Psychology or Psychiatry?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Really? You don't know a single person who did med, law, engineering, etc., without any real personal interest but because Dr. Mom/Dr. Dad enforced that was the only option available to them? An intrinsic love of the field makes it more rewarding, certainly, and very likely makes you better at it, but thinking that there is some needed intrinsic thing sounds like vocational superstition to me.

Wow...eerily perceptive. And exactly what I was thinking about when I wrote my post. Anecdotally, medical school was the ONLY option for me (and my siblings) because Dad was a surgeon (as I've mentioned in previous posts). I was very good in math so that was my one caveat (that I would be a math major - I could do multivariate calculus until my face turns blue)...and then "trouble" happened when I took Intro to Psych. I knew I wanted to be a clinician, but not a psychiatrist. Hell, I considered anesthesiology and neurosurgery for an entire year (actually worked at family friend's neurosurgical practice all during undegrad, i.e., grateful nepotism, and BTW - Dad loved those ideas!). I would be making serious bank had I chosen either of those routes. But alas, my motivation was clearly directed towards clinical psych...I had to literally argue (debate, really) with the parental units about my chosen field. Aren't I such a rebel? :cool:

On a personal side bar: None of my siblings followed in dear Dad's path...one is lawyer, one in business, and I am what I am. But I can always re-enact the pressure, and demand my kids be surgeons - not.

I like the idea of vocational superstition...my comments are more aimed toward vocational volition.

Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
Thanks to all for the thoughtful replies (and the interesting digressions :laugh:)! Barring the fields themselves, however, would anyone be able to tell me if med school and residency is significantly more difficult than grad school psychology and residency? As well, I'm beginning to gather that the higher salary of the psychiatrist is balanced out by the med school debt...would this mean that a psychiatrist's salary would near a psychologist's, all things considered?
 
I don't think there is a difficulty difference. Although I think you're looking at different skill sets. In the med school courses I've taken, rote memorization is the key skill, if you can do that, you're golden. In psych grad courses, writing ability and conceptualization was more important. Difficulty is relative. The debt is also hard to characterize. As with psych schools, med schools tuition rates vary pretty wildly. This really isn't an "if, then" type of situation, the factors are much more complex.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Thanks to all for the thoughtful replies (and the interesting digressions :laugh:)! Barring the fields themselves, however, would anyone be able to tell me if med school and residency is significantly more difficult than grad school psychology and residency? As well, I'm beginning to gather that the higher salary of the psychiatrist is balanced out by the med school debt...would this mean that a psychiatrist's salary would near a psychologist's, all things considered?

Over the course of their career, the average psychiatrist is still likely to make more than the average psychologist, even when considering med school debt. In a gross over-generalization--basically, the psychiatrist would likely just need to out-earn the psychologist by about $300-400k (after considering interest on both the loans and perhaps on investments you lose out on by needing to pay them off). Considering the average psychiatrist probably earns about $100k more per year than the average psychologist, that wouldn't be much of a problem.

As for difficulty level, I'd imagine most people would agree that they're comparable, but that they're difficult in different ways. If you search the forums, you'll find numerous posts comparing med school to psych grad school. In general, with med school, there's the whole drinking from the fire hose analogy. Basically, you're going to be required to memorize a LOT more information than you will in psych grad school. And you're likely going to be expected to know and demonstrate it more frequently in more adverse and/or more on-the-spot type situations. Conversely, in grad school, there's going to be more time spent on open-ended questions and thought exercises (related to both research and practice), and on responding to things like, "I don't care as much about what you know, I care more about how and why you know it, and how you can go about figuring out how and why you know it."
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Top