Hey guys, I am wondering what I can do to show I am passionate about psychology (besides Psi Chi, doing research, and doing well in psych classes). Is there some type of shadowing that one can do with a psychologist? I want to do something very interesting. I was thinking about starting to examine my relative’s memory problems and simply journaling about it somewhere, but that does not really seem like an EC to me.
It depends, what area of psychology you are interested in?
From your post, it sounds like memory or cognitive decline or impairment–if so have you considered working or volunteering at a nursing home or rehabilitation program. If it’s children, work at a school or a therapeutic camp. If it’s children or adults with severe mental illness, work or volunteer at a residential facility.
Try to actually work or volunteer with the group of people that you want to work with in the future.
I don’t think journaling your relative’s memory problems count because it’s biased and there is a lack of oversight from a trained professional that would make it beneficial.
@hiddencreations thanks a lot for your input- right now I am mostly interested in clinical psychology, so I would definitely would be interested in volunteering at a residential facility.
Also consider psychiatric hospitals, private and state. Dual diagnosis residential centers, addiction centers, etc.
If you want to go into clinical psychology there are two types of experience you need: research experience and clinical experience. You need both to be optimally competitive for PhD programs.
Research experience is assisting a professor with their research in their lab. You want at least 2 years of this kind of experience. Clinical experience is the kind you’re talking about here - volunteering at a psychiatric hospital, a regular hospital’s psychiatric ward, with a social worker, a private psychologist, a VA hospital, a rehabilitation clinic, drug rehab, harm reduction center, neurological institute…anything that gets you some experience working with/around people in mental health.
@bookworm thanks!
@juillet lots of great ideas, thanks!