Sofía
Martínez-Villalpando asks
What are the common misconceptions
about psychologists.
I really love this question because I've
never received it before.
Usually people always ask me myths
about psychology
but not really misconceptions about psychologists.
So here are the top
10 I came up with.
Number one.
We all see patients about
half the psychologists in the
United States are
practicing in some way
but the rest work in a wide
variety of areas from research
and administration to consulting
and business.
Even those who practice
and are involved in patient care also
are usually doing other different things.
Number two we all have doctorates
in the United States.
The degree of entry to be
to have the title of psychologist
is a doctorate.
But internationally it's largely
a master's degree that grants
you the title of psychologist.
Number three we're rich.
Psychologists tend to do.
OK I'm going to put some
salary information right
over here you should be seeing that
right now.
One thing you ought to keep in mind is
on average it takes someone about five
to seven years after finishing
undergrad to get
a degree that enters them into the
field of psychology.
And during that time most accumulate
a lot of debt.
I'm going to show you some average
debt information right over here.
Number four we're analyzing
you. This is the question I always get when someone
finds out I'm a psychologist.
I get it so often that I made a video
about it. Definitely check out that video
on why we're not analyzing
you. Number five psychologists
and psychiatrists are the same thing
psychiatrists have a degree
in medicine.
They have M.D.s
and psychologists have a doctorate
in psychology. Psychiatrists get
training in a medical model that are
a lot of medical care
they largely prescribe
medicine.
Whereas psychologists primarily are
involved in the delivery
of psychology related services
we work together
in a lot of situations. Numbers six
we're all messed up.
Many of us got interested in the
field because we do have some
personal interest in
whatever area we're focused on.
That doesn't necessarily mean we're struggling
with the exact same thing
and in situations where we are
because we're human we
tend to get our own treatment
or our own support
or find a way of dealing
with our own issues so they don't impact
the people we work with.
Number 7 we have to
be like you in order to be able to
help you. One of the questions I often get
when I'm working
with families is do you
have kids yourself.
And I mean the answer is yes.
And you can hear her in the background.
My little girl there.
It's kind of like if someone asked
an oncologist who treats cancer
have you gone through cancer yourself.
Our expertise is understanding
these problems understanding
the science related to them
and how to best help you.
We can't possibly
understand what your experience is like
and that's part of our job to figure that out.
But we don't have to have gone through
that experience ourselves in order
to be able to help you.
Number eight we can read your
mind. My area of expertise
is anxiety.
I've been treating it for a long time
and I still can't 100
percent tell when someone is anxious
nor can I tell what
is making them anxious.
I can work with two people
they both have social anxiety they might
both have a fear of public speaking.
But the way they experiencing Zayat
the things that they're afraid of
how it all plays out for them can be
very different.
Number nine psychologists just
use common sense.
This is an extension of the myth that
psychology is just common sense.
Whether we're working with patients
or a business
or we're designing
new interfaces what we
aspire to do is combine
the best the science of
psychology the brain
and behavioral sciences
with our professional experience.
Some of this stuff might feel like common sense
and some of it is
but there's a lot of findings about psychology
that are very counterintuitive.
And so we always try to base
everything we do on the research.
Number 10 we're all extroverts
who love working
with people. I can tell you from personal
experience this is not the case
at all.
There're a lot of reasons why people become
psychologists some people want
to get into a helping profession.
They love working
with people
and maybe they are more extroverted.
Some people want to go
into a helping profession
but they're more introverted.
Some people are interested in psychology
because they like understanding
problems
or bringing clarity to data.
Thank you Sofía for submitting this question.
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