Completed My Ph.D. Reps until I'm out!

[Random Guy]

Lol I swear you just started...

Also, what are you talking about? lol I've been in grad school forever! Clinical psych PhD programs are generally 5-6 years.

[inq]

Where did you go to school OP? Congrats!

And lol at anyone who says OP can't be a "real doctor". PhDs are the only "real" doctor in my book because they did actual research. MDs have professional doctorates and are physicians and surgeons. You don't call lawyers with a JD a doctor, do you? Obviously I know that a doctor of medicine is still a doctor in that field, but I'm just referring to the common man's interpretation of prestige.

[VeryMiscular]

Just curious-what are your reasons for thinking PsyDs are destroying the field? Curious to hear your perspective.

It's pretty much a clinical degree, which draws the question why does need more clinical training post masters, specifically for 4-5 years. The lack of research is taking away from contributions of scholarly work that we receive from research heavy phd's. Although becoming a theoretician is important, most of the learning does come from the pragmatic applications. You can have knowledge of many different therapeutic techniques, but if you're a potato in applying them, learning more will not help. The learning of psychometrics to apply batteries/inventories is heavily rooted in research and statistics, so if you want to enhance that aspect, wouldn't you go the research route?

edit: No more separation of the wheat from the chaff, also you're practically purchasing the degree.

Also, what are you talking about? lol I've been in grad school forever! Clinical psych PhD programs are generally 5-6 years.

I was alluding to my comment about old school longitudinal studies... then again it's a lot more convenient to work on PhD's nowadays, not to take anything away from your hard work or anything. Back in the day, from what my elders in the field tell me lol, you had to contact various libraries around the country and world to see if they had a specific article. They would make a copy and send it out. Usually it was not even beneficial or had other complications etc. Which was a long part of the process. Now we are fortunate to have most of what we need at our fingertips.

If I go back to school, my dissertation will be related to measuring practitioners' emotional stability srs

[Random Guy]

Where did you go to school OP? Congrats!

And lol at anyone who says OP can't be a "real doctor". PhDs are the only "real" doctor in my book because they did actual research. MDs have professional doctorates and are physicians and surgeons. You don't call lawyers with a JD a doctor, do you? Obviously I know that a doctor of medicine is still a doctor in that field, but I'm just referring to the common man's interpretation of prestige.

It’s a small field and PhD programs are small (10 or less) so I don’t disclose what school I attended. I want to protect my privacy. Hope you understand!
And thanks for your comment! I appreciate the respect.

It's pretty much a clinical degree, which draws the question why does need more clinical training post masters, specifically for 4-5 years. The lack of research is taking away from contributions of scholarly work that we receive from research heavy phd's. Although becoming a theoretician is important, most of the learning does come from the pragmatic applications. You can have knowledge of many different therapeutic techniques, but if you're a potato in applying them, learning more will not help. The learning of psychometrics to apply batteries/inventories is heavily rooted in research and statistics, so if you want to enhance that aspect, wouldn't you go the research route?

edit: No more separation of the wheat from the chaff, also you're practically purchasing the degree.



I was alluding to my comment about old school longitudinal studies... then again it's a lot more convenient to work on PhD's nowadays, not to take anything away from your hard work or anything. Back in the day, from what my elders in the field tell me lol, you had to contact various libraries around the country and world to see if they had a specific article. They would make a copy and send it out. Usually it was not even beneficial or had other complications etc. Which was a long part of the process. Now we are fortunate to have most of what we need at our fingertips.

If I go back to school, my dissertation will be related to measuring practitioners' emotional stability srs

My main concern with PsyD programs is that, since their admissions are not limited by research funding, some may have large cohorts, similar to medical schools. As a result, there is a flood of psychologists into the marketplace and there is a predoctoral internship placement problem (too few sites, too many applicants). While their coursework in clinical interventions is significantly more than more research-oriented schools (for instance, in some PsyD programs students take 3 assessment courses and 6 therapy courses while in some PhD courses students may only take 1 assessment course and 1 therapy course), I’m not sure how much this really amounts to. After all, there is research that shows that 1) masters-level clinicians are just as good as doctoral-level therapists and 2) doctoral-level students are just as good as licensed clinical psychologists. So, if you don’t want to do research (since they aren’t applying to PhD programs) and you won’t be a better therapist than a masters-level clinician, why get a PsyD? With that being said, if someone went back to school to get their PsyD for an assessment-related career or to work in some supervisory role, I can better understand that. Another thing: just because many PsyDs do not want to conduct research, that should not exempt them from reading and using research. Research and practice should never be divorced from each other in this field.

And yes, with computers, research is much easier! You can do an entire dissertation without ever holding an actual journal manuscript for visiting a library. Interesting dissertation idea, by the way. So many psychologists/psychology students I know have horrible emotional regulation and/or horrible interpersonal skills. Why, then, choose psychology? Are they trying to fix themselves….?

[Random Guy]

oh sh!t..you still have internship left? I just finished reading a memoir by Darcy Lockman..it's about her doing post doc internship and she made this out to be a horrible experience with her pompous bosses, office politics, and the never-ending penis size comparison between Psychologists and Psychiatrists. Are you ready for such things/encounters?

There is a predoctoral internship and a postdoctoral internship. I finished the predoc and now I move onto the postdoc. As far as horrible bosses, politics, psychiatry/psychologist feuds, I've already been there. The problems really are on a site-by-site basis.

[zuunbrah]

how much r u making rite now?

[xMetalocalypse]

Did you not have a life besides studying and interning in college?

Not trying to sound like a dick was just curious.

[MattScott93]

Congrats OP!

Did you always plan on doing a PhD or did you only decide post masters? I'm currently in 3rd year of my degree and planning on going straight into masters but not sure if i want to go further