I found the career talk interesting, because I looked at it from a little bit of a different perspective. My mother works in the clinical side of psychology and has opened up her own practice for mental health. She started as a social worker, and it was just interesting to hear the differences between the different areas of psychology. My mother was more aligned with Ebony , so it was intriguing to hear Dr. Olbirsch perspective being more on the research side of health psychology. I had always thought of psychologist as clinical psychologist, because that was what I was used to seeing. After hearing the talk it kind of opened my eyes to the various parts. It was also interesting to see the juxtaposition between to the two women, a woman just starting her career with a woman very established and towards the end of her career. While they shared some similarities, seeing the different paths to get to their points was neat to see.
Careers in Health Psychology
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I agree with her perspective of psychology. My mother is also a clinical psychologist and I think I had a very narrow view of psychology. I always thought that, if I were to get into the field of psychology, it would be on the clinical side. In fact, I did not even know of many other tracks that I could take. After hearing Dr. Olbirsch’s love for the research side as well as learning about it in the course, I think I may take more of that route. I remember calling my mom and telling her this and she said that she never even thought to propose that to me, however, she can see me in that field. It’s really interesting to note that we can often have tunnel vision and how important it is to learn more about topics we believe we already know of.
I also found it interesting to hear from woman just starting her career and a woman very established and towards the end of her career. I thought they were both very different people with very different careers despite both being focused in Psychology. I didn’t really know how diverse the field of Psychology was before this course and before hearing them speak. That’s so cool that your mom opened up her own practice! Has she inspired you at all to go into psychology or open up your own business?
Gabe — I also found this talk very interesting because of some of the same reasons you provided. It was interesting to hear such contrasting views based on the same topic, but what was even more interesting to me was the fact that this field was not yet as developed when Dr. Olbirsch was an undergraduate, or even a graduate, student. It was also interesting to be able to actually compare the differences in their views, depending on their age difference, as they sat directly in front of us for the duration of their talk. I, too, usually thought of psychology as the practice of clinical psychology, but there is a lot more to this field, especially connected to research, that I have learned upon coming to college, and that the speakers emphasized as well. It is also interesting to read that you observed this talk from a unique perspective because of your mother’s career. I’m sure you were much more attentive to the similarities and differences of the speakers, but either way, it’s amazing to hear what your mother has done, and I’m sure she is as passionate about psychology and research as Ebony and Dr. Olbirsch demonstrated they were throughout their dialogue.