Counseling Psychology And Social Psychology

Rohit Bhutani

COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY

DESCRIPTION

Counselling Psychology is a prominent force within professional psychology that primarily focuses on facilitating personal and interpersonal functioning and catering counselling services across the lifespan.  The field attends to emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related, developmental, and organizational concerns.

Counselling Psychology encompasses a broad range of practices that are specific to respective cultures and aim to help people in improving their well-being, alleviating distress and maladjustment, resolving issues, and enhancing their ability to function better in their lives.

• The specialization holds a unique perspective in the broader practice-based areas of psychology as it not only attends to normal developmental issues but also to the problems associated with physical, emotional, and mental disorders. 
• Counselling Psychologists serve people irrespective of their age and cultural background in both individual and group settings. They effectively serve in an organizational setup in order to enhance their effectiveness or the betterment and mental well being of their members.
• Interventions used by Counseling Psychologists may be either short or long-term and they are often problem-specific and goal-directed. The choices of course of treatment are determined by the individual differences and a focus on prevention, development, and adjustment with time. 

APPLICATIONS

Counselling psychology addresses the emotional, social, work-related, school and health concerns people may have at different stages of their lives by catering therapeutic services. It not only focuses on typical life stresses but also attends to severe issues with which people may struggle as individuals and as a part of families, groups and organizations. 

They provide assessment and treatment of more severe psychological symptoms.

The problems are addressed from developmental, environmental and cultural perspectives. Some of them could be:

 

• Career, work adjustment concerns and organizational problems
• Challenges in interpersonal relationships
• Learning disabilities and skill deficits.
• Stress management and coping with negative life events.
• Rehabilitation, physical disabilities, disease or injury.
• Personal/social adjustment.
• Self and development of one’s identity.
• Mental disorders. 

To name a few.

 

EDUCATION

• Counselling psychology is introduced as a paper(compulsory/optional) at Bachelor’s level in honours degree by different universities and educational institutions
• Specialization in MA for counselling is offered (2 YEARS)
• M.Phil in counselling psychology through an RCI registered institution to get the license for independent practice(2 YEARS)
• Doctorate in the field of counselling psychology 

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

 

Counselling psychologists can find employment in different settings depending on the services they provide and the clients they serve.

• In the education field; as teachers, supervisors, researchers, and service providers in colleges and universities.
•  Independent practice; providing counselling, psychotherapy, assessment, and consultation services to individuals, couples, families, groups, and organizations.
•  Community mental health centres, Veterans Administration medical centres and other facilities, family services, health maintenance organizations, rehabilitation agencies, business and industrial organizations and consulting within firms.

 

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

DESCRIPTION

Social psychology, a sub-discipline of both psychology as well as sociology, is the scientific study of how the behaviour of an individual is influenced by and in turn influences the action of others in the social environment. It is the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and cause behind the behaviour of an individual in social situations-i.e. ones that involve either actual or perceived presence of other people.

It is scientific in nature as it takes up values and methodologies used in other fields of sciences.

• The primary focus is on the behaviour of individuals in order to understand the cause of their emotions, thoughts and social behaviour.
• Social psychology seeks to establish the underlying principles of social life, how life unfolds itself despite cultural differences and rapid advancements in technology.
• The field recognizes that social thought and social behaviour are the two sides of the same coin and gives importance to cultural factors for understanding the two.

 

 

 APPLICATION

The social psychological theories, principles, research findings, and experimental methods can be employed to understand social issues and to offer real-world solutions for a variety of social problems.

 As a discipline, social psychology functions on the premise that social problems are, at their heart, are a result of human behaviour. To understand and change these problem behaviours, social psychologists conduct a scientific examination of individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviours as they pertain to a variety of social influences. Through this, social psychologists hope to offer practical suggestions for improving human social behaviour in different areas.

The theories and methods of social psychology find their application as another evolved discipline of applied social psychology as well. While basic social psychologists attempt to isolate the causal relationships between few specific variables that can be carefully controlled in the lab, applied social psychologists work to identify and predict large-scale effects that can be used to design and implement social programs.

 Applied social psychology has been growing in prestige since the 1980s, with applications ranging from improving the criminal justice system to informing education and health issues. While research in basic social psychology often begins with scientific curiosity, work in applied social psychology typically begins with the identification of a specific social problem. Applied social psychologists seek to understand and treat these social maladies through the application of the theories and methods of social psychology.

EDUCATION

• A bachelor’s level, social psychology is offered as a paper in the curriculum of an honours degree in Psychology by many prominent universities (like DU, Ambedkar University etc.) in India.
• You can also find social psychology is offered as a paper in the combinations of the BA program for a semester and by the faculty of humanities and social sciences in some of the institutions.
• One can pursue degree courses in Social Psychology offered under the learning disciplines of humanities and social sciences separately by some of the institutions(Manav Rachna University, CMR University, Bangalore etc. to name a few)
• Specialization at masters level is also available. 

JOB OPPORTUNITIES 

• Researcher, social psychologists:- Broadly active in the field of studying and improving educational programs, industrial and organizational productivity, environmental and health care issues, justice system reform, and all types of mass communication, including advertising, public relations, and politics.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Books:-

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BY BARON AND NEWCOMBE

INTRODUCTION TO COUNSELING BY BELKIN AND BROWN

Careersinpsychology.org / apa.org / div17.org for reference