Introduction of psychology~

[banshee]

Psychology is a social science, though some universities like to see it as health science, science.

However, Psychology is not an art subject, not a pure art subject, as other social sciences, like history, anthropology, etc.
It is a behavioral science, which we emphasize on research methods and empirical findings.

Psychology is about mind, body and soul.
We study about how human think, how brain works, why people behave in some certain ways, what's normal and abnormal and ... of course, all the self-help books are basically based on the principles of psychology.

Psychology has many subfields,
( i would introduce more if someone found it interesting),
like clinical psychology ( working as psychotherapist),
counseling psychology (working as a counselor),
children psychology, industrial and organizational psychology,
youth psychology, physiological psychology, cross-cultural psychology, personality and behavioral pscyhology, etc, etc.

which is too wide, and you can't even imagine how wide it is,
even music therapy & biofeedback are part of psychology!

Basically, in Malaysia, only 2 universities offer psychology
1) UKM
2) UMS
and others offer counseling course, which is quite different from psychology (please notice that, a counselor is not a psychologist if the counselor did not study enough about psychology)

UKM offer psychology course, which is general, and under Bachelor of Art degree.

UMS has a faculty of psychology and social work.
which offer different ranges of specific psychology studies.
like
1)counseling psychology ( the 1 i'm taking now),
2)children psychology
3)youth and community psychology
4)industrial and organizational psychology
5)social work

and of course, some private colleges do offer psychology course, like HELP institute.

why choose psychology?
you'll become 1 of the pioneers in psychology in Malaysia, which I believe so.
Unless you're a risk taker, and have so much passion to make the community's mental health better...

of course, you might worry about your future...no guarantee of job in psychology.

ok, enough for this session...haha..
i lecture so long~
do drop me a line, and join us in Psychology SIG~~~

~coral

[banshee]

some links for reference
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/
~good psychology tests and some common knowledge

http://www.apa.org
~American Psychological Association,
i join as a student affiliate. can get monthly magazine, journals and gradPsych, which is quite nice... only US$25 a year, if join as student.

[FCHP]

some links for reference
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/
~good psychology tests and some common knowledge Smile

yup i agree with that being a good site cos it has really fun tests to do... not that i always agree with the results though...

Perhaps part of the activities we can do here is discuss some of the results of this tests, their effectiveness and so on... constructings tests in flash or something and testing them on our fellow recomers sounds fun too.... let's find out what's really disgusting (one of the psychological tests available) to recomers...

[kintaro_kun]

i only have a vague idea on the terms "psychologists" and "psychiatrists". cant seem to tell the difference, lazy to check the dic either. can somone please enlighten me?

[banshee]

Originally Posted by kintaro_kun

i only have a vague idea on the terms "psychologists" and "psychiatrists". cant seem to tell the difference, lazy to check the dic either. can somone please enlighten me?

Psychologists are actually experts in psychology.
They can be a researcher, a therapist, a pscyhology lecturer, someone who's good in hypnotism, or in their subfields.
the fact is psychologists don't offer medicine.

Psychiatrists are actually doctors. I mean, who offer medicine.
They can diagnose people and they work in mental hospital..like hospital bahagia...so on.

[oneforthelord]

Originally Posted by banshee

Psychologists are actually experts in psychology.
They can be a researcher, a therapist, a pscyhology lecturer, someone who's good in hypnotism, or in their subfields.
the fact is psychologists don't offer medicine.

Psychiatrists are actually doctors. I mean, who offer medicine.
They can diagnose people and they work in mental hospital..like hospital bahagia...so on.

"Psychologist" is a general term for all the people who are working in the various subfields of psychology, like developmental, industrial and organisational, educational and clinical. The psychologist that is often confused with psychiatrist is the clinical psychologist.

Basically, a Psychiatrist has an actual MD. You call him or her "Dr So and So". That means the Psychiatrist can possibly work anywhere else in the medical profession as a normal general practitioner or doctor.

A Clinical psychologist cannot dispense drugs unless they have a special license from the authorities (in the US only though if I'm not mistaken) and a psychologist cannot practice medicine.

Hope it's cleared things up a bit

[Aki]

When a grad of psychology want to futher his or her studies in master of clinical psychology,will a science student get more advantages or priority since clinical psychology involve a lot science and research?

[oneforthelord]

Not necessarily. It will depend on the entrance exam they have for acceptance into a graduate degree course (e.g. the GRE for the US). Just because a person is a science student may not mean that he or she will have an advantage because psychological experiments, although they are employed using scientific methodology, are done more on humans and animals. Lab conditions are different, apparatus used is specialised and the results looked for are quite different too. Thus, a chemistry or physics graduate, or even a life science/bio graduate won't really have that much of an advantage.

Psych students should actually already have been exposed to the type of experiments and research that they are expected to conduct during their undergraduate years, so actually Psych students would have the advantage IMHO.

There's also another factor which is the type of university you go to. Some universities are more research intensive, so they will have their courses geared towards research. You'll get a degree through completing a research project. Other universities are more of teaching universities, and less emphasis will be placed on research and more on practical application. So you might get your degree through successful counseling of a few subjects and forming a compilation of those few case studies as your thesis. Thus, it's not really a given that a graduate degree in clinical psychology is a lot of research.

Hope it's helpful in some way

[Aki]

thanks a lof for your explanation.

[banshee]

hi, aki.. i think you mess up a bit about clinical psychology and experimental psychology..

i believe that people with science background can do well in experimental pscyhology..

but, clinical psychology..hmm.. i don't think there's anything to do with research much... practical are more important in clinical psy.

Research based, psychology students do research too.. more familiar with questionnaire, using surveys, and all that...of course, i still believe that strong foundation in psychology is essential to enter clinical psychology field...for further studies.

Wikipedia defines that: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_psychology>

Clinical psychology is the application of psychology within a clinical (health) setting. However, it is often taken to refer primarily to the easing of psychological distress, mental illness or mental health problems. The term was introduced in a 1907 paper by the American psychologist Lightner Witmer (1867-1956).

Clinical psychologists are involved in the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of patients with psychiatric disorders, as well as research about all of these areas of clinical practice. Their clinical work may include the use of 'talk therapies' (i.e.,psychotherapy such as cognitive therapy and psychoanalysis), or the use of psychological tests to assess certain aspects of psychological functioning.

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does it have anything to do with physic? biology and chemistry?
i doubt it...

anyway, if you're interested,
give it a try~