Download Careers in Psychology

CHS AP Psychology
Unit 1: Science of
Psychology
• Essential Task 1.2: Distinguish the different careers in
psychology (clinical, counseling, developmental,
educational, experimental, human factors, industrialorganizational, personality, and psychometric)
Counseling
vs.
Clinical
About 50% of all Psychologists fall into these categories
• Clinical
• Counseling
psychologists are
psychologists deal
with “normal”
problems, such as
stress caused by
career change or
marital problems
• Counseling
psychologist’s focus
more on the
psychologically healthy
individual where clinical
focuses on individuals
with serious mental
illness (e.g.
schizophrenia).
• Career options include:
– Licensed social workers
– Counseling psychologists
concerned with
diagnosis and
treatment of
psychological
disorders
• Split time between
treatment and
researching the cause
of psychological
disorders and the
effectiveness of
different types of
psychotherapy and
counseling.
• Career options include:
– Clinical psychologists
– Psychiatrists
– Psychoanalysts
Developmental
• Study of physical
and mental growth
from birth to old
age
• study of changing
abilities from womb
to tomb
• Subfields
– Child psychology
– Adolescent
psychology
– Life-span psychology
Educational
• School Psychologist
• Psychological evaluations
• Consult with school
personnel in relation to
students’ learning, behavior,
and environments
• They are trained to look at
the effectiveness of
academic programs,
classroom agendas, and
treatment interventions,
which assists in the
development of specific
interventions.
Experimental
• Design research
experiments
• May or may not
have a direct
impact on the
treatment of
patients
• Animal subjects
• Drug trials
Industrial Organizational
• Study of psychological
principles in industry
and business
• Examples
– Selecting and training
personnel
– Productivity
improvement
– Optimizing working
conditions
– Managing the impact of
automation on workers
Personality
• looks at the patterns of thoughts, feelings,
and behavior that make a person unique.
• Study of how people differ from one
another on traits such as
–
–
–
–
–
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness
Extraversion
• Administer personality tests such as the
MMPI or the Myers Briggs
Psychometric
• the field of
psychology
concerned with the
theory and
technique of
psychological
measurement.
• Create
psychological tests
that are reliable
and valid.