My Journey in Psychology

I took a career test and found lots of interesting options. The top career field was education, which would be a very fun career course. Being teacher involves a lot of similar elements to being a therapist, only the teacher is to a larger audience while typically therapy is one on one or worked with a couple. However both involve explaining concepts, and helping your audience solve problems. Teaching is a very different job in the day to day, constant work and following a structured lesson plan each day, and dealing with parents. I do think it would be a very fun job, and would require less schooling. the test definitely opened my eyes to different ideas. 

 For class this week I watched several videos comparing masters degrees to doctorates. Doctorates are long arduous campaigns, often taking five to seven years. Doctorate programs require roughly 40 hours a week, and likely will have many weeks demanding up to 80 hours. Doctorates are suitable for a research path or life in academia. However, if you do not have a niche or interest field you want to be involved in then a master’s may be the more suitable path. Most clinician jobs can be done with only a masters. Often with the masters being the cheaper faster option. Generally if you are wanting to work in a clinical setting more than you want to steer research which will advance the field of psychology a masters is a great option.  

 I was hanging out with some friends this week discussing our plans for the future. I realized I don't have the understanding of my career choice that they do. I have however learned a bit through this class. I have learned most importantly though that I just don't know what's going to happen. Some of my friends seem further along in college, but even they have changed their minds about the careers they want to go into. 

 Talking to an uncle yesterday, I was exploring different career paths. He told me about his experience in law-school, and realizing in his first year at a large firm he did not want to be a lawyer. He started his own firm and hired others so he could focus on the business side of the trim and let others take on cases and litigate. It helped me intellectualize that I can decide my career later, even if I get into it I can change my path. The future is not decided, and that's okay. 

Welcome to my Psychology journey! I will embark on exploring the world of psychology and the different avenues to pursue my goals and a life in psychology. I will post here regularly, to update on what I've learned, how my ideas and perceptions of psychology have changed, and what I think about my future in the field. This blog is for my class: Psychology as a science and profession. My goal in the class is to explore different options for schooling in psychology as well as different careers, and what to expect in the field. I think my goal is to be a family and marriage therapist. My mom recently began this career, and I've found myself drawn to follow her footsteps.      I am always wanting to improve my relationships, by changing habits which harm them and implementing new strategies to show appreciation and strengthen love. As a therapist I want to help others meet their goals, recognize their own relationship habits good or bad, and implement new ideas and theories t...