Ever since I was in middle school I was fascinated by the world of psychology. The thought of being able to get into someone’s mind by merely speaking them through it intrigued me terribly and I was just so amazed by all of the different areas of it I didn’t know for a couple of years what I wanted to do in that field specifically, but I knew I was meant to be a psychologist of some sorts. I knew I was meant to help people with their mental issues and illnesses in the way I was helped which eventually led me to clinical psychology. “Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental illness, abnormal behavior and psychiatric problems.” (Cherry, Kendra. "Clinical Psychology - What Is Clinical Psychology”) To sum it up, a clinical psychologist is someone who diagnoses people to help them find out what issue they have mentally; like how a doctor would diagnose a patient with a physical disease I would be helping a patient with their mental ailment. To do this I will have to go through many years of schooling but I know in the end it will be worth it if I can have a worthwhile career such as this one.
Lightner Witmer could be seen as the father of clinical psychology as he was the first person to see psychology as more than a pure science. He began assisting a young boy with his difficulty with spelling, then he founded his first journal in this new field of psychology that he started. He began to call it clinical psychology which he defined as the “study of individuals” which would be done by observation or experimentation. It would be put to use in World War One when the military needed psychologists to conduct tests of intelligence on the soldiers they were called Army Alpha and...
... middle of paper ...
...logy - What Is Clinical Psychology." Psychology - Complete Guide to Psychology for Students, Educators & Enthusiasts. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. .
Cherry, Kendra. "Training for Psychologists." Psychology - Complete Guide to Psychology for Students, Educators & Enthusiasts. Web. 06 Mar. 2011.
"Clinical Psychology- A Short History." Helping Psychology. 26 Jan. 2009. Web. 6 Mar. 2011. .
"Clinical Psychologist Salary - Average Clinical Psychologist Salaries - PayScale." PayScale - Salary Comparison, Salary Survey, Search Wages. 1 Mar. 2011. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. .
The World of Psychology. (2002). A Pearson Education Company. Boston, MA: Samuel Wood & Ellen Green Wood p. 593
Theron, M.J. (2008). Masters of Arts in Clinical Psychology [PDF] available at The University of South Africa website; umkn-dsp01.unisa.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10500/2554/dissertation.pdf?sequence=1 (p.32)
Kaplan, H. I., Sadock, B. J., & Grebb, J. A. (1994). Synopsis of psychiatry: behavioral sciences,
"Zoologist Salary - How Much Does Zoologists Make?" The Richest We Follow Money The Extraordinary Zoologist Salary How Much Does Zoologists Make Comments. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Munsey, Christopher. “A long road back”. Monitor on Psychology. 38.6. June 2007. 34. PSYARTICLES. Web. 5 March 2014.
Davis, S. F., & Palladino, J. J. (2003). Psychology. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
I observe people around me and try to as well understand their actions and why they react the way they do in certain situations. The more I realized that I like to help people with their problems, the more I realized that I was in the right field to help people understand their own life better. I don’t always have the answers but, I do what it takes to understand a situation more so that I am able to get the answers. I believe that my purpose is to help people understand their life a little better and speak great over their lives. I would mostly like to help children out so that I am able to help them understand their feelings. Children are usually more vulnerable than anyone else in the world. Becoming a practitioner scholar in this field means learning about different mental illness so that I am better prepared when I encounter different patients. I took and abnormal psychology class where we briefly went over each mental disorder but I would like to be able to go more in depth. During my time in this class we did several case studies, where I learned to diagnose different clients and give possible treatments. I would like to go beyond this method and learn more as I get more into clinical psychology. Also I would like to indulge more in
Liddle, H A., Rowe, C L., Dakof, G A., Henderson, C E., Greenbaum, P E.; (Feb, 2009). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology; Vol 77(1); 12-25. Doi: 10.1177/0306624X10366960
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Rector, N. A. (2011). Abnormal psychology. (2 ed., p. 297, 321, 322,
Maher, B. A., & Maher, W. B. (1985). Psychopathology: II. From the eighteenth century to modern times. In G. A. Kimble & K. Schlesinger (Eds.), Topics in the history of psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 295-329). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Clinical psychologists can treat a wide range of patients, from mental disorders to emotional problems. To get an easier and simpler idea of what a clinical psychologist does, Ferguson's Career Guidance Center's definition gives a good picture of a clinical psychologist’s job description, “Clinical psychologists concern themselves with people's mental and emotional disorders. They assess and treat problems ranging from normal psychological crises, such as adolescent rebellion or middle-age loss of self-esteem, to extreme conditions, such as severe depression and schizophrenia.”According to Careers in Psychology, a clinical psychologist has three main jobs, to assess the patient, diagnose disorders, and recommend a possible treatment. When a clinical psychologist assesses a patient it usually involv...
Halgin, R. P., & Whitbourne, S. K. (2010). Abnormal psychology: clinical perspectives on psychological disorders (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior and translates as science of the soul. It is the study of human behavior and deals with how we think, feel, and act. Some areas of psychology are clinical, industrial, physiological, experimental, personality, social, and developmental. Psychologists can work in hospitals, schools, rehabilitation facilities, in public and private clinics or in the research field. They usually treat persons with mental and emotional disorders, so one may ask; why bother with psychology if you do not want to actually work as a psychologist? Even though it happens that i do want to study psychology, this year that i was introduced to it,i discovered that even if i wanted to study something entirely different, psychology would still be useful to me. So when studying psychology, you learn about human nature. This means that psychology actually has impact on every aspect in life. It helps see through the motives other people too have more importantly, it will help you to understand your own motives better. As a result
Boyd, D., Wood, E.G., Wood, S.E. (2014, 2011, 2008). Mastering the world of psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 128-129, 329-330, 335-340. Print.
Many associate psychology with sitting in a chair in a small office as someone taking notes, asking how you feel about a certain event or feeling, or analyzing your deepest secrets and memories. However, it branches off into many other fields. A clinical psychologist’s main job is “to reduce the distress and improve the psychological wellbeing of clients” (Bond). This can include anything from depression, eating disorders, and addiction, to mental illness, family and personal relationships, and learning disabilities (Bond). A clinical psychologist usually will choose to have an emphasis in a certain field such as children and learning disabilities and work in schools or social work facilities, or mental illness and work in a hospital (Bond).