My Journey in Psychology

 Over the last few weeks I've had experiences which have helped me recall the philosophies which guide my life. I have reflected on habits which have helped me to this point in my life, as well as those that have hindered me and the philosophies which guide each. Ideals of hard work, integrity, and honesty which I have been raised with and how to employ them in my life, which would I would want to express to people in a clinical setting. I of course would hold a balance of not telling patients what to do, but still allowing those themes to be expressed and help patients see how those values are or are not expressed in their decisions and livelihood. I wonder how I could help others view these philosophies without just trying to get them to think the way I do. 

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.