- Home
- Career Options
- Psychology
- Psychologists
Psychologists
Being a Psychologist is an interesting option, you can look forward to the satisfaction of helping others, can enjoy a high earning potential, learn about people and how they think, and may have quite a bit of variety in your work.
If we put it in simple words- Psychologists study human behavior. They work with different settings giving a helping hand or treating patients with severely impaired. Psychologists use a number of methodologies during their treatment or counseling- gather information and evaluate behavior through controlled laboratory experiments, psychoanalysis, or psychotherapy. They also may administer personality, performance, aptitude, or intelligence tests.
There are a variety of areas for specialization: Clinical Psychologists and school psychologists are the most popular, besides these two there are others like, Counseling, Developmental, forensic, industrial organization and social psychologists.
Role of Psychologists
- Study behavior and brain function
- Collect information through observations, interviews, surveys, tests, and other methods
- Evaluate, understand and predict behavior
- Use their knowledge to increase understanding among individuals and groups
- Develop programs that improve schools and workplaces by addressing psychological issues
- Work with individuals, couples, and families to help them make desired changes to behaviors
- Identify and diagnose mental, behavioral, or emotional disorders
- Develop and carry out treatment plans
- Collaborate with physicians or social workers to help treat patients
Skills of Psychologists
Analytical skills: Analytical skills are important when performing psychological research. Psychologists must be able to examine the information they collect and draw logical conclusions from them.
Communication skills: Psychologists must have strong communications skills because they spend much of their time listening to and speaking with patients.
Observational skills: Psychologists study attitude and behavior. They must be able to watch people and understand the possible meanings of people's facial expressions, body positions, actions, and interactions.
Patience: Psychologists must be able to demonstrate patience. They also must be patient when dealing with people who have mental or behavioral disorders.
People skills: Psychologists study people and help people. They must be able to work well with their clients, patients, and other medical professionals.
Problem-solving skills: Psychologists need problem solving skills to find treatments or solutions for mental and behavioral problems.
Trustworthiness: Patients must be able to trust their psychologists. Psychologists also must keep patients’ problems in confidence, and patients must be able to trust psychologists’ expertise in treating sensitive problems.
Click on the list of careers in the field of psychology: