You’ll find psychologists in all walks of life.
You might find psychologists helping to formulate a campaign to influence Australians to give up smoking, designing a new test to detect mental health issues early, or developing an app to help people beat anxiety.
Broadly speaking, most psychologists provide assessment and therapy to clients, help facilitate organisational or social change, conduct psychological research, or administer psychological tests to individuals or groups.
Assessment and therapy
Many psychologists fulfil some type of a therapeutic role, assessing their client’s concerns and life circumstances, and offering support, advice and treatment to address their client’s issues.
Psychologists work with people to help them recover from many issues that include depression, trauma, memory loss, anxiety, children’s behavioural issues, and other mental health issues.
Organisational and social change
Psychologists help build leadership skills in staff or improve workplace culture and are often involved in workplaces to motivate behavioural change.
Governments and health organisations call on psychologists to draft community campaigns to promote social change, such as wearing sunscreen, wearing seatbelts or reducing smoking uptake by young people.
Research
Many psychological scientitsts work in research, investigating a broad range of areas related to human behaviour and development. Understanding how humans work is vital.
These psychologists typically work in university departments or in government or non-government organisations. Some psychologists teach at universities or in other academic settings such as in medical schools and hospitals.