It is just as important to understand what psychology majors don’t learn in school as it is to understand what they do learn, whether you’re interested in pursuing this educational path or considering seeing a psychologist. First, you must understand the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist. While they both focus on mental health, psychiatry majors typically head for a specialized medical school degree with training on dispensing medications and understanding mental health from a clinical point of view. Psychology majors have a very different type of schooling even though they have an interest in the human mind and may go into counseling careers just like psychiatry majors.
The most important part of what psychology majors don’t learn in school is the skill and training for prescribing medications. Psychiatry majors usually end up getting a degree in medicine that makes them qualified to dispense medicines such as antidepressants. Psychology majors can go on to get a doctoral degree in clinical or counseling psychology, but this only qualifies them to help patients cope with medications that another doctor has already prescribed. Psychologists typically focus more on counseling the patient rather than medically treating them.
Psychology students don’t learn how to medically diagnose, assess, treat and prevent mental illnesses, and they don’t go to medical school or complete residencies like psychiatrists do, although they may have to complete PhD programs and internships. While there are some efforts to allow psychologists to prescribe medications after consulting with psychiatrists in some states, no legal changes have been put in place yet. A psychologist might recommend that a patient see a psychiatrist who can determine whether medication would be right for them, but they can’t write prescriptions themselves under any circumstance.
So what psychology majors don’t learn in school comes down to prescribing medications. What they do learn is theory about the brain and human development, and as their schooling progresses they can go into more specialized areas of counseling, research or both. Psychology majors are interested in the human brain just like psychiatry majors, but the similarities end there.
The most important part of what psychology majors don’t learn in school is the skill and training for prescribing medications. Psychiatry majors usually end up getting a degree in medicine that makes them qualified to dispense medicines such as antidepressants. Psychology majors can go on to get a doctoral degree in clinical or counseling psychology, but this only qualifies them to help patients cope with medications that another doctor has already prescribed.
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