The "consequences" Of Being a Psychologist
For quite some time I’ve been following psychologists (and/or psychology related posts) here on Steemit.
Some of them aim to improve other people’s understanding about our profession and what psychology is really about. By reading these posts, it seems to me that there are a lot of misconceptions and not understanding what psychology actually is, even though the internet is full with free information today.
@abigail-dantes does a great job Discussing Misconceptions about Psychology.
@erh.germany always contributes with original posts about psychology like The construction loving Master Mind.
@guyfawkes4-20’s Ditch Your Addictions Series are something cool you should check out too.
Our Russian @psychologies colleagues are quite active with informing (but a bit trivial for me) posts as well.
This is just a small sample of the great posts about psychology which are here. Reading these articles got me inspired to create similar content, but with the purpose to somehow complete what my colleagues have started, meaning that I would like to present some facts from other point of view.
I would like to talk about “the consequences” of being a psychologist.
Positive consequences:
Being a psychologists first means that you are doomed to be a constant researcher and explorer.
The constant interest in what makes people “tick” is the driving force of the psychologists. They will not rest until they’ve found some explanation why certain people behave the way they do.
But in order to do that they need to obtain (or already should’ve started to obtain) a deeper understanding of their own behavior and the behavior of others.
This is maybe the most important ability a psychologist develops as a “consequence” of his or her job. It includes the ability to self-reflect, to analyze the events happening in your life and the life of others. It makes him or her capable to overcome traumatic events and crisis, and helps others to find a way to deal with theirs.
Understanding and constantly analyzing a person’s motivation and behavior makes the psychologist resistant to manipulation and negative influence by other humans.
Or at least makes him extremely cautious when he or she senses a manipulation attempt.
As a consequence the psychologist obtains the ability to successfully negotiate and obtain the information he or she wants in a delicate way.
Not only that but the ability which naturally follows is to learn how to influence other people’s thinking or helping them find their own path without directly interfering in their decisions.
Understanding why people behave in certain situations requires a lot of emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is considered both resource and consequence of the profession.
It means that the good psychologist should have a high level of empathy, a wider view of the world, inner and outer.
A good professional should never judge what one has done and at the same time not justify him or her.
This means that even though a psychologist understands why some person did something, it doesn’t mean that he or she will be justified about it. Especially if it’s a bad thing.
Another positive consequence of being a psychologist is that you become really good in your communication with others. You learn how to speak “different languages” depending on the person.
Psychotherapists are actually really good “translators” in that manner.
Negative consequences
Psychologists are not super humans. Quite on the contrary.
You will not mistake if you consider the psychologist as a sponge which absorbs every emotion or event happening to them. This means that every psychologist is a conduit for a lot of negativity.
We already said that the ability to self-reflect is a positive consequence. But it could be considered as a negative too.
It’s common for a psychologist to “project” negative problematics on themselves and their close relatives. If this “projecting” goes out of hand, the psychologist could become a very negative person who cannot be talked back to understand that there is a lot of positivity in this world too.
Constantly “diagnosing” other people.
Of course, the term “diagnosing” is used as a synonym of “analyzing”. If the psychologist has obtained and developed successfully the “positive consequences” the ability to constantly analyze and diagnose becomes automatic behavior. Trust me, even when they are denying, there’s always something on their mind regarding one’s behavior or personality.
Being a “teacher”.
If you’ve met a person who is actively working in the field of psychology you must’ve noticed how they always have something to say, to add to or to correct. It’s annoying I know. You might be surprised, but that’s annoying for the psychologists too. But we can’t help it.
Too much self-control and losing the ability to be spontaneous.
Again, due to the ability to over-think and analyze the psychologist might become a person who hates chaos, who always tries not to “feed” information about him or herself to others. This self-control actually robs the psychologist off some parts of their personality. We are humans after all – a bit of spontaneous behavior won’t hurt nobody.
Obsessive thoughts about “working on yourself”.
Remember that psychologists are explorers and researchers. They mostly experiment with themselves, meaning that they constantly persuade the need to self-improve in order to help others.
Emotional tepidness and cynicism.
Remember the sponge metaphor ?
Well I already said that psychologists are only humans like you are and by being such they have limitations. When the limitations are crossed constantly or for too long period of time, in order to escape burnout, some defensive mechanisms should be created.
Developing a cynical behavior is a common defense mechanism when it comes to psychologist. It’s not because he or she wants to be “the asshole” in the group, it’s just how they manage to disengage in order to save themselves as individuals.
The bad thing is that sometimes it leads to emotional tepidness which could hurt the closest people to the psychologist.
Final comment
As I said, with this post (I hope the first of many) I would like to contribute to the work of my colleagues here on Steemit (and people who post quality content about psychology).
I hope that for some of you it was useful and insightful. If you would like to add or ask me something, please feel free to do so in the comment section.
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If you enjoyed this article, you should check the SteemSTEM community, where we aim to post quality content on various scientific topics.
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I enjoyed reading your article, as a person who is in his 4th year of medical school and looking into pursuing my residency in psychiatry. I do agree with some of the positive consequences of being a psychologist. We have to be very good listeners but that doesn't mean that we have to be always be giving advice. The best psychologists out there that I have dealt with, have let me try to figure it out on my own. A psychologists job is try and steer the person into a direction of higher emotional intelligence, so that they can achieve and problem solve better. Everybody has problems in life and its about how we deal with it. Sometimes we get "stuck", we all do. And I think that is the most valuable asset of a psychologist, to help people get unstuck and to push and motivate them to move forward and continuously deal with all the life stressors that will continue to come.
Beautiful post, was a great read!
Absolutely true, thanks for stopping by.
I totally agree. People who are studying Psychology are not shock absorbers nor do they have the ability to read minds. Makes me sad that people are actually believing on this.
It's a common misconception. Now they will be more informed :)
Thanks for your attention.
Youre welcome @dysfunctional
Oh, @dysfunctional !
I find so much encouragement and support in you, and this post is only one out of the many reasons I feel this way :)
You have written here a most enlightening heartfelt account. I am so pleased you have highlighted this aspect of being a psychologist in the positive consequences part of your article:
This is something that is important both for psychologists and the general public to be aware of.
As for the negative consequences I was really pleased to see the following:
1
2
These are things I am always battling against @dysfunctional, but still struggle with! Particularly the first one :/
I have found this post very useful and insightful and I also hope this can be the first of many :)
Have a wonderful day & thank you so much for sharing this article with us!
All the best to you always.
Thank you for your kind words and for the inspiration :)
Many thanks to you mentioning me- I feel honored to fall into your range of high quality.
You were highly productive - I must now read a lot.
For the lack of time and the late hour, I will come back to you tomorrow.
I already found some interesting paragraphs in this article I for sure have a thought on.
For now have a good night and a good rest:-)
edit (next day) - sorry for this rather long reply:)
Psychology in the sense of the profession of a psychologist is based on the educational content of what is currently recognized by universities - which of the schools are included in teaching, which are not. The understanding of psychology occurs to lay people only where the activities of a psychologist become visible in the form of events in their life. For example, in non-technical publications, in cooperation with a psychologist as client or patient. Since the curriculum cannot integrate all the influences and research in this field that has ever existed, the study is to a certain extent limited to what is state of the art. Here in Germany, a psychologist is only allowed to do therapy if, after completing his psychology studies, he has completed a five-year training as a therapist. Therefore, a distinction is made in Germany between therapists and psychologists. And then there are people like me who have completed psychology-based consulting training and do not provide diagnoses or prescribe drugs.
I think it is a rather difficult but interesting profession because many people have an interpretation of it and this profession does not work with objects, but with people. People also feel much more entitled to participate than, for example, in the profession of a chemist. Everyone knows what a life crisis is, but hardly anyone can say the chemical composition of compounds.
The great interest in psychology and the misinterpretation of terms, method, and theories is, therefore, a frequently occurring phenomenon. Now we are also married to the neurologists when it comes to the drug treatment of patients and these are not therapists. What I find is that there is seldom, if ever not at all, contact between these two professions, which treat one and the same patient. That's just a side note. Psychological findings are used in many other areas, such as marketing and advertising.
If we compare this again with the chemist, it becomes clear how much psychology permeates our lives. We talk about it, we read about it, we are very interested in it. I think that is quite right. The potential of "Understanding" lies in the revelation of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. One can, so to speak, ride the wave by turning to the interest of a human being and using misunderstanding as a bridge to get through what drives a human being. At the same time, one learns another form of "language" and enriches one's ability to communicate. You pointed that out.
It was important to me that you stressed that a psychologist should know himself very well. To be at the service of people requires a mature person who knows his or her own weaknesses and strengths well. Who always becomes aware of his intentions at the moment of their creation - it is an ongoing process. Who's sure of himself without getting arrogant. I would say that in the practice of the profession, a psychologist learns a lot about himself and owes it to his clients or patients. Wherever he receives supervision, his colleagues provide him with valuable support.
I would think that especially in the field of psychology every professional should also deal with ethics. Basically, this applies to any kind of work, whether it be gainful employment or honorary work. Where we have influence over others, it is valuable to review and follow an ethical code. So I have an instrument that lets me know where I'm either harmful or useful.
I want to thank you again for this inspirational article. I can see, that we feed each other with thorough thoughts.
Thank you for your time to read this and to reply with this thoughtful comment.
It's always a pleasure to present your articles,, so for me it's normal to present you as an example of quality content.
It's obvious that you put a lot of effort and mental labor in your content, including this comment as well.
That's the main reason why I follow you, and most of the other great people who fill my newsfeed.
As you pointed out we feed each other with constructive thoughts, ideas and inspiration and that's the most valuable thing on Steemit.
:)
Yes, and what I found most fascinating is that the inbuilt reward-system (the money) is used for a measurement of quality. To my own surprise, I realized that writing on the blockchain I discipline myself much more as somewhere else where I do not get paid. Even within the running of my former blog-site where I concentrated on quality content, it didn't reach the standard I am looking for here on Steemit. Because the difference is that the commenters are paid as well, which was not the case on my blog. That feeding-function is really a thing:)
Although I understand what you are saying, allow me to disagree with you on this one
We wish it was true, but sadly it's not and I hope someone would fix it soon.
Anyway
is absolutely true and that's the reason we all aim to produce quality posts, which inspire each other of us. It's a perfect circle ! :)
Smile.
I meant it more on a psychological meta-level, not the actual amount of payment. I know, you know that ;-)
Oh, and I hope you were not thinking of my former loooong comment: "Why is she telling me that?" Sometimes I myself get a little offended by that, and then I think, the intention was probably to add something which might be obvious to me but not to other readers.
Now you're the one over-thinking :) I never get offended, because these posts are not about me. They are about the people who want to read and learn more. So the more comments like yours therr are- the better!
LOL! Now I did that! :-) I was over thinking!! Thanx :-)
This article helped me see me psychologist in a different light. Great article. Upvoted!
Oh, what a great idea to write an article about this subject!
I so much connected to the topic... especially to the cons of being a psychology. Actually, after my master degree and after two years working with schizophrenics I just needed a break from it all. Back then psychology took a lot from me. I needed my spontaneous behavior back, I needed badly to stop analyzing myself, my family, my boyfriend, my friends and everyone else. All my friends were colleagues and all we were talking about was psychological stuff. I needed a break. I needed my life back. I was simply exhausted :)
I joined Teach for Bulgaria community and met many amazing people with diverse backgrounds. In the beginning, it was extremely difficult for me to engage and connect with them, or in other words - with the "civilians" :D But slowly I became a normal person again :) Or close to a normal person :D
Anyway, now I am extremely careful with my friends and family. I never share my "psychological view". I need friends and family and cannot be a "psychologist" to them. Whenever I am asked about my professional opinion, I am very careful about what I am saying and always offer a colleague's contacts for a consultation :)
This is my way to cope with being a psychologist :D
I am glad you recognized yourself in some aspects of this article !
Being able to draw the line between your personal and professional life is a really hard thing to do and it often requires sacrifices. I am glad that you were able do draw yours.
I guess there are always positive and negative aspects to everything.... good post :)
Thank you for your summary. I am also "professional", but a shrink working in Germany. So I am interested in psychosomatic medicine, psychotherapy and psychiatry. I am writing about stress, adhd and positive psychology...
Thanks for sharing :)
Interesting… and quite true. I am a clinical therapist therefore a sibling of the psychologists. Many of us get into counseling because we want to learn how to counsel ourselves. Self-aware, yes, cynical - you bet. Constantly diagnosing others - well, this tends to be an assumption by others but not necessarily true, but yes if you are Donald Trump or one of his admirers (I can’t help it, I really can’t). The antidote is humor - something that I see in your post. Good post.
Yeah, every psychotherapist is a psychologist so it goes for you as well.
Some consequences concern you even more, to be honest.
Thanks for stopping by :)
Interesting to have your own conception of your work and how it reflects on your everyday life. Do you think it also changes the way people interact with you? (because of the fear of "diagnostic" for example)
I haven't encountered such pattern in my interactions with others (at least with the closest ones)