Module 2: Job Paths 1

Question 1

What are the main job tasks and potential places of employment for a clinical psychologist?

Answer 1

• Main Tasks
  
  • Assessing mental health
  • Working alongside a multidisciplinary team
  • Delivery therapy and interventions
  • Devising treatment plans
  • Researching and report writing
  • Undertaking research and service evaluation
• Potential Employment
  
  • A wide range of health related settings incl hospitals, justice system, prisons, health centres
  • Private practice

Question 2

What is a clinical psychologist?

Answer 2

• Specialist in assessing, diagnosing and treating mental health issues.
  
  • Often developing specialisation in age groups, illnesses, or therapies
• A science practitioner: take a rigorous, systematic and evidence based approach to their work.
• Example daily tasks
  
  • Update clinical review and management plan
  • Community assessment
  • Therapy session
  • Phone calls and administration
  • Write reports

Question 3

What is clinical neuropsychology?

Answer 3

• Specialists in assessment diagnosis and treatment of psychological conditions involving the brain and its functioning
  
  • Cognitive, behavioural and emotional functioning
  • Short to long term, using clincial tools
• Examples of treatment issues
  
  • Memory, Learning and attention
  • Language, reading
  • Problem solving, decision making
• Examples of conditions
  
  • Developmental, Degenerative, Infectious, nutritional, Immunicological, Metabolic, Drug/alcohol, Traumatic

Question 4

What are the main job tasks and potential places of employment for a clinical neuropsychologist?

Answer 4

• Main tasks:
  
  • Providing rehabilitation and treatment
  • Carrying out assessments of neuropsychological problems
  • Writing case notes and reports
  • Working with an interdisciplinary team
  • Evaluating services
  • Undertaking research
• Places of employment:
  
  • Hospitals and acute settings
  • Rehabilitation centres

Question 5

What did Carless and Prodan find about the effect of practicum training on postgraduate students?

Answer 5

• Practicum training (PT) produces greater clarity of vocational preferences
  
  • Students figuring out preferences
  • Possibly confounded by having completed more coursework
• PT doesn’t affect Career Comittment
  
  • Likely already strong by postgrad
  • 3 factors of career commitment;
    
    • resilience (ability to adapt and persevere)
    • Insight (realisticness of self and goal perception)
    • Identity (self definition by career)
• PT doesn’t affect Self-efficacy
  
  • possible measurement issue
  • already high
• PT doesn’t affect Job attainment confidence
  
  • High confidence levels already

Question 6

What is counselling psychology?

Answer 6

• Counselling psychologists assess, diagnose and treat clients for a range of mental health disorders using evidence based approaches
  
  • Also work as mediators in conflicts, work with couples, staff, families
  • Generally less severe conditions than clinical
  • More time in therapy and interventions, variety of approaches
• Examples of problems and conditions
  
  • Grief and loss
  • Life transitions
  • Relationship difficulties
  • Depression
  • Domestic violence
  • Self-esteem
    *

Question 7

What are the main tasks and potential places of employment for counselling psychologists?

Answer 7

• Main job tasks:
  
  • Undertaking individual and group therapy
  • Providing non-judgemental care and support
  • Problem solving with clients
  • Establishing rapport, and therapeutic relationship
  • Gaining commitment from the client
  • Referring client to other services as appropriate
• Potential employment:
  
  • Hospitals, organisations, consultancies
  • Private practice from home or consulting rooms

Question 8

What are the major issues facing Counselling Psychology in Australia?

Answer 8

• Two Tier Medicare System
  
  • Divides rebates into Clinical Psychology and Everyone Else
  • Implies a lesser expertise that has permeated the public mind
• Reduction in Courses
  
  • As a result of medicare system and redcued uni funding, most postgrad options for non clinical psyc are closing
• Lack of clear definition
  
  • Clinical psychs obstruct sharing expertise in mental health disorders
• Term “counsellor”
  
  • Unprotected term bleeds over in public eye
• Employment:
  
  • Due to medicare, career progression in many hospitals is limited to clinica and neuroclinical psychologists

Question 9

What are the core features of counselling psychology according to Mattia 2016?

Answer 9

• Counselling and psychotherapy;
  
  • The science-practitioner model
  • Due to minimal differences between therapeutic approaches training teaches many models
• Diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and mental health disorders
  
  • Focus on problems arising from adverse life events, diagnosed mental issues and psychopathology
  • Focus on couples, group or family therapy with extensive training
• The therapeutic alliance
  
  • Focus on the role of the therapeutic alliance for outcome variance

Question 10

What is community psychology?

Answer 10

• Psychologists who work with issues relating to communities and individuals within them
  
  • Focus on reciprocal relationship between individuals and community
  • Can work on broad structural changes
  • Work collaboratively, respecting equity, diversity and social justice
• Examples
  
  • Substance abuse
  • communicable disease
  • teen pregnancy
  • homelessness
  • immigration
  • rural/remote communities
  • environmental disasters

Question 11

What are the main job tasks and potential employment opportunities for community psychologists?

Answer 11

• Main Job Tasks
  
  • Evaluate community programs
  • Assess psychological needs of individuals, groups, organisations and communities
  • Provide counselling and advocacy
  • Develop and implement group interventions and education
  • Negotiate, mediate conflict
  • Conduct community research and consultation
• Employment
  
  • Community health centres, organisations, public policy institutions
  • Research centres and academic settings

Question 12

What are the main job tasks and potential places of employment for an educational and developmental psych?

Answer 12

• Main job tasks
  
  • Working alongside other professionals
  • Carrying out assessments
  • Providing consultation, support and advice to teachers, parents and carers
  • Working as part of a team to support indidivuals
  • Conducting research in educational institutions
  • Report writing and making recommendations
• Potential employment
  
  • Educational authorities, health and social services, schools
  • Private practice, consultancy

Question 13

Give examples of issues a developmental psyc may deal with across the lifespan

Answer 13

• Early childhood:
  
  • Developmental delay assessment
  • Specific disabilities assessment
  • Infant attachment disorders
  • Parenting issues
• School years
  
  • Separation anxiety/transition problems
  • Learning difficulties or giftedness
  • Peer relationships, bullying
  • Behavioural problems
• Adolescence
  
  • Peer relationships
  • Sexuality issues
  • Mental health and drug problems
  • Career guidance
• Adulthood
  
  • Relationships/divorce/separation
  • Adoption/parenting issues
  • Career and work stresses
  • Further education in workplace
• Later Adulthood
  
  • Healthy aging/coping with decline
  • Dependency
  • Grief and Loss

Question 14

What are some of the benefits, opportunities and considerations when volunteering?

Answer 14

• Benefits
  
  • Satisfaction from helping others
  • Developing new skills
  • Meeting new people/networking
  • Community engagement
  • Increased social conscience
  • CV
• Considerations
  
  • Don’t over commit
  • Seek experiences that fill gaps in your skills
• Organisations
  
  • University research programs
  • Beyondblue/blackdog/lifeline

Question 15

What are the differences between group and team work?

Answer 15

Question 16

What are some of the key processes and forces within groups?

Answer 16

• Conformity; adhering to and following group norms
• Cohesiveness; degree of attraction between group members (influenced by group size, member status, stability and member similarity)
• Cooperation; required to avoid social loafing
• Competition; can lead to conflict which can have positive and negative effects
  
  • Conflict
    
    • Can occur at any level from intraindividual to inter organisations
    • arising from scarcity of resources and interdependence
  • ​Role conflict: confusion about expected role and actual role behaviours

Question 17

What are the nine characteristics of effective groups?

Answer 17

1. A belief in shared aims and objectives
2. A sense of belonging to the group
3. Acceptance of group values and norms
4. A feeling of mutual trust and dependence
5. Full participation and consensus in decisions
6. A free flow of information
7. Open expression of feelings and disagreements
8. Conflict resolution within group
9. Low levels of attrition

Question 18

What is groupthink?

Answer 18

• Groupthink = when desire for conformity leads to unchallenged poor-quality decision making
  
  • eg. Space shuttle columbia belief that nothing can be done, decision to invade iraq based on WMDs
• Antecendents
  
  • Structural faults; homogeneity of group, insulation of group, lack of procedure
  • Provocative context; high stress, excessive complexity
• Symptoms:
  
  • Overestimation of group
  • Closed mindedness/conformity pressure
  • Incomplete examination of alternatives and risks
  • Failure to produce contingency plans

Question 19

What are Janis’ 7 strategies for reducing Groupthink?

Answer 19

1. All members should be encouraged to evaluate decisions critically
2. The leader should avoid declaring their own preferences
3. Outside experts should be invited to offer opinions and challenge views
4. At least one group member should be given role of devils advocate
5. The group should discuss and evaluate warning signals from outside sources
6. If large enough, divide into subgroups
7. Consider and discuss minority views

Question 20

What are the strengths and weaknesses of groupthink theory?

Answer 20

• Strengths:
  
  • Applies to group behaviour theory
  • Strong face validity
  • Comprehensive
  • Analysis of well known examples
• Weaknesses:
  
  • Reliance on retrospective case analyses
  • Limited applicability to high level decision making gorups

Question 21

What is Belbin’s theory of team roles?

Answer 21

• Teams function best when individuals are given a specific, balanced role that fits their personality
  
  • Teams require diverse skills not similarly minded people
• Originally had 9 roles, since been condensed to Five roles associated with Big 5 traits
  
  • Openness: planning and defining resources
  • Extroversion: Implementing
  • Conscientiousness: Scheduling
  • Neuroticism: Measuring progress and reporting
  • Agreeableness: Maintaining human relations

Question 22

What does Belbin Identify as the 6 critical stages for teamwork in research and development?

Answer 22

• Identifying needs: require the correct targets
  
  • Shapers and coordinators ideal
• Finding Ideas:
  
  • Plants and Resource investigators
• Formulating Plans: Setting out options, planning professionally
  
  • Monitor Evaluators and Specialists
• Making Contacts: increasing enthusiasm and dealing with conflicts
  
  • Resource Investigators and Teamworkers
• Establishing the organisation: turn plan to action
  
  • Implementors and coordinators
• Follow through:
  
  • Complete Finishers, Implementors

Question 23

What are Belbin’s nine Team Roles?

Answer 23

1. Plant: creative, unorthodox, problem solver, ignores details, not great communicator
2. Resource Investigator: extravert, enthusiastic, communicative, loses interest, over-optimistic
3. Co-ordinator: mature, confident, delegates well, seen as manipulative, offloads work
4. Shaper: challenging, thrives on pressure, can provoke or hurt others
5. Monitor-Evaluator; sober, strategic, lacks ability to inspire
6. Teamworker: cooperative, diplomatic, indecisive
7. Implementor; disciplined, reliable, inflexible
8. Completer; conscientious, timely, anxious,
9. Specialist; single minded, dedicated, contributes only narrowly

Question 24

What are the effects of long term stress on the body?

Answer 24

• Allostatic Load; the effect of prolonged stress response
  
  • Increased inflammatory chemicals; neurotoxic chemics
  • Metabolic effects; blood pressure, blood glucose, lipids
  • Affects memory centre of the brain
• Telomeres and Telomerase: telomerase is the enzyme that repairs telomeres. Telomers are the ends of DNA that allow correct replication and shorten over time.
  
  • PTSD in childhood associated with reduced telomer length
  • Psychological stress, lower telomerase and high oxidative stress increased aging
  • Optimism in post menopausal women associated with increased telomere length

Question 25

How does mindfullness help stress related illness?

Answer 25

* Reduced and reverse the effects of high allostatic load * Regular mindfullness is associated with increases grey matter in the brain; * Sensory input * Emotional regulation * Attention centres * Executive functioning