many people believe that psychologist only treat mental disorders.greenspun.com : LUSENET : History & Theory of Psychology : One Thread
many people believe that psychologist only treat mental disorders. why is that a incomplete view of what psychologist do?
-- (email@example.com), October 14, 2002
I suspect it is because the psychotherapist role is the most visible applied psychology role in popular culture. It's an easy one to incorporate into movies, novels, etc. and not so hard even for lay people to understand, even if they don't understand it well. In situations like the sniper attacks in the Washington DC area, people might begin to understand the role of forensic psychology and psychiatry. But it's much harder to grasp the role of a human factors engineer, or a research neuropsychologist. And another possibility is that we haven't worked very hard to explain our other roles--Psychology Today has been an effort in that direction, but I suspect even there the focus is on people helping.
-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (firstname.lastname@example.org), October 15, 2002.