• Question: what was the process of becoming a psychologist?

    Asked by anon-204906 to Sally, Lucy, Louise, James, David, Dan on 4 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Lucy Maddox

      Lucy Maddox answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      Hello! For me, I studied psychology, philosophy and physiology at uni (what a mouthful!) but at that point I didn’t know I wanted to be a clinical psychologist so I went to France for a year and taught English (and ate a lot of cheese) and then came back and did a Masters in Neuroscience. I STILL didn’t know what I wanted to do but I kept enjoying stuff to do with people more than stuff to do with the lab. I got a job as a research assistant for a year interviewing people with bipolar disorder about their lives (and taking their blood!) and then I applied to clinical training.
      I think if you do stuff you are interested in you will end up in a job you are interested in.

    • Photo: Dan Taylor

      Dan Taylor answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      It will depend on what kind of psychologist you want to be, for research I had to go to uni and get my degree – originally I wanted to be a clinical psychologist and was on the Psychology with Counselling course at Sunderland. Over the course of my first year at Sunderland I realised I had a strong interesting in evolutionary psychology and human sexuality. I switched to the pure Psychology course for second year where I took a module on human sexuality which really cemented my love of the subject. My personal tutor in second year was the one running the module and she also happened to be my dissertation supervisor in third year, giving me a chance to explore these ideas further. By the end of the third year we both really liked the idea of my doing a PhD but agreed that having a masters would be the next best step. I stayed at Sunderland as the Research Methods masters had gave experience in a wide variety of practices that I am taking into the PhD. I applied for my PhD whilst I was still studying for my masters (which I have to admit was really intense). In the end I had a whole two weeks off between finishing my masters and starting my PhD. Providing the PhD goes well , I will end up with a doctorate and can then begin researching full time!

    • Photo: Sally Tilt

      Sally Tilt answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      Thanks for the question.

      Like Lucy I also studied a few ‘P’ subjects at university – my P’s were Psychology and Physiology. After university I worked for a while in hospitals (in acute mental health and dementia), while I did quite a bit of rowing. I also wrote to every prison in the country (I think there were about 140!) to ask if I could visit or get any work experience. Eventually a prison psychologist (who I am still in touch with) kindly let me volunteer in their department. It was then easier to get a paid job in the prison service, and to train to be a forensic psychologist.

      Twenty years later and I’m still learning to be a psychologist – every week I learn something new which helps me to do my job better.

    • Photo: James Munro

      James Munro answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      It’s a good question to ask us because we are all very different types of psychologist.

      In my final year at school I got the option to do psychology at a nearby college. It felt a lot more grown up than the classes at my high school – I was away from my usual friends and mingling with students from other high schools, in a place where a lot of adults were learning too. I got hooked, and chose to study Psychology at Uni.

      Unlike a lot of sciences, Psychology students were (and are) mostly female. As one of only a small handful of males on my course I became very interested in gender issues. I knew that in the UK women were so often disadvantaged, but I was shielded from this by being in a female dominated environment. My curiosity was encouraged by two excellent teachers who got me thinking about these important issues in terms of evolution, religion, relationships and society. This took me to Edinburgh Zoo to work with monkeys and apes. I did my final year project on how men and women compete with each other differently if they are attracted to each other.

      During my studies the thing that excited me most was wondering how people could understand each other so well. It seems simple, that if you smile then I know you are happy. But sometimes, if my friends smile, I actually become happier too. If you yawn, I’m likely to yawn too. Sometimes we copy each others’ posture or gestures if we have a long conversation. Why and how? So I tried to find a PhD where I could take my psychology skills and look at the brain as directly as I could. A PhD is 4(ish) more years of uni, after which you come out as a Doctor (not a medical doctor).

      My PhD let me learn how to use a brain scanner, and learn a lot more about the questions I had when younger. It was a wonderful experience – very challenging, exhausting, emotional. 4 years dedicated to a single project is a lot, and by the end I was very proud of myself.

      I don’t know at what moment I became a psychologist, rather than a psychology student. I don’t know if I have reached that point yet!

    • Photo: Louise Rodgers

      Louise Rodgers answered on 10 Mar 2019:

      Hi, I did a different career originally, although I had studied philosophy and University when I was 18,which included the Philosophy of the Mind and the Philosophy of Psychology, which I thought were absolutely fascinating. I didn’t realise there was such a diverse range of careers in psychology and I suppose I thought psychologists were therapists, which wasn’t for me. I was always thinking about psychology though, and once I got more life experience and also did a corporate banking/law job that wasn’t for me, I decided to do a psychology conversion course with the Open University. I did it in the evenings, whilst working more than full-time, but I absolutely loved it all and over the course of that, found out more about different careers within the subject, mainly from the BPS and lecturers on my two OU residential courses.
      This was a really long route, but you could get to the same point by just choosing a psychology degree in the first place! After I finished that, I registered as a Graduate Member of the BPS – not every psychology degree can entitle you to GBC but the BPS explains it all on their website https://www.bps.org.uk/public/become-psychologist/career-options-psychology.

    • Photo: David Chadwick

      David Chadwick answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      My daughter is an educational psychologist. She did a 3 year psychology degree at Leeds University, then a 3 year PhD at Sheffield University. She (and I) had to pay for her undergraduate degree, but she was fully funded for her PhD degree. However the competition was pretty tough, and she only made it the second time she applied (the first time she only made it to the reserve list). In between the degrees she worked as a classroom support helper.

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