Psychologist
psy·chol·o·gist (s -k l -j st)-n.- A person trained and educated to perform psychological research, testing, and therapy (dictionary.com). There are many form of psychologist out there ranging from clinical and counseling where you have single or group sessions with family or others from kids to adults. School psychologist work for the school and meet with kids that seem to be depressed, getting into trouble all the time, and ones that are not doing well with their school work. Industrial-organized psychologists are usually college professors that teach psychologists and counseling sessions on the side. They all study the human mind and human behavior and also investigate physical, emotional, cognitive, and social aspects of human life. They also apply their knowledge to endeavors including health and human services, management, education, law, and sports (ww.acinet.org).
A psychologist day-to-day job is that they make appointments with their clients/patients throughout the day and try to help them fix their problems that they face whether its dealing with a death in the family of friend, a medical condition such as cancer or a lost limb, or depression and they are there to help. Their schedule can range from a Monday to Friday week or a Monday to Sunday week. They often give up weekends and evening hours to fit around a client’s schedule. Clients appointments last for about an hour or so depending on how much work the clients needs or on how much willing they are to talk but their appointments can be longer or shorter than an hour. Most have no set hours, everything is made by appointment and they usually work around a 50-hour week. Psychologists also have to make time to travel to attend conferences or conduct research (
www.collegegrad.com).
Working conditions for psychologists vary with the type you are. Most determine their own work place and hours. Clinical and Counseling psychologists that work for a private practice often have their own office and hours are usually are Monday through Sunday to accommodate a client’s schedule and have about a 50-60 hour week. If you’re employed in a hospital, nursing home, and other health care facilities you work shifts including evenings and weekends like clinical psychologist but only work around 40-hours with overtime in necessary. School psychologists often work the 40-hour week Monday to Friday at the school, but may have a part time job as a clinical psychologist over the weekend, which would bring them to around a 50-hour workweek. College and University psychologists divide time between teaching, research, papers and books, and administrative responsibilities, this means a 55-hour week. They often have part time consulting sessions out of school, which brings their workweek to 60-65 hour week. Government and Industry employed have structured schedules and have about a 50-hours but may have counseling session on the side, which makes a 60-hour week. All psychologists must make time for travels to attend conferences and research. Because of the work conditions psychologist routines are interrupted frequently due to deadlines, tight schedules, side jobs, and over time. Most psychologists are not just school or clinical psychologist they often do multiply jobs with the specialty, as they’re major and counseling on the side (ww.bls.gov).
The expected salary for a Clinical, Counseling, and School psychologist is around $64,460 and this was the median the low was $32,280 and the high was $92,250. For an Industrial – Organized psychologist was $71,400 for the median, $45,620 was the low, and the high was $125,560. You also have to consider where you are working, if you are working in a city are you going to be making more money due to the fact that the cost of living is so high in cities compared to working in a small town or in the suburban areas. Also you may want to consider if you work in a city you are more likely to have to counsel more people and people with more problems or more unstable people compared to if you were working in a small town or country. All the salaries did not include overtime, travel benefits, and part time jobs (
www.salary.com).
The expected salary by retirement by the age of 65 for a Clinical and Counseling psychologist is around $40,000 since they would be making around $120,000 by retirement. For an Industrial – Organized psychologist was around $60,000 since they would be making around $160,000 by the time they retired. For a School psychologist they would make around $70,000 by retirement so they would be making around $30,000 for retirements. And theses salaries do not include part time jobs. And as for pensions most psychologists do not have any unless they work for a private group or school (
www.salary.com).
The training and schooling to become a psychologist is long and hard with around seven years of schooling. To be an independent clinical or counseling psychologist you need a doctoral degree. If you have a Ph. D. you qualify for a wide rang of jobs and teaching in schools, health care, universities, private industries, and government. A doctoral degree usually takes around five to seven years of graduate study. And if you’re a clinical or counseling psychologist you may need a one- year internship. If you want to become a school psychologist you will need a specialist degree but some states do credential a masters degree. You will need three-years of graduate study and a one-year internship and you would have taken classes in education and psychology. Bachelor’s degrees in psychology will allow a person to assist psychologist and other professional in mental health centers, rehabilitation offices, and correctional programs. In the Federal Government a person having 24 semester hours in psychology and a course in statistics will allow him or her to have an entry-level job with out an advance degree. There are also licensing laws that vary state to state most require an internship, 1-2 years professional experience, and the pass an examination that is a standardized test with additional oral or essay questions (
www.collegegrad.com).
The outlook for openings and demand for psychologists vary by state. In 2004 psychologists held bout 179,00 jobs. One out of four were in teachings positions, two out of ten were employed in health care, and four out of ten were self-employed compared to one out of ten professional workers. Employment of psychologists is expected to grow faster then average for all occupants through 2014. School psychologists may enjoy the best job opportunities because the awareness of how students’ mental behavior and health problems such as bullying and learning problems grow (
www.bls.gov).
The Required skill and tool beside school and training/internship are good people skills, writing/note skills, being able to remember, knowledge of medicines, sports, knowing what’s going on in the world, being able to give good advice, and just knowing what to say and how to say it. You have to have good people skills because you will be working with people. Keeping good eye contact and good posture are very important. You must have excellent note taking skills to be able to write down while listening, so you can repeat something that you think was important. You have to be able to remember your clients and his or her problems because if you don’t you are going to break their trust. You have to be able to give good advice to help out because they are listening to you and will probably do what you say so if you say the wrong thing it may cause more harm. Being able to tell someone that they have a problem and letting them know that it is harmful to them (
www.acinet.org).
Some of the perks of being a psychologist are that you get to help people out with their problems. Knowing that you have helped someone is one of the greatest feelings out there. Giving your advice and knowing that people are going to listen and knowing that it is going to affect them. The money isn’t that bad either. Some disadvantages are knowing that you could give the wrong advice, long hours, having to travel, not seeing your family as much, working weekends and evenings.
As a psychologist you can work at a school, hospital, nursing home, colleges, clinical, private groups. There is always a place to find a job because people are going to be depressed or have problems that need to be dealt with so there is always going to be jobs openings because people need help. But the opportunity for advancement is low because you can’t really advance with out going back to school. You can join private organizations and get side jobs but there is no ladder to climb only being a good psychologist and getting well known will bring in more money (
www.bls.gov).
haha my english paper
