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Ashton Johnson
Meghan Sheehy
IDS 301
October 9, 2011
Photo Essay Project
For my two interdisciplinary studies, I chose Psychology and Family Studies. I chose
these two studies because both seem to really interest me and both are a field of study that I
would love to work in one day. Psychology and Family Studies are alike in a few ways and I will
explain how in this paper.
Psychology is both an applied and academic field that studies the human mind and
behavior. Research in Psychology seeks to understand and explain thought, emotion and also
behavior. Psychologists provide many different services like clinical psychologists, educational
psychologists, health psychologists, neuropsychologists, forensic psychologists, organizational
psychologists and sports psychologists. Psychologists provide treatment for depression, anxiety,
phobias, panic disorders, eating disorders, stress related problems, relationship problems, and
severe mental disorders.
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Clinical Psychologists provide counseling and psychotherapy. They work with people
who have mental illness, emotional disorders and also life adjustment disorders. They work with
people of all ages and can also work in groups or with families.
Educational, School and Clinical Psychologists provide “psychoeducational testing”. In
psychoeducational testing where they identify academic strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes
these tools are used to identify special learning disorders and also find “gifted” students.
Evaluations relating to learning issues also frequently involve the assessment of Attention Deficit
Disorder which is also known as ADD or Attention Deficit, Hyperactivity Disorder aka ADHD.
Health Psychologists work with people in preparing them for surgery and dealing with
recovery after surgery. They also provide treatment to people whose medical problems are
related to psychological and emotional factors, or people that are suffering from chronic pain.
Their main focus is the concentration on the diagnosis and treatment of an illness that is affecting
the mental and bodily functions of someone. They help patients through chronic disease care
such as someone suffering with diabetes or someone with substance abuse and help encourage
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them to live a healthy lifestyle. A health psychologists job duties consist of asses patients or a
group, surveys, personality tests, interviews and interventions, relaxation methods and teaching
how to cope with stress.
Neuropsychologists provide mental and behavioral problems that are related to brain
injuries. Using many different tests of mental functioning, they can determine how the brain is
functioning and how and where it may have been injured due to trauma. They help patients that
are recovering from strokes and heart attacks, administering brain scans and provide expert
testimony during court trials. Neuropsychologists normally hold a doctorates degree in
neuropsychology or clinical neuropsychology. Many neuropsychologists that are practicing
today hold a master’s degree. It usually takes between anywhere from 3 to 7 years to complete a
doctorates degree in neuropsychology and most colleges require that you complete an internship.
Forensic Psychologists provide consultation to courts and attorneys in a lot of different
types of legal proceedings. Others forensic psychologists provide expertise in personal injury
suits, sexual harassment and child custody matters. A Forensic Psychologists also helps train
officers with their communication skills, anger management, enforcement strategies and
supervisory skills. They also help with: Divorce and Child Custody Mediation, Jury Selection
and Case Strategy, Psychological Testing and Evaluation, Explaining the Effects of
Psychological conditions and illness and this is just to name a few.
Sports Psychologists focus on professional and amateur athletes helping them to reach
their full potential. Sport Psychologists work with professional teams, Universities and private
practices. To be successful in this field of study you need to have great communication skills,
counseling, motivational and analytical skills. Their duties are studying past behavior and their
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weak points. To fix the problems they have group or individual treatments.
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My second field of study is family studies. In family studies you learn about how people
change over time, from the time that you were born to the time that you die and how this may
affect your family. Professionals that work in this field of study work at building family’s up to
have a better relationship and also maintaining family relationships. Professionals also become
teachers who work with mentally challenged children.
There are many things that you can do with a family studies degree in community
services like working at an adoption agency, community centers, adult day care providers,
Hospitals, rehabilitation centers, religious organizations and so on. To be able to be successful in
family studies while working in community services, you need to have great speaking skills,
develop research and writing skills and be able to work with all types of people. Someone with a
family studies degree can also work in Social Services in case management, as a counselor or
administrator. When working for social services you usually work for a group home, half-way
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houses, youth services agencies, senior citizens programs, foundations and funding organizations
and adult and child day care programs. To be able to work for social services, you need to have a
master’s degree and have a license in mental health counseling, social work and rehabilitation
counseling to provide therapy. You can also work in Education with a family studies degree. A
career in Education would of course be a teacher, early childhood education, home economics,
family consumer sciences, administration, college student affairs, special education and prentchild education. To be able to work in Education you would have to have a license to work for a
public school. Obtain a Ph.D. for college and University teachings and research opportunity’s,
acquire certification for day care and parent-child education. Obtain a graduates degree for
counseling, student affairs and administrative positions. People who work in the medical field
with a family studies degree will work in child care programs and education, they work in
hospitals, health care facilities and Hospices. To do so you have to have a master’s degree in
social work or counseling and also volunteer in health care facilities as much as possible.
Another job opportunity would be with the government in Social Services, Rehabilitation
Program, Coordination, Research Program, Evaluation, Legislation and Advocacy.
I chose my two field of studies because both are very interesting to me. I am not sure
which study that I would like to work in but it will be one of the two. Even though both are alike
in a few ways they are also very different in many ways.
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