Some quick background. I work in research, so that is a specific area of psychology. I’m not even sure if technically it counts as being a “psychologist”, or whether you need to be a practising psychologist for that. I’m bad with labels 🙂
Anyway, from my perspective, working in psychological research is amazing. I get to delve into ideas that interest me and obsess over the things that I find interesting. This is a real privilege. There are a few downsides, overall though it depends whether you are interested in working in that area. Personally, I think it is an awesome job!
Sam makes a good point about how the words are used.
Outside the academic world I think that “psychologist” usually means the professions of “clinical psychologist” and “educational psychologist”. Those are both very important and valuable jobs. And one of them has an increasing amount of evidence about what’s effective.
Modern scientific psychology (although it’s increasingly called “cognitive science”) is giving us enormous insights into human behaviour, and will dramatically increase the scientific basis of subjects traditionally taught of as “humanities”, such as geography, history, politics and economics. Read just about anything by Pinker for examples.
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Jonathan commented on :
Sam makes a good point about how the words are used.
Outside the academic world I think that “psychologist” usually means the professions of “clinical psychologist” and “educational psychologist”. Those are both very important and valuable jobs. And one of them has an increasing amount of evidence about what’s effective.
Modern scientific psychology (although it’s increasingly called “cognitive science”) is giving us enormous insights into human behaviour, and will dramatically increase the scientific basis of subjects traditionally taught of as “humanities”, such as geography, history, politics and economics. Read just about anything by Pinker for examples.