degrees with the most their points will get them, rather than really think about what they actually want to do in life - so do think it through.

Myksyk

You're referring specifically to Clinical Psychology which is just one of the applied professions in the field of psychology. This I take it is what you would like to do. People usually make the mistake that studying psychology is the same as doing clinical psychology; it's not.

If you do a primary degree in psychology you will not typically be doing any work in this area. You will be doing academic psychology which is largely the study of normal behaviour/cognition/emtion etc. There will be a strong emphasis (or should be) on the fact that scientific psychology is a probabalistic/inferential science and involves a good understanding of statistics. You'll be sick of statistics by the time you finish!

You will cover areas like industrial/organisational psychology, experimental psychology, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology/psychophysiology and so on.

The application of psychology to people's problems will form a small part of your study usually under something like an 'abnormal psychology' section. This is usually academic and does not involve placements.

When you're finished your primary degree you then have a choice to make about the type of profession within psychology you would like to pursue. Clinical psychology is one of these but by no means the only one. Once decided you would have to pursue postgrad study in that area (not always easy to get). When finished you could work as an organisational psychologist, an educational psychologist, an experimental psychologist, a neuropsychologist, a clinical psychologist, a health psychologist or stay in academia and get into any of a myriad of specific research areas.

So there's nothing to stop you doing a primary degree in psychology but do make sure that you have a good understanding of what you're getting into, not a vague idea.

Good luck with it.

Faerie

Myksyk wrote:

You're referring specifically to Clinical Psychology which is just one of the applied professions in the field of psychology. This I take it is what you would like to do. People usually make the mistake that studying psychology is the same as doing clinical psychology; it's not.

If you do a primary degree in psychology you will not typically be doing any work in this area. You will be doing academic psychology which is largely the study of normal behaviour/cognition/emtion etc. There will be a strong emphasis (or should be) on the fact that scientific psychology is a probabalistic/inferential science and involves a good understanding of statistics. You'll be sick of statistics by the time you finish!

You will cover areas like industrial/organisational psychology, experimental psychology, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology/psychophysiology and so on.

The application of psychology to people's problems will form a small part of your study usually under something like an 'abnormal psychology' section. This is usually academic and does not involve placements.

When you're finished your primary degree you then have a choice to make about the type of profession within psychology you would like to pursue. Clinical psychology is one of these but by no means the only one. Once decided you would have to pursue postgrad study in that area (not always easy to get). When finished you could work as an organisational psychologist, an educational psychologist, an experimental psychologist, a neuropsychologist, a clinical psychologist, a health psychologist or stay in academia and get into any of a myriad of specific research areas.

So there's nothing to stop you doing a primary degree in psychology but do make sure that you have a good understanding of what you're getting into, not a vague idea.

Good luck with it.

Thanks! I've been really worried that if I do psychology I'll limit my choices and end up hating my job. And there's nothing else on my CAO form that I really want to do!