A feature of modern time is the high intensity and diversity of social processes. If in the last century the choice of a professional path after graduation was a decision, as a rule, determining the whole life path of a person, today scientists recommend changing the field of activity every 5-7 years.
The great Russian psychologist Alexei Nikolaevich Leontyev once said that the 21st century is the century of psychology. Professional retraining in psychology is the best option for acquiring a new qualification, which the current educational system offers.
Why change a profession or acquire a new qualification
The well-being of a person largely depends on his self-realization. How to choose a job that will provide us with high earnings, a sense of satisfaction from what we are doing, and will provide an opportunity for career growth? This issue occupies the minds of most school graduates and their parents.
But the most amazing thing is that only about half of the working population receives real satisfaction from their work (and there is reason to believe that this is a very overestimated value). As you know, awareness of the problem is already half its solution. If a person realizes that work has ceased to be fun (or perhaps never liked), there is no possibility for career growth in this area, or simply realized that he wants to change qualifications, but there is no possibility or desire to receive another higher education, then you should pay attention to the possibility of prof. retraining.
What is useful to know if the choice of the further path is made in favor of psychology? About this in the article.
Psychology is the profession of the future
It is generally accepted that psychologists become those people who want to sort out, first of all, their problems. In many ways, this is true. Moreover, most succeed, but at the same time gain valuable experience in resolving mental problems.
Man is a social being, we all have a unique life experience, and from birth we have been involved in a variety of relationships. And each individual, sooner or later, has situations that cannot be dealt with on his own. At the very least, do it efficiently and, if possible, without loss. Such cases are the field of psychologist’s activity.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that books on human psychology are in great demand in bookstores and are becoming increasingly popular every year. In other words, psychological assistance is something that will be in demand at all times.
Acquisition of a new qualification
If you intend to change your workplace to psychological activity, you have already decided on the direction in which you want to develop, then the best option for obtaining a new qualification would be professional retraining in psychology. Upon completion of training, you will receive a diploma of additional (higher) education with the assignment of a new qualification, on the basis of which you can carry out psychological activities.
Do not confuse additional education with such popular short-term psychological courses, which today are often taught by citizens of dubious competence, very often with the goal of banal gain. The educational program consists of several modules and should provide basic knowledge from various psychological disciplines.
In fact, you get a second higher education. The duration of studies is usually from 250 to 2000 academic hours, in terms of the schedule of higher educational institutions - about 2.5 years. Many educational organizations keep up to date and offer the possibility of full-fledged distance learning in psychology. Since only people with higher education can work as a psychologist, a good saving of time and money comes out, given that you already have one higher education.
Educational Organization Choice
Educational organizations engaged in vocational retraining activities must have an appropriate license for additional professional education. When choosing a provider of educational services, having a license is one of the decisive requirements. If the institution that issued the diploma does not have such a license, then the education certificate will not be valid. Accordingly, there is a risk of losing money and time.
You also need to carefully approach the choice of a professional retraining program in psychology, the decisive factor here will be the orientation, the sphere of activity in which you plan to work.
For example, programs can be aimed at training specialists in such areas as:
- educational psychology - makes it possible to work in educational institutions;
- legal psychology - such specialists are in demand, for example, in law enforcement agencies;
- Clinical (medical) psychology - professional retraining in clinical psychology makes it possible to work in health facilities, neuropsychiatric dispensaries, etc .;
- corrective (special) psychology - the implementation of activities with people with disabilities;
- psychological counseling - mastery of competencies that allow for counseling - one of the most popular areas of work.
The above list is far from exhaustive; there are much more training programs and new ones are periodically developed. In almost every type of human activity, a psychologist specializing in the characteristics of the sphere can work.
Professional development
Every psychologist knows that getting an official education certificate is not enough. To achieve mastery in your niche, you must regularly replenish the methodological tools and broaden your horizons. The most affordable of what allows you to achieve personal and professional growth is the formation of your own library, regular courses in psychology and participation in professional communities.
Information technology has opened up new opportunities for mastering specialized knowledge and skills. Very popular are courses and programs for distance education of psychologists, which can be mastered at a time convenient for you and in a comfortable environment, for example, calmly at your home computer when no one is distracting.
Special literature deserves special attention. Strictly speaking, all books on human psychology can be divided into scientific and popular.
Popular psychology
When visiting bookstores, it is impossible not to notice that it is the shelves with that name that occupy the largest space. We must immediately warn that the materials presented here, probably in 95% of cases for professional psychologists are not of practical value.
The target audience of such literature is people who do not have a special psychological education, but are interested in psychology, because, as we have already found out, most people encounter psychological difficulties in life. The layman will easily find something interesting for himself, and if you're lucky, then something useful. But the specialist is likely to learn nothing new here.
If we consider the assortment of this genre, then we can distinguish the works of the following authors:
- Dale Carnegie - “How to Make Friends and Influence People.”
- Mikhail Labkovsky - “I want and I will.”
- Mikhail Litvak - the author has many books, you can choose the one whose subject matter is most relevant.
- Nikolay Kozlov - “How to treat yourself and people”, etc.
- Robert Kiyosaki - “Poor Dad, Rich Dad.”
- Brian Tracy - “Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone.”
Scientific psychology
Scientific or academic psychology in the store is geographically close to the popular one, but it takes up significantly less space. This is literature for specialists. This is where classical works, textbooks, dictionaries, etc. are located.
Everyone who monitors their professional growth and seeks to increase it, from time to time should visit the department of scientific literature. The replenishment of the home library is carried out just by acquiring the works exhibited here.
Of course, the following works should be in the collection of each psychologist:
- Larry Hyell, Daniel Ziegler - "Theories of Personality."
- S. L. Rubinstein - "Fundamentals of General Psychology."
- L. S. Vygotsky - his work will help to understand issues of developmental psychology.
- Yu. B. Gippenreiter - “Introduction to General Psychology”, “Communicating with a Child. How? ”,“ Behavior of the child in the hands of parents ”,“ We continue to communicate with the child. So?" etc.
- Meshcheryakov B. G., Zinchenko V. P. - “The Great Psychological Dictionary”.
- The works of Z. Freud, C. G. Jung, C. Rogers and other representatives of classical psychology.
Internet resources
You can significantly save and speed up the process of self-education, using information technology.
On the Web, you can purchase literature, discs, download teaching materials. The main thing is to know what exactly you need and be able to “separate the grain from the chaff,” since the Internet is full of low quality materials, as well as sites whose purpose is to enrich due to the trust of naive users.
Separately, it must be said that YouTube offers truly ample opportunities for self-education, where you can find training lectures, seminar notes and other informative materials.
To summarize
The fact that a psychologist is a profession that will gain in popularity more and more is indisputable. After all, every person in his life is faced with psychological problems that are often impossible to constructively solve on their own. As a person goes to a doctor in case of illness, so in case of problems of a psychological plan it is advisable and most rational to use the professional help of a specialist - a psychologist.
If a person has a higher education, but at some point wished to get a psychological qualification, the best option is professional retraining, which can be done remotely.
You can improve skills not only at universities and libraries, but also through independent selection and study of literature, attending specialized courses in psychology and exploring materials of interest on the Internet.
In other words, even such an amazing science as psychology can be mastered by almost everyone, it would be a desire, and you can always pick up opportunities.