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Archive for the ‘Psychology’ Category

Psychology school internship programs contribute greatly to the overall success of students in this challenging field. If you want to get a good job in the field of psychology after you graduate, you will have a great advantage if you have completed an internship that provided experience and insight. The internship will provide an opportunity to network and potentially meet future employers, and at the very least it will look good on your résumé and job applications.

Studying psychology is about more than just learning what has been written about the human mind, although that is a big part of it. Another large part of studying psychology is getting hands-on experience in the field. If you want to work or teach in this field, you will need to have the concepts of written study reinforced by your experience in an internship setting. Whether you want to get a job after graduation or go on to a master’s or PhD program, the value of an internship is indispensable. Most psychology students do not stop at their bachelor’s degree, and completing an internship is often just as important as getting good grades, doing research and securing glowing letters of recommendation.

Being exposed to real-life work in addition to spending hours in the classroom is always valuable regardless of the subject you are studying, but it is particularly important for psychology students. Your internship may take you to the clinical side of things or provide experience in a counseling setting. You may also find internships in experimental psychological research or organizational psychology. The exposure to working experts and/or interaction with patients is the only way to truly understand what this field is all about.

If you want to get into one of the best psychology school internship programs, you will want to start planning early, as competition is fierce. Start searching for relevant internships long before you consider applying, and check with your school about guidelines for using the internship for school credit. You will probably have to sign up for a related course to get academic credit for the internship. In any case, it will be a valuable experience to have under your belt.

There are many hot trends in psychology you should know about if you are a student, prospective student, recent graduate or psychology professional thinking about switching careers. These days it pays for psychology majors to understand their career options while they’re still in school, so they can make a fast track to achieve their goals. But even if you’ve already graduated or even started working in the field, it’s not too late to consider these hot careers.

Career Counselor: With rapid changes in the job market, more people are switching careers or looking for new jobs in their chosen profession than ever before. This leaves an opportunity for you to start a career of your own as a vocational counselor. You can help people work on building skills and play up their current experience and interests to choose a career and find a job that is right for their personality and talents.

Engineering Psychologist: There is plenty of money to be made if you are able to forge a career as an engineering psychologist, which involves the use of psychology in an effort to understand human behavior and the mind to better design consumer products. You must have knowledge of living environments, work settings and technology plus a background in psychology for this career.

Genetics Counselor: This high paying psychology career is centered on couples and families coping with genetic disorders. If you enter this career you will probably work closely with doctors, geneticists and nurses to assist people coping with genetic disorders in their family members and themselves.

Industrial-Organizational Psychologist: This hot psychology job is focused on workplace behavior. You will need to have the skills to use learned psychological principles to increase productivity among workers, and you may be responsible for choosing the employees who are most appropriate for certain jobs.

Sports Psychologist: If you love sports and have a passion for psychology, this could be the career for you. Sports psychologists focus on athletics and sports to help athletes cope with injuries, get the motivation they need and enhance their performance in healthy ways. There are jobs with athletic centers, hospitals, private counseling practices, research facilities and universities.

Have you ever been transferred from your work place or schooled far away from home? Such experiences break your social and family ties, and you may feel isolated or become a loner. You face dynamic changes and sometimes it takes long for you to adapt. Relationship psychology explains how our relationships affect our psychological well-being. When you are separated from your family and social friends, the ties tend to weaken hence you invest in other relationships.

You will agree with me that when your relationships are not working, you are unstable health wise because your psychology needs are not fulfilled. This is because your health is determined by the quality of your relationships. There are themes studied in relationship psychology that explain how relationships orient you in other fields. Most of the time you cannot judge the outcome of a relationship but the basic information you get gives you a rough idea about the other person.

We all like different music. When you meet someone you can guess his personality if he tells you the kind of music he listens to. Studies show that our cholesterol levels are different. To save your relationship from effects of cholesterol you should write down affectionate thoughts about close friends and family members. If your partner is unfaithful how do view him? The conclusions you make can break or re-build your relationships.

Relationship Psychology  explains parental relationships after divorce. Children are likely to suffer psychologically in cases of divorce therefore they are the major concern. The parents should devise ways of ensuring that the children have basic necessities and are psychologically stable. Communication and understanding is very vital in a relationship as bring it determines compatibility.

It may be interesting to know that the first academic degrees were awarded in European universities. These degrees were PhD degrees and they were only conferred upon serious students who wanted to add to the knowledge in their respective fields. The first University to offer a Masters of Arts degree was the University of Michigan.

There has been some controversy about the advent of the master’s degree because it was originally meant to be a stepping stone to the final goal; the PhD degree. The controversy centers around the fact that many graduates opt to stop their education once they are conferred the Masters degree instead of continuing to earn their PhD.

The shift from PhD degrees to the acceptance of Masters of Arts degrees is one of pragmatism. Whereas PhD degrees used to be the only respected degree for professionals, Masters of Arts degrees are also sufficient for professional work. This shift has lead to an increase (almost double) of Masters of Arts degrees conferred upon students. This shift has not included Bachelor’s degrees for professionals, however. In many content areas such as Psychology, a Master of Arts degree in Psychology is required for licensure.

The difference between a Bachelors of Arts degree in Psychology and a Masters of Arts degree in Psychology is one of expertise and time of study. Typically, Bachelors of Arts degrees in Psychology take 4 years of study and only focus on the general aspects of Psychology. A Master of Arts degree in Psychology typically takes 2-3 additional years of study and consists of more specialized and in depth psychology classes.

It should also be noted that there are two types of Masters degrees; arts or science. The difference between these two specifiers is that an ‘arts’ degree graduate has more credits in the arts (art, music, foreign language, writing, etc), whereas the ‘science’ degree refers to more credits in the science field (history, biology, chemistry, botany, etc.)

Some Universities require a thesis for their Masters of Arts degree in Psychology. Universities that do not require a thesis usually require the student to complete a practicum and a certain amount of additional hours/credits in their specialized field. Many Universities also require that their students maintain a “B” average or higher in order to earn their Master of Arts degree in Psychology.

A Masters of Arts Degree in Psychology allows the student to become licensed in particular fields of applied psychology. It’s important to choose the Master of Arts degree in the Psychology specialty that interests you the most.

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Abnormal Psychology is a ground breaking text on psychology, science and human understanding. The readers of the book will get a good understanding in the classic research of abnormal psychology. The book involves various research results, theories, treatment details and numerous controversies in abnormal psychology. The information, controversies and theories are arranged in a balanced manner. Abnormal Psychology also speaks about psychology (psychopathology (general), mental illness (mental illness), psychology: psychopathology (general) (psychology, pathological). The theories given in this book is a perfect blend of science and humanity.

The notable chapters of the book include chapter 1: looking at abnormality. This chapter contains the details of the amount of abnormality that is associated with each and every type psychological disorder. Chapter 4: assessing and diagnosing abnormality. Chapter 5: treatments for abnormality, chapter 6: anxiety disorders: panic, phobias, and generalized anxiety, chapter 11: schizophrenia, chapter 13: childhood disorders chapter 15: eating disorders, and chapter 16: sexual disorders and gender identity disorder. Each and every chapter speaks about different aspects and its influence towards each kind of disorder. For example, the thirteenth chapter of the book speaks about the psychology disorders people encounter at the early periods of their life. The sixteenth chapter of the book speaks about the influence of gender and sex related chaos in the psychological balance of a human being. The sixth chapter of this psychology text says about different kinds of human fears, worries, anxieties and their influence towards human mental balance.

The fourth and fifth chapter of Abnormal Psychology also includes recent biological and psychosocial research along with the treatment alternatives. The organization of the text makes the reader appreciate the complicated set of information in scientific investigation. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema has maintained a scientific and caring approach, excellent study tools, and received much appreciation from instructors and students for the work. The biological information given in book is quite clear to students and the topics of empirical research and diversity are perfectly defined. The fourth edition of Abnormal Psychology includes various integrative bio-psycho-social types of mental disorders. Each and every chapter depicts different types of psychological disorders. All types of psychological disorders are discussed and illustrated in the book. Each chapter has a “Chapter Integration” portion where the integrative approach to each of the disorders are discussed and illustrated in detail.

Susan Nolen-Hoeksema the author of Abnormal Psychology is an eminent teacher and famous researcher. The author has done a good research with a sympathetic and loving view for people having mental disorders. The book has included even recent advances in the field of treatment of psychopathology. It also includes the original experiences of people having mental disorders, their sufferings, agonies and feelings. Abnormal Psychology illustrates research details and information in a teachable way that gives hope to people who are suffering with mental illness.

Motocross is an extremely popular sport worldwide. This death-defying sport that we know today has attracted and will continue to attract millions of spectators and viewers. Similarly, there are thousands of people who are interested in practicing motocross, either at a professional level or at an amateur one. If you are interested in motocross racing, you should definitely read the rest of this article.

The Internet is abundant in motocross web sites, and for good reason, given the popularity of this sport. Every piece of information you might need can be found on one of the thousands of web sites and forums on motocross. The information on motocross is literally endless. You can learn everything there is to know about bikes and bike maintenance, about gear and parts, riding tips and techniques, track layout and design, competitions, motocross training, and a whole lot more. The only part that most motocross web sites and forums fail to pay appropriate attention to is motocross mental training. While this may seem weird to many racers, it is already a well-known fact that all successful motocross riders that race at top levels have acknowledged the need for adequate motocross training, and racing psychology is a very important part of any training program. Not everyone has a winner mentality, and his or her potential can be considerably undermined by other human traits, such as lack of self-confidence, fear of failure or doubts. Mental preparation for the competition is an essential aspect in every sport, and motocross is no exception to this rule.

Have you ever gotten off to a very good start but have not be able to finish the race in the top spot? If you are experiencing this regularly, you should know that you need to pay closer attention to your motocross training program. Your strength and endurance could be your problem, and the solution is very simple, or you might just be in need of some mental training. Racing psychology won’t do any wonders, but it will certainly help, especially if you know that you lack self-confidence, concentration, composure, focus and determination.

A racing psychology class or program can help you develop your mental skills and improve your determination, confidence, focus, etc. Simply put, racing psychology gives you a competitive advantage. It goes without saying that a racing psychology program is not all it takes to turn you into a motocross star. Motocross training requires a whole lot more than just preparing mentally for the race. Every dedicated motocross racer knows how important it is for racers to undergo adequate training programs that should consist of practice, exercise for the muscles, a balanced diet and mental preparation. And racing psychology is an essential part of motocross training, one that can really make a difference. Unfortunately, in spite of the huge number of web sites and forums that are dedicated to motocross, very few of them mention racing psychology as an essential part of motocross training, and even fewer provide a comprehensive solution for those interested in preparing mentally for the races. However, there are some good web sites where you can find everything there is to know about motocross training, including racing psychology.

For more resources about Motocross or even about racing psychology please review this link http://www.mxtrainingjournal.com

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Many amateurs do not fully utilize a golf psychology tip to help them shoot lower scores. Professionals are much better at monitoring their bodies and emotions. Of course, they also have caddies, coaches and other parts of their entourage keeping an eye on them to make sure that they are using the correct golf psychology tip. The regular folk like us do not have this luxury however, there are some things that we can monitor and do to help us relax if we get tense on the golf course:

· Golf Psychology Tip – Monitoring your breathing is a very effective way to calm yourself down. The best part is that you can do this at anytime. Whether we have realized it or not, all of us have started breathing faster on the first tee of a tournament. To give yourself a baseline, practice at home. Monitor your breathing at home when you are relaxed and notice how much tension in your body, how fast you are breathing and are you breathing from the top of your stomach or your lower stomach.

· Golf Psychology Tip – Another thing that you can monitor is your walking pace. Again, this is a very effective way to calm yourself down and you can monitor your walking pace at anytime. Although most of us guys would rather go to an insurance seminar than to go to the mall, you might earn some bonus points with the spouse by going to the mall and walking. On your mall walk, you would be able to monitor what is a slow pace, what is a comfortable pace and what is a fast pace. In addition, try walking at different paces during the day and monitor how your body feels at the different rates.

· Golf Psychology Tip – Focus on your pre-shot routine – once you have a pre-shot routine ingrained then this is a good way to click into auto-pilot. It is critical that your pre-shot routine is repetitive and does not waver. A change could cause anxiety and mis-trust in your golf swing.

· Golf Psychology Tip – Picturing a calm place such as a beach or a lake will also calm you down. This may sound a little corny to some but, it works. It is probably my favorite golf psychology tip. We visit my in-laws from time to time. They live in the middle of Kentucky horse country. It makes it easy to relax away from the usual city life. To give you a clearer picture, in this particular county you may only purchase land in five acre plots or more. While we are there, I walk everyday and there is a big barn that sits on tops of a hill in the distance. These walks are very relaxing. The Kentucky quarter happens to have a picture on the back of the coin that reminds me of that barn that I look at on my walk. When I mark my ball with a Kentucky quarter, I am able to remember my relaxing walks and I can feel my body relax right there on the putting green. You need to find your place whether it is the beach for you, your back yard or a sunset. The point is it does not really matter as long as it relaxes you.

Pick the golf psychology tip that will work best for you or use them all. Being able to monitor your body tension, monitor your breathing or having a place to go to during your round could just be the golf psychology tip that you need to allow your best performance!

Organizational Psychology is a subject which applies the principles of psychology into one of the most important areas of people’s life – work. Specifically, we work with the human aspects of the workplace and aim at improving people’s efficiency, and hence organizational effectiveness, through our knowledge about human functioning.

There exist a group of professionals who share a similar aim and are working closely with us, the human resource professionals. Despite the close relationship with HR professionals, Organizational Psychologists are distinctive professionals. Unfortunately, there is always some confusion among the general public that people just cannot tell who is who. More importantly, even some HR professionals do not know what we are doing and what can we offer them.

When we tell them we are Psychologists, a frequent reply is “but we don’t have any mental problems”!

As Organizational Psychologists, we work with a wide range of domains that are related to people’s everyday work life. We design work activities, schedules and workplaces; we design reward principles that are based on human motivation theories; we develop training principles and train the trainers; we develop selection procedures and tools; we formulate performance appraisal systems; and we advise on organizational development issues as well as career development decisions.

As you may recognise, our work reaches every working individual on the planet and our working field is very closely related with the work of HR professionals.

Although there are quite a few overlapping areas between Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management (HRM), there are fundamental differences between us.

The first and perhaps the most obvious difference between us is the knowledge foundation. As psychologists, we base our work heavily on science. All work has to be backed up by scientific evidence and statistics is always in our toolbox.

In contrast, HRM is essentially a business study which emphasizes more on the practical side, with less focus on the scientific side. Moreover, in addition to working on overlapping areas, we work on different levels. Organizational Psychologists focus more on the design and development of procedures, tools and principles while HR professionals work more on the operational level, such as implementation of selection systems and applying training principles in real training scenarios.

The discrepancy between the knowledgebase of Organizational Psychologists and HR professionals has been documented in academic journals.

For example Sally Carless and colleagues pointed out that although there are important advancements in HR-related research, the everyday HR practice have benefited from it to a minimum level. They found that this is due to the lack of knowledge among HR professionals, especially when the training of the HR professionals emphasizes on general skill and knowledge in favour of science.

In contrast, the training of Organizational Psychologists is built upon the scientist-practitioner model which emphasizes on both research and practical skills and stipulates that practice must be supported by scientific evidence.

Another reason may lie in the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) requirement. As Organizational Psychologists, CPD is a statutory condition for registration and this helps them to keep updated with the latest developments in the field. However there is no such requirement for HR professionals. Carless’s study confirmed that Organizational Psychologists are experts in the field, especially in the area of selection and the authors articulated that “scientific integrity is a key differentiating feature of I/O (Organizational) psychologists.”

Having closely related working areas, our work is actually complementary to each other. Without Organizational Psychologists in the design and development work of various HR processes and tools, the HR professional would not be enjoying these scientific and highly effective products.

On the other hand, without the help of HR professionals we could never apply our work to such a broad range of people. Moreover, our relationship is much more complex and interactive than one might be aware of. Besides the above mentioned supplier-user relationship, HR professionals are also partners, advisors and sometimes suppliers for Organizational Psychologists.

HR professionals are our partners in projects where we provide them with the technical skills and knowledge while they take care of the operational part. Furthermore, HR professionals are experts of their company; therefore we work side by side during consulting jobs where we need them to assist us with internal matters as well as providing us with an insider view.

More importantly, as HR professionals are frequent users of our services and products, we rely a lot on their opinions and requests in developing our products and services. They are also providers of valuable data and participants for us to carry out scientific studies (e.g. validation of assessment tools). All in all, we are inter-dependent parties with entwined relationships rather than independent parties or competitors.

Being Organizational Psychologists, what can we offer to HR professionals? A lot. With the expertise in assessing human characteristics and knowledge about human performance, we are experts in selection.

Based on the understanding about the requirements of the job as well as the characteristics needed for any particular position, we can come up with an ideal person profile that the organization is looking for. Then we can design, or choose among proper tools that accurately measure the required characteristics, knowledge and skills.

According to research these procedures enable us to create the best selection system which predicts future performance of the employed staff. One should not be surprised that the best selection tools like psychometric tests, assessment centres, and structured interviews as well as standardized selection procedures are all designed and developed by Organizational Psychologists.

Another contribution of the organizational psychology profession to the HR field is in training. A brief look at the training market reveals that it is flooded with many training courses and providers.

Obviously their quality varies and some of them do not even know what they are talking about! Our own company has undertaken work for clients who have come to us after being dissatisfied with trainers who appear to have simply taken some information from the internet to put together a training session without any real understanding of the subject matter!

As Organizational Psychologists we are working hard to turn around this situation. We are experts in training design; some understand how people learn and how people learn the best! In designing and delivering training courses, scientific human learning theories and training principles are followed, but not just by gut feelings or experience only. Factors like transfer of learning, specific needs of the organization and maintenance of learning are all fully considered.

Besides selection and training, Organizational Psychologists also offer various consultancy and advisory services to HR professionals. The range of work can be as small as reviewing a performance appraisal check list or an assessment centre exercise to as big as designing a tailored selection system.

On top of that, we can also go into the organization to diagnose the roots of problems and solve them accordingly, using our scientific approach and advanced knowledge about mechanisms and dynamics within the workplace.

However, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, one big obstacle we face is the lack of knowledge about our profession within the HR profession (particularly in Asia), as well as the public in general.

The implication is that we often face questions like “what is organizational psychology?”, “what is the difference between Organizational Psychologists and HR consultants?” and even “why do I need to employ scientific tools and procedures?” It can be hard work explaining all this to prospective clients! Another related problem is people always think we are very expensive!

But the fact is all the products and services we offer are based on scientific research which means they have undergone lengthy and sophisticated processes of development and the cost of all these are huge. By employing our scientific tools and principles the benefit is long lasting and continuously contributing to the performance of the organization, and these are all documented in the scientific literature.

Another hidden obstacle for us in Asia is caused by the organizational hierarchy. Very often, the first contact point between our clients and ourselves are assistants of HR professionals who have minimal understanding of what we are talking about. When they do not understand they just cannot relay our message precisely to their manager.

The result is obviously that the management level does not receive our message and the name of Organizational Psychology just remains unheard no matter how hard we try!

As Organizational Psychologists, we see a real need to educate the public, and more importantly, HR professionals about the subject of Organizational Psychology so that the fruit of science can be returned to them.

There are major overlapping work areas between Organizational Psychologists and HR professionals such as selection, training, career development and performance management, but we work on different levels and perspectives thus our relationship is actually collaborative rather than competitive.

Organizational Psychologists can offer help to HR professionals in various areas such as training design, development of selection systems, supervising performance management processes and many more. Nevertheless Organizational Psychologists in Asia face obstacles as the subject is relatively unheard of among HR professionals and communication is often blocked by organizational hierarchy.

Therefore one very important task for us as Organizational Psychologist is to promote this subject so that people know what we can offer and make use of our expertise! We are sure that with the growing popularity of the subject, HR professionals, and other related professionals like career counsellors and coaches, will benefit highly from Organizational Psychology.

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