Concept

Psychologist

Overview

A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states and perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how individuals relate to each other and to their environments.

Psychologists usually acquire a bachelor's degree in psychology, followed by either a master's or a doctorate in psychology, with requirements varying by country. Unlike psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse-practitioners, psychologists usually cannot prescribe medication, but depending on the jurisdiction, some psychologists with additional training can be licensed to prescribe medications; qualification requirements may be different from a bachelor's degree and master's degree.

Psychologists receive extensive training in psychological testing, communication techniques, scoring, interpretation, and reporting, while psychiatrists are not usually trained in psychological testing. Psychologists are also trained in, and often specialize in, one or more psychotherapies to improve symptoms of many mental disorders, including but not limited to treatment for anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, personality disorders and eating disorders. Treatment from psychologists can be individual or in groups. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a commonly used, well studied and high efficacy psychotherapy practiced by psychologists. Psychologists can work with a range of institutions and people, such as schools, prisons, in a private clinic, in a workplace, or with a sports team.

Applied psychology applies theory to solve problems in human and animal behavior. Applied fields include clinical psychology, counseling psychology, sport psychology, forensic psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, community psychology, health psychology and school psychology. Licensing and regulations can vary by state and profession.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Psychologist is discussed.

'_The Psychologist's Fallacy._' The _great_ snare of the psychologist is the _confusion of his own standpoint with that of the mental fact_ about which he is making his report. I shall hereafter call this the 'psychologist's fallacy' _par excellence_. For some of the mischief, here too, language is to blame. The psychologist, as we remarked above (p.
William James, The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1
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The supposition that these states are somehow existent by themselves and in this existence provide the psychologist with ready-made material is just the supreme case of the “psychological fallacy”: the confusion of experience as it is to the one experiencing with what the psychologist makes out of it with his reflective analysis. The psychologist begins with certain operations, acts, functions as his data. If these…
John Dewey, The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy, and other essays in contemporary thought
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The oftener a psychologist—a born, an unavoidable psychologist and soul-diviner—turns his attention to the more select cases and individuals, the greater becomes his danger of being suffocated by sympathy: he needs greater hardness and cheerfulness than any other man. For the corruption, the ruination of higher men, is in fact the rule: it is terrible to have such a rule always before our eyes.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms.
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One may perceive in almost every psychologist a tell-tale inclination for delightful intercourse with commonplace and well-ordered men; the fact is thereby disclosed that he always requires healing, that he needs a sort of flight and forgetfulness, away from what his insight and incisiveness--from what his "business"--has laid upon his conscience. The fear of his memory is peculiar to him.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
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Many psychologists have connected this difficulty, not with the wrongness of their own method but with the essence of the thought-process. This was explained as an unconscious and (since all sense-perception belongs to consciousness) as a supersensual phenomenon, in the interpretation of which each one must be left to his own speculation.
Wilhelm Max Wundt, An Introduction to Psychology Translated from the Second German Edition
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Psychologist

Overview

In the original texts

Philosophers who discussed Psychologist

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