career in psychology | Distance Learning Systems (DLSI)

Nursing and the Schools of Psychology

Studying the mind and its corresponding behaviors are the concerns of psychology. Psychology establishes general assumptions through research; methods that have its own affinity with the study of nursing. Psychology may only be an increment to the nursing profession; but even before its insertion into the nursing course, nurses have already been using psychological techniques in treating their patients. This has been manifested through the schools of thought that psychology employs to its patients. Let us examine a few of these schools of thought that has already found its expression in the nursing field.

The Biological School
The biological matters that compose the human brain have an effect on the human behavior. If a nurse is aware of this, then they will be able to properly manage the patient. The nurse will also be able to keep in mind certain physiological reactions that can be expected from the patient.

The Behavioral School
As has been said, psychology concerns itself with human behavior. Nurses should be able to determine behavioral patterns from the patient they is handling. If a nurse has the capacity go over the patient’s demeanor, then they has taken the first step towards treating the patient well.

The Cognitive School
Mental processes that manifest through human activity should be part of a nurse’s agenda of concern. As the saying goes, “actions speak louder than words.” If a nurse has a knack for determining peculiar behaviors within his/her patient, then both the nurse and the patient benefit from the professional’s good awareness.

The Social School
Like Psychology, the inclusion of Sociology to the nursing curriculum enables nurses to see attitudes in their patients based on their sociological status. This helps nurses create a complete assessment of their patients’ conditions.

The Psychoanalytic School
Ever since Freud introduced the study of psychoanalysis, it has become a part of every department in every office, including the nursing department. The analysis that goes about it is crucial in giving enough evaluation over a patient.

Reasons To Study Psychology

There have been a lot of criticisms that Psychology has received over the years, as a college major and as a career path. Reasons ranging from “it’s not useful” to “It’s just easy and fun” as a college major. People also criticize Psychology as having a low pay and few jobs.

But there are many positive reasons to study Psychology, even if you do not plan to become a Psychology major or work in a Psychology-related profession. Reasons that go beyond career possibilities because it is all around you and touches on every aspect of your life.

One of the reasons to study Psychology is that it can help you better understand yourself and the people around you. You might find yourself gaining a deeper understanding of the many influences that have impacted your own life because you will learn more about how development occurs, how personality forms, and how society and culture impact behavior. Moreover, you might be able to understand the influences and motivations when someone behaves in certain way.

Psychology’s emphasis is on research methods and statistics. This will give you a good grasp of these methods that will contribute greatly on the success of your career, regardless whether you pursue a career in Psychology or somewhere else.

You will also develop your critical thinking skills by studying Psychology. A great deal of topics such as the scientific method, decision-making, and problem-solving are what you study in Psychology. These topics help hone your ability to think deeply and critically about different issues, which is considered to be essential to being an educated person.

There are still a lot of reasons to study Psychology. At best, it can help you better understand who you are, how you will be, and your interaction with your family, friends, and strangers. Aside from that, graduates with Psychology degrees end up in a wide array of occupations.

Psychology and Memory

Psychology derives from Greek roots meaning study of the psyche, or soul. It is defined as the study of the mind and behavior. Psychology, as defined by the American Psychological Association, is an academic discipline and an applied science which seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and researching specific areas.

With Psychology as the study of the mind, it leads us to memory. One function of the mind is to store and remember information. Memory is the sum total of what we remember, and gives us the capability to learn and adapt from previous experiences as well as build relationships.

However, our memory is not perfect or immune to errors. Sometimes we forget things from important to mundane that, one way or another, play such a pervasive and pivotal role in our daily lives. For example, forgetting a friend’s birthday or misplacing an important document.

Daniel L. Schacter, psychologist and memory expert, presented a framework designed to outline the seven major “sins” of memory in his book, “The Seven Sins of Memory.” These seven “sins” are transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, mis-attribution, suggestibility, bias and persistence.

Schacter describes the first three sins as those of omission (the memory is lost). Our memory fades over time, is easily distracted that is why we become absent-minded, and is blocked because we struggle to remember things when we know that we know it in the first place.

The last four sins Schacter describes as the sins of commission (at least some of the memory is there, but it is either wrong or unwanted. Our memory mistakes its source, is influenced by outside factors which triggers false memories, is influence by our current beliefs, and remembers things that we would rather forget.

Although our memory is not perfect, it allows us to adapt and interact in a world full of overwhelming information.

The Importance of Psychology in the Nursing Profession

Despite the coming completely from different disciplines, Psychology has a huge relevance on the nursing practice. Many aspiring nurses have wondered the need fro them to devote hours in studying Psychology. They don’t realize that both are interrelated with each other.

Nurses work in a setting where they’re required to interact with other professionals in an effort to bring the best quality care for their patients. They need to fully understand how other people behave and act in certain situations – this is where Psychology comes into play.

In managing patients with different illnesses, both nurses and psychologists not only work in understanding the physical pain associated, but also change their thought and attitudes to improve well-being.

When assessing a patient’s condition, nurses also consider how patient’s respond to their illness. Some patients are optimistic and easily cope with their illness, while others have a negative reaction where they become angry and stubborn. Nurses may find it very difficult to handle such patients and need to include them as part of their evaluation of the patient.

With the help of psychology, nurses will know how to interact with their patients based on different factors such as gender and age. For instance, young patients may be more afraid than adults. They may have difficulties in understanding their illness. A nurse can apply his knowledge of child development and psychology and relate to the young patients in a way their apprehensions are alleviated. Thus, psychology can help improve the nurse and patient relationship. As a result, patients can openly interact and communicate with them and inform them about their specific needs.

With psychological knowledge also, nurses are able to get the trust of their patients. This makes the patients more responsive with the instructions they are given. Sometimes, they even take a positive role in their own wellness.

Learning Psychology and its Benefits

Psychology is basically the study of behavior, mental operations and performance of people. It is also the connection of educational, theoretical and applied science.

Students who studied psychology devotedly were able to understand the compound process of the brain that commands the actions of all human. They also have come to realize that they can make use of psychology in understanding the behaviors, situations and everyday life of all the people.

Why Learning Psychology is important?

Basically, there are a lot of reasons why learning psychology is important. Students will have the chance to experience the following:

The ability to understand own behavior

Studying psychology will allow students to understand their own behavior, emotions and ideas. They will also realize that studying the principles of psychology will allow them to assess, evaluate and provide solutions to all unwanted emotional situations.

Enhanced Communication Expertise

Most famous psychologists have discovered that humans are involved in all kinds of communication. Studying psychology will allow students to understand that communication skills can improve the effectiveness of human interaction.

The ability to understand the behavior of other people

According to Heidelburg of University of Ohio, studying psychology enables students to understand the behavior of other people. They will have the ability to read people’s minds and emotions. Understanding human emotions can be hard, but if students can master the principles of psychology, it will be easier to understand human actions. In addition, it can also improve student’s ability to help others in dealing with their dilemmas.

Better Career Ahead

Students who are so devoted in studying psychology have one thing in common. They want to become the best and effective psychologists. They also know that there is an urgent need for more psychologists since there are increasing numbers of individuals with mental disability. Right after mastering all theories and principles of psychology, students will have the chance to prepare themselves in obtaining a certification or license.

Learning the basics of psychology is important because it can be applied and used to countless life experiences.

Psychology in Medical Education

Psychologists have to acquire a much better knowledge of the fundamental biological sciences if they wish to engage in a much bigger position in educating medical students, and take part in study and treatment inside the health care process.

Health-related schools are switching from being organized on biologically based departments to multidisciplinary organizations, and that study funded by the National Institutes of Health is requiring a much more interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary strategy. These changes generate a chance for psychology to play a better role in medical instruction and health investigation.

The inability for making psychology highly relevant to the biological fundamentals of medicine can lead to psychology getting minimally highly relevant to medical education and practice. For instance, a psychologist who would like to work in an interdisciplinary treatment plan targeting cancer must provide expertise about a few of the behavioral aspects in the start of cancer – but should know something about oncology and defense mechanisms function, as well.

Definitely, in order to comprehend and educate about these topics, it is essential that we have a number of this fundamental knowledge. There’s a necessity for clinical health psychologists to understand more about anatomy, physiology and pharmacology. For college students studying to become pharmacists for example, psychology offers quite a bit to educate about patient decision-making, social support and problem management and self-care. For example, research has discovered that asking a patient, “Any questions?” when they pick up a prescription decreases the likelihood that a patient will in fact ask a question. By contrast, asking, “What questions do you have?” results in more connection between patient and pharmacist.

Psychologists may also provide important communication instruction on how to build a connection with patients – whether it’s working with children who won’t sit still in the chair or adults who become stressed when dealing with a dental appointment.

A lot more has to be completed to help make education and training possibilities readily available for psychologists within educational health centers.

Relating Psychology to Health

Psychology is not only for people with mental problems or illnesses. Patients with any health conditions may have undergone psychological difficulties, before or during the condition. The behavioral and social factors cause or lead to almost every reason for dying, illness, and disability and directly cause roughly 1 / 2 of deaths every year. Mental and behavioral health care play a substantial role within the prevention, diagnosis and/or management of the 15 main reasons for dying within the United States. These diseases are cancer, pneumonia, cardiovascular disease, stroke, Septicemia, hypertension, chronic lower respiratory system disease, accidents, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, kidney disease, suicide, chronic liver disease, Parkinson’s Disease as well as assault/homicide.

According to some research, psychological distress might have an adverse effect and is capable of doing modifying various options that come with the immune response system. Around 85% of physician visits are suitable for issues that possess a significant psychological and behavioral component, for example chronic ailments. For instance, studies have proven an association between depression and cancer.

Ideas, attitudes, and feelings can accelerate the start of cardiovascular diseases. This leads to the conclusion that most people are experiencing diseases in relation to their mental and psychological health. People with diabetes are two times as likely as people without diabetes to possess serious psychological distress. Depression is prevalent in roughly 20% of cancer patients and could slow down treatment and recovery. Children and care providers of cancer patients might also experience depression.

Supplying mental and behavioral health services included in a health care model greatly increases access for underserved people. A built-in health care approach helps eliminate stigma in addition to increasing the understanding of the psychosocial facets of health. Psychologists play a vital role in integrated health care by helping people modify their behavior to avoid and get over health problems. People in the United States can be more healthy and efficient when psychology is incorporated into primary health care.

The Science of Psychology

First and foremost, there are no “facts” in science. The scientific method is developed in such a way that one can ever confirm anything, they can only disprove something. That is what allows us to keep looking, never avoiding at their understanding of the way the world works. That is why it’s the concept of severity and the concept of progress. A technically sound concept is falsifiable. So no, it is not the case that “hard” science has “facts” and psychology has theories; they all only have concepts. In every way, psychological science sticks to the scientific method as much as any other science. They stick to the same guidelines and strategies. They even evaluate psychological phenomena to the best of their capability.

They use calculations and analysis and even design individual actions in past analysis just like any other science. They test their concepts for reliability and credibility and they test the factors of their concepts. There is however 2 variations between their science and other sciences that have nothing to do with how they practice science, but rather what they study: They are a much more recent science and what they analysis is more complex. The first psychological lab was established by Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 and you can think about how basic the devices would have been back then. While this might seem like several decades ago, keep in mind that Galileo developed his first telescope in 1609. Imagine how much larger a leg up astronomy has had on psychology. Cognitive psychology was not a study subject until at the early 1950’s during the cognitive trend, but not formally until Ulric Neisser’s Intellectual Psychology guide was already released in 1967.

They have had approximately 50 years of studying individual cognition. The study of individual knowledge contains procedures relevant to: feeling, interest, knowing, studying and memory, language, intellect, problem-solving, decision-making. Imagine the scope of phenomena and actions all that contains. Can you appreciate what a short amount of time that is for such a complex study of topic? And that is just cognitive psychology. Psychology as a whole studies every part of the individual experience, such as social, child, character, neuro and abnormal psychology.

Health Psychology Course

The results of the latest studies have demonstrated that most human diseases are caused by patients’ unhealthy lifestyle. For this reason, health psychology is especially popular among postgraduates nowadays. Deciding to continue their studies after getting an undergrad degree in Psychology, students expand their information of the scientist-practitioner approach to healthcare. Researching various issues of health and disease psychology, students may apply their education in practice, creating more effective care plans for their sufferers and impacting their inspiration for getting the medical care services.

Taking a Health Psychology course, postgraduates are allowed to participate in the professionals’ reviews as well as to conduct studies of their own. Deepening their information of innovative research methods, techniques of behavior-change treatments and efficient communication exchange with sufferers, postgraduates enhance their expert abilities and improve the degree of medical care services provided. The forward-thinking viewpoint of the course, putting emphasis on the psychological aspect of medical care, is beneficial for both practitioners and their sufferers.

Career opportunities after finishing a Health Psychology course

Health Psychology programs provide postgraduates with substantial theoretical information and develop their practical abilities which could be applied within their profession activity. This is why the degree is an important stage in a person’s professional growth and following profession marketing.
The first profession option is a position of a Chartered Health Psychologist, working at management and managing degrees of medical care institutions.
Another opportunity is marketing in the area of research. Performing reviews in health-related perspective aimed at preventing diseases or adjusting sufferers to their serious diseases, an individual can contribute to the existing medical information.
Completing the course, a person can even fill a place in the government, creating efficient health advertising strategies and playing policy making.

Prospects of Psychology Education

In regular education, the place about the study of human habits is known as psychology and the experts engaged in this place are known as psychologists. But, within the place of training in psychology, you will find several areas of research and training, which cannot be known to all. In simple knowing, it is extremely appropriate to have a natural perspective, you not becoming an exemption, but when you are truly fascinated to have this as a career for your life-time and planning to research the applications assisting to obtain an effective and flourishing profession, then you definitely should know about the various areas within the psychology field.

As described previously, there are a range of relevant areas, but several of the experts are found choosing the aspect of clinical psychology. The medical psychology is relevant with the comprehensive research of emotional treatment carefully associated with the medical care field. But, simply a psychological consultant may also be a place for training for a psycho therapist. This field is often resolved from the research of school psychology program. Within the same respect, some specialists also choose areas like health psychology or neuropsychology.

The need for the specific psycho therapist might vary from one place of work to another. For example, criminal psychologists may be high in South America or Latin-American countries but might be low in European or Gulf countries. Thus, you should choose based around the complete evaluation of the industry needs of the industry you have been concentrating on to train your occupation. But, above all, you interest and passion should direct you to an effective and deserving decision. Education and psychology are associated in more than just one way and also the mindset to train might be associated with educational concepts in psychology.