Any INTP psychologists here?

[Yeap]

After looking into the thread on Lucid Dreaming and reading the related parapsychological study on OBEs, I began wondering whether psychology would be an interesting career for me (the research/academic side of it, not councilling patients). I have always been interested in things like out-of-body/near death experiences, hypnosis, and MBTI is a recent interest, which is clearly evident by my presence on these forums.

I have already chosen a career path which will require persistence and hard work to be successful, and am entering my second year of university so I would only consider changing my career if I am 100% sure that psychology would be more enjoyable and rewarding for me.

Any psychologists here, what kind of work do you do, and how satisfied would you say you are with your job? Feel free to throw in any information that may be beneficial to my decision making, such as salary, employment prospects, different fields, pros/cons, etc.

Thanks.

[Yeap]

...I guess not, then.

[Mr. Beef]

:rocker:

[Edmond Zedo]

I would imagine research jobs are few and highly contested. You'll surely need a Phd.

[sasapurdue]

I posed similar questions in a thread I started a few weeks ago. The consensus seemed to be that I would need a Phd and that clinical psych is VERY competitive but research psych might be less so.

[Misazeno]

You are asking at the wrong web site. Your talking to the patients...

[tinribz]

I did some college classes in this but it was not much to do with 'para' psychology.

As with most subjects a lot is about memorizing names and dates of past experimental break throughs and schools of thought. It also had a cross over with philosophy and psychiatry, and was all really interesting.

I would doubt it leads to any decent psychology specific career paths but it is one that can bring personal enlightenment and it will not look out of place on an application to a wide range of jobs, from sales to general management.

I say go for it if you are interested, a good degree opens more doors than an average one.

[waxwing]

You are asking at the wrong web site. Your talking to the patients... Maybe, but some would say that psych. patients who are able to work through their issues (to avoid transferrence) eventually become the best psychologists. Narcissistic disturbance turned healthy. :) There are many reasons for this claim, but this is the wrong thread in which to discuss them.

[deus ex machina]

I am on the educational path to being a cognitive psychologist, although that could change at any moment. For the most part, I have spent the past 4-5 years studying mind/music relationships. I don't think I have the gpa to get into a good grad program, but I have done some research on semantic priming on undergrads and definetely have the research experiance to suceed at grad school if I could force myself to stick to it - which is highly unlikely. Like most intp's I encounter my academic record will be looked at as a series of failures and achievements. For instance, I was on the national dean's list, presidents list and maintained a 4.0 for several semester's until I got stuck in this music making phase and just stopped going to classes so I could spend all my time composing. My gpa has thus dropped to a ~3.0 cumulative.

Anyhow, let me get back on track. I really love studying the mind, but I fucking hate the fact that to suceed at grad school for psychology you need to spend all your time researching and you absolutely need to be consistent (I have worked with several grad cog sci students and this is definetely a common thread. It may be different for clinical psych though).

Ultimately I love studying music as much as I love the mind. When I want to focus on music, I want to actually be able to focus on music. When I want to study the mind, I want to be able to study the mind. When clarity is established I want to move on to whatever interest comes next. I really hate being stuck in something, which I am sure most intps can relate too.

Parapsychology, to me, is an absolutely fascinating field. I believe there is a scientific explanation for everything, and I love that this field attempts to reach scientific conclusions in shit the majority of society tends to think is out of reach for science.

Unfortunately you would probably spend most of your time developing single ideas rather than many, unless you want to spend all your time devoted to school work (which is totally cool if you can force yourself to do that). Also, pay is not that good, but at the grad level you will probably be able to get some good stipends, granted you maintain a good gpa and have some good teacher recommendations. Also, make sure to do undergrad research. Alot of people will get to grad school for psychology without doing any research and realize they hate doing research (it can get rather boring sometimes, especially all the IRB ethical bullshit you have to follow). I personally get the greatest joy out of desiging the experiments, programming them and implementing them. I don't really enjoy writing them up.

Luckily, I go to a major psych research schools so I have alot of options and some great professors whose labs I have worked in. I definetely recommend finding a lab to work in or doing cross registration if your school doesn't do research. Last semester I worked in a cog psych lab and even though it was bitch work at first I established a good relationship with the grad student I had the most respect for and I made sure to show I was "reliable" and extremely able to perform at a greater level than the other lab assistants. As a result I got to do a good portion of the design for a publishable study we just recently finished compiling the data for.

[whynotcoconut]

You can take a Psych D (doctor in psychology) degree and finish within 4 years after your Bachelor's. A Psych D is not as research-driven as a PhD. You are still to be called a 'psychologist' with a Psych D. Psych D deals more with the application, and it is mostly clinical. I suggest not taking a BA in Psych if you don't have any intention of attending Grad School, unless you want a job that minimize all those undergrad learning into effective people's skills (i.e. working in PR, management, etc) . If you are interested in MTBI testing and cognitive psych, maybe you can try a major in Counseling then get a certificate in Career Counseling after your M.A. Industrial Psychology probably has the most pay and salary among the psych fields.

[ObtainGnosis]

I'm a psych and philosphy double major...I have a 3.7. Don't have any advice though. I chose it purely out of an intellectual drive to understand consciousness and I don't know which I'll choose, but what better than philosophy and psychology. Maybe lit, I wanted to be a writer for a while. Still do, but I'm taking an alternate route.

[Yeap]

I'm studying a Bachelor of Media in Multimedia, and after university I want to become a game designer (I know, it's hard to get into and requires a lot of persistance). I think I will just keep psychology as a hobby on the side and read up on it when I'm bored, rather than pursuing a career, as it means I will have to neglect all that I have done for my current degree and start from scratch with a new career path. I might be able to do a psychology elective at university if I have enough free credit points.

Thanks for the insight and the help.