Nacho's wishlist freakout

[Nubbins]

It wasn't the format that bothered me, it was that the papers were so god awful boring to write.

[nacho]

You wouldn't think that with psychology, would you?  I mean, Hannibal Lector must have written great papers...

[Nubbins]

Yeah, I know right?  Some of them were interesting I guess, but not many.

The absolute WORST were papers for Statistics class... Jesus Christ.  I think Stats was maybe the worst academic experience I can remember.

[nacho]

All reasons why I stuck with history.  Every single paper and essay was fun.

[Nubbins]

Yeah!  And, of course, history professors are more concerned with what you are actually saying rather than whether you've got the format down.

[nacho]

Kind of shows psychology for the soft science it is:  Train folks not in technique, but simply in publish-or-perish thinking.  Which is the purpose behind all that format shit.  Get into journals and build your rep with long, insane, peer-reviewed articles about how we all have favorite colors.

[Nubbins]

Well, Psychologists (and a lot of Psych students for that matter) are fiercely defensive about people calling it a "pseudo-science", so I think they try to hide the pseudo aspects of it amid a bunch of scientific jargon and formatting to make their theories seem more valid.

[fajwat]

wow, sounds like we should have more vocational school type psychologist training.  Shrinks need to know how to help people, not how to publish.  christ, who publishes?  Like, less than 1% of practicing psychologists?  Get a goddamn phd, or at least a masters, if you want to write papers for a living.

[nacho]

Yes, clinical psychology is where the teaching fails, I think.  But you're crazy if you get into clinical psychology.  Talk about getting nickel and dimed. 

[Nubbins]

You're crazy to get into any kind of psychology to make a living... you pretty much have to get a PhD if you want to do anything with it at all, and once you have the PhD, the only thing you can do is be a therapist or a professor... and if you're a professor, you have to publish every year or so or you lose your tenure.

[fajwat]

i haven't paid under $110 an hour for therapy since ... shit, 1995?  Maybe since 1991, but I don't remember what I paid back then.

you can absolutely make a living practicing psychology.  in DC at least, they often charge the same rates as psychiatrists.

[monkey!]

My papers were in nice Times New Roman, font 12. They asked for double-spaced, but I refused to go more than 1.5 spaced.

[fajwat]

i can't remember writing any papers for college.  maybe some 2 pagers for a fluffy intro to logic freshman class.

[Nubbins]

Oh yeah, I agree that therapists make a good living, but the amount of work and dedication it takes to become a therapist is ridiculous.  My profs in college pretty much straight up told me that I'd never be able to do anything with my psych major because my grades weren't good enough.  Programs, particularly grad level, are so competitive to get into that a lot of schools can admit entire classes of 4.0 students... basically, unless you're making A's in psych, you're never going to do anything with it beyond armchair diagnosing your friends and pretending you know what's wrong with your crazy aunt.

[nacho]

Oh!  The latest research on what clinical shrinks make:

http://research.apa.org/t5salaries07.pdf

Now, remember, for the private practice folks, that you're taxed nearly at 50%.  Plus you have to pay the State Licensing Board(s), and insurance out the ass.  To get insurance, you usually have to belong to APA or you're paying twice as much.  Then you have to belong to the State Psychological Association.  And spend $1000+ each year to get recertified.