Having Good Conflict Resolution Skills

Social psychology is the study of how people influence each other. A social psychologists who has a PHD can do a variety of things. They can teach students about psychology or they can conduct research within a university. They could also work in a huge variety of fields. They can work in education, business, medicine, counseling, and law enforcement to name a few. The first category that I chose is law enforcement. The two professions that I chose for law enforcement is a corrections officer and a criminal psychologist.

A corrections officer is an interesting line of work. I currently am a corrections officer. Although having a degree is not required, it can greatly help in your career. Social psychology is a great help in a career as a corrections officer. Learning about how other people influence us is important. There are tons of groups in prison.

Mainly in the form of gangs. But knowing how and why we conform to these groups and how they influence us is important in knowing how to interact with the inmates. Inmates have no way of releasing pent up aggression. Their way of releasing is by exploding on someone. It could be something as simple as yelling or they could explode enough to start a physical altercation. Understanding aggression will help in everyday interaction with the inmates. Talking to them could give them the release that they need in order to not explode. Having good conflict resolution skills is a must since you will use them almost daily. Not only with inmates but with other staff members also. Knowing how persuasion works will help with conflict resolution also. But your career does not have to end as a corrections officer. With a bachelor’s degree in psychology you could be a security manager, a case manager, a unit manager, chief, deputy warden, and the warden. You could be anything that you desire to be with a degree in psychology.

Criminal psychology looks interesting. If you are a criminal psychologist you can work in courts, correctional facilities, law enforcement agencies, and government to name a few. From what I can tell a criminal psychologist is someone who studies criminals. They have to figure out why they did what they did. With this knowledge they help law enforcement capture criminals. You have to have a graduate degree in order to become a criminal psychologist. You need to understand the inner workings of the brain to be a criminal psychologists. You need to be able to think as the criminal does if you are going to be helping the police. You need to understand the cognitive processes, and how we are influenced into doing the things that we do.

The second category that I chose is psychology. The two professions that I chose is clinical psychology and child psychology. A clinical psychologist meets with clients to identify problems within their lives. These problems could be mental, behavioral, and emotional. They come up with a diagnosis through observation, testing, and interviews. After coming up with a diagnosis they work with the patient to come up with a treatment plan. You can work in a private practice or for a hospital. Conflict resolution is important in clinical psychology’s line of work. A lot of patients have conflicts that they need help resolving.

A child psychologist is just like a clinical psychologist except you work with kids. You still diagnose and treat kids. Treating kids will be different than treating adults, and I think would be a little bit harder. Kids are not always the best at telling us what is wrong and getting down the point of a problem. A lot of therapists use pretend play as a treatment option. I think that it is a very effective way to help treat kids. What turned me onto to child psychology is my daughter psychologist. She was able to help diagnose my daughter at an early age and give her the tools that she needs in order to thrive.

Skills that I am learning in college will help me be better at my job. A big thing in jobs is working closely as a group. College helps me prepare for that by allowing me to work in groups and develop the skills that I need to work effectively in a group. Some other skills that I will learn in college is time management, writing, organization and research. All of these are important in a psychologist’s line of work. I will get my base knowledge of psychology that I need for my bachelor’s degree and then will move on to my master’s degree where I can fine tune the skills that I need to be successful at the profession that I chose.

A trend that I chose that interests me is Epigenetics offers the promise of more precise treatments. This is interesting because it talks about looking at disorders at a molecular level. They are figuring out which genes are turned on or off that causes certain types of disorders. There is hope that these genes can be turned back on or off in order to help treat certain types of disorders. This is important to me because I have a mental disorder. I am Bi-polar type 2. If there is a way to fix my disorder at a molecular level and turn everything right then maybe I will not have to take all the medication that I currently take to help me manage my disorder.

The second trend that I chose is targeting social factors that undermine health. This article talks about fixing the simple things, like housing, to help people have better health. When you do not have to worry about things like housing, and where your next meal will come from it helps people not only with their physical health but their mental health as well. There currently programs being developed by states to provide “housing, job assistance, and mental health and substance abuse care”  this is important because physical affects mental and mental affects physical health. They are entwined with each other. When one is off balance the other is off balance also. I know when my mental health is not ok my physical health suffers also. I am tired all the time and am more prone to getting sick.

References

1. DeAngelis, T. (2017, November). Targeting Social Factors That Undermine Health. Retrieved October 16, 2018, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/11/trend-social-factors.aspx

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