Chapter 1Section 2

What Psychologists Do

Section 2-Objective

• Describe the work done by psychologists according to their areas of specializations.

Opener

• What movies or TV have you seen or books have you read that have professional psychologists as characters? What kinds of work did these psychologists do? In which areas of psychology did they specialize ? How realistic were their characterizations?

Job Specializations

All psychologists have an interest in behavior and believe in scientific research. Evidence has to support the beliefs.

Some psychologists focus mainly on research. With research you look at factors to form theories by predicting specific behaviors will occur.

Some psychologists consult. They use their knowledge and background to help people change their behavior and meet personal goals.

Jobs

Some psychologists choose to teach, sharing their experiences and knowledge in workshops and classrooms.

Psychological Specialization

• Educational Psychologist-had amassed evidence that revealed that many underprivileged children were not ready either cognitively or socially to begin school in kindergarten. As a result, these children were falling further behind in school with each passing year. In response to this evidence, the federal government created a program called Head Start to give underprivileged children extra enrichment early in their educational careers.

Specializations

• Mathematical psychology-uses calculus to develop models of complex behavioral phenomena.

• Psychopharmacology-unites physiological psychology and pharmacology in an attempt to understand the processes by which drugs affect behavior.

• Clinical neuropsychology focuses on the biological bases of abnormal behavior.

Creating Charts

• You are going to create a chart on the specializations in psychology discussed in this section.– Chart Title: Job Specializations in Psychology– Name the job specialization– focus and types of work done by specialists in the

area.– Is the specialization client or research oriented?

Activity

• Write and illustrate a job advertisement for a psychologist in one of the areas of specialization discussed in the section. Specify in your advertisements what the nature of the job will be but don’t specify which type of specialist is being sought.

• We will display the advertisements and determine which specialization you chose.

Specializations

– Clinical Psychologists-