The perpetuation of misinformation and how to stop it

[PsychPhDone]

I belong to the society for the teaching of psychology Facebook group. The author of this blog post shared it there: A Matter of Degrees

Though not as inaccurate as other sites, and though the intent is admirable, I think it is still overly simplistic in the PhD = research and PsyD = clinical statement. It doesn't say that PhDs don't do clinical work, but I think anyone reading the blog post will deduce that. Also, based on our recent conversation on here, I now know that clinical = mental illness and counseling = life stressors isn't necessarily true.

What's the best way to engage in dialogue with well-meaning perpetrators of misinformation? Do we have any data to support what we discuss here? For example, I know that the average PhD student has equal (or more) clinical hours than PsyD student.

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[Kadhir]

Did you reach out to the author with your concerns? Response?

The problem is, nuance doesn't really register with the lay public. People get dichotomy. That being said, if a potential grad student is simply consulting a Psychology Today article before lodging applications and not actually bothering to read program material, that's also a problem. A lecturer at the R1 univ where I did my training told students that a psychiatrist has a PhD and an MD, whereas a psychologist has only a PhD.

... If you can't control the misinformation, educate people on where best to look for accurate info and encourage critical thinking about random things they read. It'll serve them well in grad school and beyond.

 

[foreverbull]

The author got his degree in experimental psychology, which tells me he's probably never worked alongside a counseling psychologist and probably hasn't looked into Ph.D. and Psy.D. programs with a discerning eye. I find that those who have never met/interacted with counseling psychologists out in the field spread the most misinformation about the counseling psychology field. Feel free to contact him and challenge his inaccuracies! Beyond that, challenge the misinformation when you hear it in the field, like you're doing now. It will help in the long run!

@Kadhir

That being said, if a potential grad student is simply consulting a Psychology Today article before lodging applications and not actually bothering to read program material, that's also a problem.

To be fair to potential grad students, with misinformation rampant (even within our field), how would the average person ever understand the current field without knowing/speaking with a counseling psychologist or clinical psychologist who knows counseling psychologists? Hence why I feel the need to clarify in our own forum when there has been an early foreclosure of applying to counseling psychology graduate programs because of misinformation within our field and outside of it keeping people from even applying or considering it an option.

OP, thanks for sharing!

 

[Kadhir]

To be fair to potential grad students, with misinformation rampant (even within our field), how would the average person ever understand the current field without knowing/speaking with a counseling psychologist or clinical psychologist who knows counseling psychologists? Hence why I feel the need to clarify in our own forum when there has been an early foreclosure of applying to counseling psychology graduate programs because of misinformation within our field and outside of it keeping people from even applying or considering it an option.

Absolutely, I would expect anyone to call it out when it happens. My anecdote was to illustrate this very same misinformation within our field (incidentally, it was a counseling psychologist who was promulgating it). But I think giving out exactly that advice-- talk to multiple people who actually do the work, and have done it recently-- is ultimately most helpful. When younger colleagues ask for advice re grad school, internship, etc., I often tell them to talk to recent grads and people in the thick of it now for these very reasons. Even some of the greats have no clue what is going on when it comes to contemporary training.

 

[foreverbull]

[email protected]

Dr. Dana Dunn's (the author's) academic email address if you'd like to email him.

 

[PsychPhDone]

[email protected]

Dr. Dana Dunn's (the author's) academic email address if you'd like to email him.

This might sound ridiculous, but it just occurred to me that I could email him, and I can came back on here to say that's what I'll do. I don't comment in public Facebook groups, so I felt kind of stuck.