Psychology as a career

last SG · 2005-02-17T22:25:00+00:00

How about getting a degree on Sport psychology? How the prospect in Singapore? Where it is oftered locally and a good oversea uni? How much?

bismarck SG

well, to put it simply..maybe not.
what i want to know are the things that 1 needs to do, face. and also what are the problems with such a career.
what can i expect to see in such a job ?
how does 1 assess a patient or a case study?
after assessing, how do i do a report on my findings?

and also what are their complains abt their studies, because i have already taken into consideration the positive sides of it when choosing psycho, because it is more 'scary" ( not sure how to put it) to find out the little known negative sides of it only when u start working or even as early as studying it rather than discovering more joys of it..

anyway jsut give me whatever they tell u

thanks heng..

bismarck SG

is there 1 in say...the police ?
what initiated the psycho spark in me is the use of BA to analyse and build up a psycho profile of a killer for example.

or looking job applicants and determining what kind of ppl they are ?

[email protected] SG

np. altho to be honest, comparing their course timetable to mine, they seem quite slack. Laughing

bismarck SG

crap...if i have slack timetables..i am more likely to sleep thru lessons
Smile

bismarck SG

btw i was asked to do a simple write up on what inspired me to choose psycho as a choice..

and i typed this..can someone offer me any suggestions to edit ? Very Happy

"My interest in psychology comes from mainly family experience, media & crime documentaries and my strong interest in analysis. I have a relative suffering from a psychological problem and I am always interested in what goes on in a human mind and the causes that results in the problem. Of late, the government is concerned over the rising numbers of stress-related ailments in jobs and the risks of such ailments going undetected or untreated. Besides this, the fact that some social problems may be attributed to mental health issues is another reason for my interest in psychology because I have always wanted to analyse such situations to know why this is happening, find out and develop protocols to treat and prevent or lower the frequency of these kinds of problems. Lastly, the use and importance of behavioural analysis in some crime files to solving the case has always greatly interested me due to the application of the human mind."

Gedanken SG

Damn, I knew I forgot one field - forensic psych. Buddy boy, go into this field only if you're a sucker for punishment. I've seen too many people go into forensics thinking that it's all Silence of the Lambs, only to find that it's a mind-numbingly boring job - they spend their days interviewing convicts to gather data for statistical analysis, risk being attacked by said convicts (and in Oz they need to wait for the warden to pull the convicts off their throats instead of fighting back), and the cops tell them that their analyses are all off the mark anyway.

As for practicing it within the recruitment field, BA alone isn't going to cut it. You're going to need to know all of your test theory, work on your interviewing technique and write a convincing defense of why you chose not to recommend a particular candidate - saying that he was lying because he sat facing away from you with his legs and arms crossed doesn't constitute sound reason for a decision.

Like I said, BA is only part - and in certain cases a very small part - of the picture. You need to look at the other parts like learning the different psych theories and perspectives, as well as stats and thest theory and technique, otherwise you won't be getting the full picture.

Gedanken SG

Honest opinion? You need to tone it down a bit. There are a couple of things that you need to be aware of:

There are a lot of people who study psychology mainly to get themselves sorted out. While that's fine within these people's personal context, it can cause a lot of problems when they bring it into the professional context - most of these people get weeded out during the course, but course convenors will want to avoid that hassle if they can. When you write that your relative suffers from psychological problems, that sets alarm bells ringing.

Like I mentioned in my last post, the "Silence of the Lambs" syndrome is another no-go area. I'd avoid mention of it if I were you.

What you wrote about detecting and treating mental illness is good . Beef that part up, but don't go as far as implying cures for mental illnesses - that's a bit too idealistic.

bismarck SG

guess i was right abt the relative part. i spoke to my mum and she sort of told me to write in..-_-!

thanks for the silence of the lambs thing..

beefing it up ? like how ? i searched thru the net for some ref stuff to write on but havent got the bloody time. will u be online tmr night say...7pm and beyond ? because got somethings to rush earlier on and i need some time to type.

frankly speaking, i maybe backing on my decision. u said some of yr friends spend the day interviewing convicts...does that happen in sg ?
i know it happens in US and u said, oz...
sg ?

bismarck SG

i see..thanks for the insight for forensics crap..maybe my option is to do forensics...just wondering what will i do if i cant get into forensics at all. haha

as for the recruitment part, well. i tend to write little to state my points.
either i work on that or i dont cut it for recruitment.

Sad

Gedanken SG

You're on a good track there when you talk about detection and treatment. If the recent TV ads about depression are anything to go by, this has been identified as the direction that the field should take, and your mentioning it would go down well with them because it reflects their view of things. Do a serach for the benefits of early detection and treatment, and phrase what you find in your own words.

I don't know any forensic psychologists or psychiatrists in Singapore personally, but I expect that the practice of the field, just like the other fields of psychology, would be pretty standard worldwide. You might get the chance to defend yourself if you were attacked in a Singapore prison, though. Mr. Green

Not sure if I'll be online tomorrow evening. Just drop me a PM.

Gedanken SG

Don't sweat it - once you get the hang of writing such reports, you'll find that you've got an even greater challenge keeping them short and to the point. Just keep in mind that BA results alone are not sufficient for justifying a decision.

bismarck SG

ok..i'll try to work on that.

bismarck SG

okok...i currently have probs writing reports tat carry enought stuff in the first place..
but that's the least of my worries

Gedanken SG

Well, it could be one of your bigger problems. If I don't have to go through what i've written and ruthlessly cut out bits that are even slightly irrelevant, it's usually a sign that my base material is not adequate.

Black_Ace SG

Hello,

Seems like I have a buddy in my line, I'm also working as an industrial and organisational psychologist concurrently, but my company originated from Thailand. It seems that Singaporean companies were pretty much skeptical in placing an I/O consultant to work related matters.

Back in the good old days, most big organisations have had an industrial psychologist, but practice was generally degenerated through the years, perhaps axed as I/O psychologist was pretty much of a 'luxury' position in companies, which of course, had no major contributions which deemed its position accountable, and which HR practioners could do as the better.

Most I/O Psychologist are now working as HR Managers, practioners etc... Although not carrying the tag, this role allows integration of psychology and practical, justifiable contributions to allow I/Os to get paid.

I took my bachelor and masters from Queensland back in Aussie.

Gedanken SG

Hey, cool! Pleased to meet you, Black_Ace! I was from Melbourne Uni.

I think it made sense that I/O psychs were not employed in-house. Let's face it - the nature of the work is more suited to an outsourcing arrangement anyway. Even for HR practicioners, since HR is a support function rather than one that directly contributes to the bottom line (e.g. a manufacturing division), organisations tend not to treat HR as a core department. I'm not sure if you know Mark Spatz, who used to run Ansett's department - his opinion is that it'll be a long time before HR gets a seat at the big table. You often see HR being relegated to a payroll function instead of encompassing the broad range of duties that they're capable of.

I'm quite happy acting as a consultant - it makes for more interesting work. I've known a few in-house I/O psychs, and they get to do a lot less than I do.

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