Introduction

Making Money with Psychology Degrees - A university professor encourages students to think about making money.

Psychologists vs. hugs

Bruce Levine

Conversation with psychology student in Australia

A comparison between a 14 year old and a "professional psychologist"

Pictures from the college entrance exam for psychology students in Lima, Peru

Some journal notes from New Zealand, 2003

Email from a psychology student in Australia

Example of course objectives from a Theories of Personality psych. class

Phidish

The Goal of Psychology, according to one professor

Psychologists Lack Empathy? See article on this page

Here is some of my original writing about psychology programs.

In my experience, there are two main reasons young people are interested in studying psychology. 1) Because they want to help people. 2) They want to learn about their own families.

What is very, very sad to me is that by the time someone finishes a psychology program in a typical university, they have learned very little about either one of these. Nor have they learned much about themselves or their own unmet emotional needs. Instead they learn lots of theories, and even more sadly, a lot about statistics. (See note below about statistics).

To this I will add that the majority of teenagers who write to us at EQI.org usually do not like to talk to psychologists. They often lie to them. The psychologist or school counselor will say "How was everything at home this week? And the teen will say "fine". Then they will ask "How were things at school?". Again the teen will say "fine". The psychologist might say, "Did you self-harm during the week?", and the teen will probably say no, even if they have. That is because the teens are smart. They are emotionally intelligent. They are fast learners. They have learned that it is dangerous for them to tell the truth. They have learned it will cause more problems for them at home.

Because of this and other reasons, many well-intentioned psychologists may not have a good understanding of what is actually happening in the homes and classrooms which make up the environment for the self-harming, depressed and suicidal teens. Psychology students are trained to analyze data, and information about a self-harming teenager's feelings is data, but if the teens don't report it, disclose it or share it, then the psychologist will not obtain the correct data, and therefore he or she may come to the wrong conclusions.

But the data is there. It is written in red. It is written with the blood of those who cut. Yet this blood is also hidden from many professional mental health workers and academic researchers. This is one reason we have called our book, "Letters from the Unloved - The hidden world of teen depression."

Another problem with psychologists (and psychiatrists) is that they will typically recommend drugs to a teenager without also doing enough to change the conditions in which the teen is trying to live. They don't focus sufficiently on the lack of emotional support from which the teen typically suffers. Specifically, they don't talk about such things as invalidation, emotional abuse, or emotionally abusive mothers which all contribute to the teen's emotional pain and feeling alone and hopeless.

Obviously, for many jobs in life, a degree in psychology is now a requirement. If you choose to study psychology, we ask that you keep in mind the data that we are collecting here at EQI.org. We are happy to share our findings with anyone interested in helping teenagers or others who are depressed, self-harming or suicidal. We are also willing to provide you with practical, hands-on training through working directly with the teenagers who are in our online support group. If you are interested in learning more about this training, please contact us.

S. Hein

EQI.org Home Page

Core Components of EQI.org

Other EQI.org Topics:

Emotional Intelligence | Empathy
Emotional Abuse | Understanding
Emotional Literacy | Feeling Words
Respect | Parenting | Caring
Listening | Invalidation | Hugs
Depression |Education
Personal Growth

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Statistics have a place in the world, but I believe there is too much emphasis on statistics in psychology programs. If you are not good with numbers, it might be hard for you to pass all of your courses. But being good with numbers is not essential to being a good listener or to caring about someone.

Here is an example of how psychology students are trained to think and talk. It is from Jack Mayer and David Caruso's paper on emotional intelligence tests

Reliability of the MSCEIT V2.0

The MSCEIT has two sets of reliabilities depending upon whether a general or expert scoring criterion is employed. That is because reliability analyses are based on participants’ scored responses at the item-level, and scores at the item-level vary depending upon whether responses are compared against the general or expert criterion. The MSCEIT full-test split-half reliability is r(1985) = .93 for general and .91 for expert consensus scoring. The two Experiencing and Strategic Area score reliabilities are r(1998) = .90 and .90, and r(2003) = .88 and .86 for general and expert scoring, respectively. The four branch scores of Perceiving, Facilitating, Understanding, and Managing range between r(2004-2028) = .76 to .91 for both types of reliabilities (see Table 1). The individual task reliabilities ranged from a low of " (2004-2111) = .55 to a high of .88.

and

Correlational and Factorial Structure of the MSCEIT V2.0

As seen in Table 2, all tasks were positively intercorrelated using both general (reported below the diagonal) and expert consensus scoring (above the diagonal). The intercorrelations among tasks ranged from r(1995-2111) = .17 to .59, p’s < .01, but with many correlations in the mid .30’s.

Many are not are not good with children or teenagers. Many would not feel comfortable offering a hug to a crying child or teenager in their office. I suspect the majority would say it is unprofessional or unethical or too dangerous.

Last night I went to the main plaza here in Jaen, Peru, around ten at night. A 10 year old girl named Maria came up to me and wanted me to go over the numbers from 1 to 10 again in English. So we practiced counting. Then about 8 kids, all who come from very, very poor homes ran up to join us. They were all wanting to practice with me, probably more just for the attention that they don't get at home. But in any case there were so many of them that they actually formed a line, just to have a chance to repeat the numbers from one to ten.

So if you want to help people, you can do it easily by going to South America, or Africa, or Indonesia, Thailand or Cambodia. There are lots of places you can go and lots of things you can do instead of going directly to a university where you will spend more time studying for tests than working directly with children or teenagers. Over and over I have met university students who liked my ideas and wanted to help me but they tell me "I have to study. I have a test" or "I have to write a paper."

-

Last night, besides teaching the kids English, I was also picking them up and throwing them up in the air and catching them. They were standing in line for this, too. They kept wanting me to pick them up and toss them in the air over and over. I didn't learn to do this in any of my classes at school.

Here is a picture of some of the kids I saw again later at night.

If you want to help kids, you can do it right away. You don't need a degree to make a difference to a child.

I suggest you also read about David Caruso. For example, read this link about his ideas on the roots of terrorism and his reaction to my writing about what he said. Read about how he used to be an anti-war protestor and then became a marketing manager in a big company. Then he started designing tests and started working more with numbers than with children or teenagers.

S. Hein
January 24, 2005
Jaen, Peru

Once I was in Australia and about six counseling students wanted to help me with online counseling for suicidal teenagers. So I had a meeting the next night to tell them how I did it. Only two of them came. They said the others had to study. The two who came said they couldn't stay long either. Then I asked them a question. I asked them what their professor, (their counseling professor - someone who is supposedly interested in teaching them to be good future counselors and teaching them to help people) would say if they told her that they didn't finish their paper or study for the test because they had been up late listening to a suicidal teenager.

What do you think they said?

If you think they said something like "She would probably say 'That is a really good thing you did. How did it go? Tell me more about it', then you are probably not a counseling student or a psychology student in a university. You are probably a high school student who has an idealistic, and false, impression of what it is like to study psychology or counseling.

If you said, "The professor would probably tell us that is no excuse and would probably not even believe us, or say we aren't qualified", then you are probably a university student or university graduate and you know what it is really like.

The students I asked this question of gave me the second answer.

Sadly I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that a teenager's life is not as important to many psychology professors as the student's grade is. And this prioritization in values gets passed directly down to the students, many of whom would put a teen's life ahead of their own grades if grades were not so highly valued by the university and society.

This is the reality, as I have seen it, in universities around the world.

8:30 - Talked to a psychology student today. She said her 12 year old brother was ADHD and is on Ritalin. I asked her what she meant by "ADHD". She said he is "naughty." I asked what she meant by naughty. She smiled a little defensively and said, "He won't listen." She also said, "You tell him to stop it and he won't." I made a mental note how she was confusing listening and obeying as I discuss on my listening page, but I didn't say this because I didn't want her to feel even more defensive. I also asked if she thought there was really something wrong with him chemically and she said yes. Then I asked why she thought he should listen to her. She said, "Because I am his big sister."

As I left, I couldn't help but wonder how much her psychology courses were helping her.

Steve Hein
Wellington, New Zealand
April 30, 2003

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Notes - Her reply that he should listen to her (ie obey her, because she is his big sister reminds me of intelligent and not so intelligent answers)

She also told me he is the youngest of four kids. Her parents are divorced. She also told me he is very popular at school and likes to talk all the time.

And she said she knew of lot of people that had committed suicide.

This was with someone who was taking master's level courses so she could get an extra title and make more money. She was already working as a counselor in a psych clinic. She was about 22 years old.

We started talking about eating disorders which she said they worked with at the clinic.

I asked her, "Where do you think the disorders come from?"

She crossed her arms, started getting red in the face... She laughed, smiled nervously. Then said, "A lot of places. Sometimes it just comes out of nowhere. Sometimes they develop starvation syndrome."

I asked, "What is that exactly?"

She laughed nervously again - "I don't know specifically...I really couldn't say."

I asked, "Do you see any patterns in the families they come from?"

She answered, "We don't really ask them about their families."

Then she added, "For those with anorexia, we have them eat with us and show them they won't gain ten kilos like they think the will." Then she laughed mockingly, showing how irrational they are, and insensitive and invalidating she is. Then she said judgmentally "They run their parents instead of the other way around. Their parents can't make them eat."

I think, "So you want parents to force their kids to eat? Do you think this will help fill their emotional needs?" They probably have the "eating disorder" because their parents are too controlling already. Food is one thing they have some control over.

Then I asked her, "Why are you getting your advanced degree?"

She answered, "To make more money."

Next I asked, "What courses are you taking?"

She replied, "I don't know. I am just here for two weeks. The rest is correspondence."

--

This took place in the cafeteria at Charles Stuart University in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia

Katy is a single mother in her twenties who has tried to kill herself. When I first met her she told me that she feels suicidal because she feels so alone. She has seen several psychologists.

The other day I asked her if her psychologists had ever given her a hug. She said no. I also asked if she felt more alone, less alone or the same after she talked to them and she said she felt less alone. Then I asked, "Would you feel less alone by talking to a psychologist or by getting a hug from someone?"

She said, "Getting a hug."

I also asked if she thought they would cry if she killed herself.

She said, "No."

S. Hein
Chiclayo, Peru
March 31, 2005

Hi Steve,

I've been through a lot of your website and in particular, I just read through
your advice on university studies. It really brought home to me the importance
of keeping a focus on what really matters. I'm currently doing a statistics
assignment, which definitely does not help me learn better how to relate to
people or help them.

General:                    

1)   To interest students in the various theories of personality.
2)   To introduce students to the basic assumptions and concepts of each major theory.
3)   To help students learn to apply these theoretical concepts to their personal life.
 

Instructional

1)   To help students develop critical skills in analyzing theories
2)   To introduce students to the methods used in studying personality.
3)   To continue to practice the library and internet research skills learned previously.
4)   To continue learning and practising the use of American Psychology Association (APA) writing and referencing style.

This is from Janet Waters' class at Capilano College in British Columbia, Canada. It is course number Psychology 220. The only prerequisite is Psych 100. So this means that it is possible that this would be the only the second course a new psych student would take in the psych department.

Notice how the first objective is to "Interest students in various theories of personality" I believe it would be more helpful to interest the students in people and children, rather than in theories. This is, in a nutshell, one of the major problems with studying psychology. You start out being interested in people, then when you leave somehow you have lost much of this initial interest.

Also, notice all the instructional objectives. "develop critical skills in analyzing theories"; "methods used in studying personality", "continue to practice the library and internet research skills learned previously"; "continue learning and practising the use of American Psychology Association (APA) writing and referencing style".

I don't see how any of these are going to make a person a better listener. And I can't really see how it is necessary to show 19 and 20 year olds how to use the library and Internet to do research. If they did have any problems about this, it seems they could to go the library reference department. There they could ask some questions, get some help and not have to worry about being tested on what the librarian tells them. Instead of worrying about being tested, they could concentrate a little more on their research and even on actually helping someone, like a friend who is having relationship problems. And notice that the teacher says "continue" to practice..." This suggests they were already taught on, and tested on, how to do this in their very first psychology class at the university.

And then look at the last one on the list. Again it says "continue", implying this was already covered. But look at what she is talking about: Writing papers using the APA writing and referencing style. How is this going to make you a better friend, a better listener, a more caring or compassionate person? Here is what I have to say about the APA and its guidelines, by the way.