Book contents
- The Portable Mentor
- The Portable Mentor
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Applying to Graduate School
- Part II Beginning your Career
- 3 Your First Year of Graduate School
- 4 Following the Scientific Path in Applied Psychology
- 5 Impostor Syndrome in Graduate School
- 6 Cultural Humility in Psychology
- 7 Graduate Training for Students of Color: Belonging Required; Fitting In, Not Recommended
- 8 Navigating Graduate School in Psychology as a Sexual and/or Gender Minority (LGBTQ+) Student
- 9 Considerations for First-Generation Students in Graduate School
- 10 Developing and Practicing Ethics
- Part III Your Research/Academic Career
- Part IV Your Career as a Practitioner
- Part V Your Professional Service Career
- Part VI Your Career After Graduate School
- Index
- References
4 - Following the Scientific Path in Applied Psychology
from Part II - Beginning your Career
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 July 2022
- The Portable Mentor
- The Portable Mentor
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Applying to Graduate School
- Part II Beginning your Career
- 3 Your First Year of Graduate School
- 4 Following the Scientific Path in Applied Psychology
- 5 Impostor Syndrome in Graduate School
- 6 Cultural Humility in Psychology
- 7 Graduate Training for Students of Color: Belonging Required; Fitting In, Not Recommended
- 8 Navigating Graduate School in Psychology as a Sexual and/or Gender Minority (LGBTQ+) Student
- 9 Considerations for First-Generation Students in Graduate School
- 10 Developing and Practicing Ethics
- Part III Your Research/Academic Career
- Part IV Your Career as a Practitioner
- Part V Your Professional Service Career
- Part VI Your Career After Graduate School
- Index
- References
Summary
We examine why science is important to applied psychology, even if one’s motivation to be a psychologist is primarily practical. Helping others takes knowledge and skill, and often applied psychologists face situations that do not produce immediate or clear outcomes. In such situations experiential learning can only do so much, and science is needed to be effective long term. When the history of training models in applied psychology is reviewed from the inception of the field to the present day, it is clear that students of applied psychology need to learn how to do research that will inform practice, how to assimilate the research evidence as it emerges, and how to incorporate empiricism into practice itself. We argue that the kind of knowledge needed by practitioners requires a focus on the needs of those served by psychologists, a more personalized and process-based research approach, and a laser-like focus on issues of broad importance. A scientist-practitioner is a consumer of research, but is also able to identify, acquire, develop, and apply empirically supported treatments and assessments to those in need, and to think about their own work with an empirical mind set.
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- Information
- The Portable MentorExpert Guide to a Successful Career in Psychology, pp. 88 - 101Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022