Why I Want to Be a Psychologist to Criminally Insane and The Significance of This Profession

The career that I have chosen and is my absolute dream is to be a psychologist for the criminally insane. I have wanted to be a psychologist for many years and have found a unique ability at understanding people and behaviors and would love to be able to further my knowledge in that field. I attend Sam Houston State University and am currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology while minoring in philosophy. I hope to make this my future and am determined to see it through.

Now some details about what a psychologist for the criminally insane does include and are not limited to: providing a deep understanding of an individual’s behavior and actions, determining and or diagnosing an individual with insanity and or other mental illnesses, treating a specific illness, consoling and providing a psychodynamic evaluation, clearing a patient, and many other duties. It is the psychologist that helps treat an individual and make sure they are getting the care that the need to function soundly in society.

The specific job opening that is going to be analyzed will be under the organization of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration. This is a government job that helps treat patients that suffer from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), and other mental illness. Some include patients already diagnosed with insanity. In this career the duties are stated as “Individual Psychotherapy, providing individual psychotherapy to patients, families, care givers, and treatment staff as appropriate utilizing accepted forms of psychological interventions appropriate to the needs of the individual being served” (Veterans Health Administration, 2016). The duties of this psychologist are pretty straightforward but it is the effort that needs to be demonstrated in order to do and outstanding job overall. The location of this job is in Daytona Beach, Florida; it is also open to all U.S. citizens.

For this specific job title, the pay range is based on a specific set of qualifications. It is explained that “The PSB will review your individual qualifications, education, professional training/internship(s) and professional experience to determine the most appropriate salary and grade based on your individual accomplishments” (Veterans Health Administration, 2016). While it does include an average range of $61,023.00 to $113,074.00 / Per Year, your specific qualifications are what determine your pay. Now having done further research into the median pay for psychologist in the U.S., it was calculated in 2015 by the Texas Education Agency that $72,580 was the median pay per year. That calculates to $34.89 per hour for the average psychologist. Now I live in Texas currently and the Texas median pay is $94,600 for psychologist. This pay amount happens to be the same for psychologists in Florida as well.

The types of education needed and explained by Study.com says that “Individuals can work in the psychology field with different degree levels, but those who wish to practice independently need advanced schooling” (Psychologist: Educational Requirements, 2010). This would include advancing past getting a bachelors and obtaining a master’s degree. According to the Veterans Health Administration, they require you to have “have a doctoral degree in psychology from a graduate program in psychology accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice psychology, English Language Proficiency, citizenship, and have successfully completed a professional psychology internship training program that has been accredited by APA”. Now I would like to cover the advantages to being a psychologist for this specific position. The pay is amazing and is something that can be increased overtime in a very nice fashion.

Also the better the degree you have the more you are to get paid. In most occupations an obtaining a degree is simply a qualification needed to have the job, but with being a psychologist, the better tier degree you get, the better pay you are likely to get. Another cool advantage is in most cases you get to be your own boss. Of course there are firms and institutions and which you can teach and practice, but as stated before, getting a better degree opens you up to even more possibilities in this field. I would have to relocate to Florida in order to get this position and I would also would have to get used to Florida’s humid weather. That is probably one of the things I would hate would be the weird weather that Florida has. This specific job has a base schedule of 7:30am to 4:00pm, but it really comes out as: as needed.

The hours of a psychologist in any occupation varies because most institutions will need to tend to the care of the patients. Being away from home for long hours at a time would also put a strain on me.

I think this is an excellent choice for someone of my caliber, I have dreamed of being able to help people and discover all the different types of behaviors and illnesses that follow. The data from my MBTI assessment demonstrated in the career report that 87% of people with the reported type: ENTP, would follow the career path of a psychologist. People who register as ENTP are extraverts, intuition based, thinking based, and perception based. I am always encouraged by others and I push myself so that I can become a successful psychologist.

Summary of exploration: The first thing I did to tackle this paper was research all I could know about what it means to be a psychologist. I wanted to dive deep into the roots and discover the process of becoming one as well as gathering information about a cool occupation in the field. What I discovered was that federal psychologist get more freedom and have a higher pay. According to USAJOBS.com, government psychologist not only “make more money, but also are available to much better research equipment and testing facilities”. I then became fascinated by the Veterans Health Administration. This is where I began to develop a structure for my paper and decided to center and focus on this specific job title.