Why are People Usually Hostile Toward Seeing a Psychologist?

Seeing any type of doctor is always a little nerve wracking and uncomfortable, but often times so many people are very strongly opposed to the suggestion of seeing a psychologist. There are a lot of factors that bring this feeling of uneasy and opposition on. One common reason is because it's a type of doctor or person working in the medical field, so it naturally makes us uneasy like doctor or dentist visits. A second reason could be due to the fact that the public image of seeing a psychologists means you must be crazy. This of course is not true. All you need is some extra assistance to help sort out a difficult situation or issue, and it certainly doesn't mean you're loopy.

A report that the Highland Users Group (know as HUG), which is a collective advocacy group, published might shed some more light to this question of hostility toward psychologists and the stereotypes that go along with seeing a psychiatrist. One thing they found was that people had so many different perceptions on what a psychologist would be like, ranging from "'the nutty professor’ to ‘the analyst’ to ‘the aloof interrogator'"(HUG,2006). If this is what psychologists were like, we would all have a good reason to be scared! Of course though, stereotypes are always very over exaggerated and have very little to no truth in them.
The HUG also thought of different ways to improve the bad rap that psychologists often receive. They said that if people got to know psychologists better, then the image would probably change. They also found that psychologists themselves may be the cause of some of this nervousness and hostility. They always seem a little harried with their hectic schedules and that may cause patients to be a little edgier as well. The HUG proposed that if psychologists adapted a more relaxed and calm attitude, the patient would be more at ease as well.

To learn more about the research and results that the Highland Users Group found, you can click here.

So with a little improvement from both sides, the patient and the psychologist would greatly benefit both parties and result in a more positive experience overall!

The Couch in Psychology

The use of the couch in psychology was made famous by Sigmund Freud. He believed that the couch would be useful in medical treatment in reliving early experiences by conversation between doctor and patient. This tactic is shown in the media. In most television shows a character sits on a couch and is asked how he feels by a counseling psychologist.

Counseling Psychology on Television

This is from the popular television show Hey Arnold. The girl in this is a main character, Helga, she is going to the counseling psychologist to get her emotions sorted out. In this clip the psychologist asked her about her emotions and uses the ink blot test.

Confronting Racism

Racism is something that effects people everyday. Whether you are black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, etc., there are things that people will stereotype you with. People will act a certain way to avoid being the typical person of their race. When you think of counseling psychology, racism isn't the first thing that pops into your mind but it is something that is very important. People like to pretend that it isn't as prominent problem anymore but in fact it is. The only difference is that it is better hidden today. While researching counseling psychology, i came across an article called New Study Shows Confronting Racism Raises Self-Esteem. The article talks about how confronting racist actions or talking about racism as a whole helps raise self-esteem.

This study focused on Filipino Americans. The study wasn't focusing on hate crimes extreme racist actions, but more so on the everyday racism that people encounter on a regular basis. This includes things like ridicule, being ignored, and being treated differently than others. This study was conducted by Alvin Alvarez. He surveyed 199 Filipino American adults, both men and women, in the San Francisco Bay Area and found that 99 percent of participants had experienced at least one incident of everyday racism in the last year (Philippine News). For men, dealing with racism in an active way, such as reporting incidents to authorities or challenging the perpetrator, was associated with decreased distress and increased self esteem. "Some coping methods are healthier than others for dealing with everyday racism," says Alvarez . "We found that when people deny or trivialize racist encounters, they can actually make themselves feel worse, amplifying the distress caused by the incident."

It makes sense that if you have a problem, keeping it inside will not be helpful. It would get you thinking and make you feel bad about yourself even though you have done nothing wrong. Talking about issues, confronting them, and realizing that you are not alone make a person feel more comfortable in their skin. You don't have to feel like there is something wrong with you. It brings the problem up for discussion and people can help each other out. This is the whole idea behind counseling psychology, talking it out. Racism is a touchy subject that people don't like to think about, but it needs to be touched upon more often. That is how it is going to be solved, not by avoiding it.

Self-Tests/Quizzes

I was doing a good 'ol google search for all things on counseling psychology and found this site, of course all credit is due to them! The specific link here leads to a section of the site that lets you take quizzes or tests (short ones) about different aspects and topics of counseling psychology.

For example it has a quiz titled the 'K10' that tests whether you have a high level of anxiety or depression by ten simple questions. The important thing to keep in mind though is that it is only a quiz that might make you aware that something may be going on. In no way does it give a 100% positive or negative result or a very specific result in any way. Talking to a psychologist or a doctor is the proper way to get a diagnosis. These quizzes are simply to make you aware of something that you might have suspected, but talking to your psychologist or doctor is the best way to know.

Personally, after thinking it over myself, I probably wouldn't take one of these online quizzes or tests and interpret as a serious diagnosis because they're mostly very short so it usually covers very general aspects. With that said, it becomes less reliable because every person has different opinions and personalities and can't possibly fit into one generalized critique or model. For example, I glanced at the K10 anxiety and depression test which was a simple 10 questions in the form of "In the past so-and so- weeks- have you felt nervous?" To me, that seems a little too general. Some people can deal with stress and nervousness better than others and maybe you were a little more nervous this past month from before but that could be because a number of factors that aren't able to be addressed in a simple text-only computer-generated test.

Again, this proves that talking to a human, preferably a psychologist,doctor, or psychiatrist would be more helpful. This is because talking it out can put the issue in perspective and also helps to make you feel mentally and physically better. Hasn't something ever bothered you in the past and after talking to someone you say something like 'glad I got that off my chest'? You mentally and even physically feel better talking about things and can potentially solve whatever issue it is by talking about it with someone rather than staring at a computer screen flashing back some confusing or scary results that you won't be able to talk about with the computer. With a person, you can talk to them about what test results reflected , what it means and what the next step is.

Also, some quizzes are geared toward specific disorders like schizophrenia disorder tests or as general as some kind of Internet addiction quizzes.

The main point is that, as always, the Internet and nifty websites like these are a good way to start any type or research, but talking to a doctor or psychologist is the best bet to getting the most help and support for the issues that you are trying to overcome!

Did you know?

Counseling psychology attends to the necessities of the ever-evolving world and societies demand for fast, accurate, and useful information increases everyday. This can affect peoples’ daily routines in ways that can produce feelings of dissatisfaction, turmoil and disempowerment. In this video we are given an intriguing example of just how fast the world is advancing and the fear that this may cause. At some point in this video you may feel confused about life, but remember that counseling will always be a place to find help.

Do you want a job in counseling psychology?

What is a Counseling Psychologist?

Counseling psychology is one of the most popular fields in psychology. As a psychologist you would deal with the causes, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of individuals with psychological problems. A counseling psychologist would mostly work with patients dealing with everyday stresses such as career, marriage, and family difficulty problems. You would need at least a masters degree in psychology however many careers require a doctorate. You may be able to find a job working in individual practices, schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, and other mental health facilities.

So what are some pros and cons of the job?

The pros may be a feeling that you are helping people, possibly being your own boss, a changing environment, self fulfillment, and the learning experience.
The cons may include long hours, high risk of burning out, paperwork and unchanging clients.




How much will i get paid?

Offices of other health practitioners
$68,400
Elementary and secondary schools
65,710
State government
63,710
Outpatient care centers
59,130
Individual and family services
57,440

according to bureau of labor statistics