PhD/PsyD Clinical psych PhD or Nutrition PhD?

[czjjj_233]

Hi everyone, I am a double-major in Clinical Nutrition and Psychology at undergrad, and I got a masters of education in human development psychology. I am currently doing the dietetic internship to become a registered dietitian. However, I also want to do research in the intersection of nutrition and psychology. I am particularly interested in ways to promote health behavior change in eating disorder, weight management, and etc. I am uncertain about whether to get a nutrition PhD or a clinical psych PhD if I want to pursue this research interests since I feel it is more focusing on the behavioral side (so maybe a clinical psych PhD?). Do you have any suggestions or researchers that you suggest me to look into? Thank you very much!

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[summerbabe]

I am uncertain about whether to get a nutrition PhD or a clinical psych PhD if I want to pursue this research interests since I feel it is more focusing on the behavioral side (so maybe a clinical psych PhD?)

Don't know anything about nutrition PhDs but assuming you already have a competitive CV for a clinical psych PhD, you'll likely spend a minimum of 4 years in grad school (including 1000+ hours learning therapy and psychological assessment) + 1 year of a full-time clinical internship before graduating + likely doing a research-focused postdoc so this would be a major time commitment.

Do you want to do research full-time? I think that most people in psychology with these kinds of behavioral health interests work in 100% clinical roles. This isn't my area but I imagine full-time academia positions on the psychology side are similarly competitive to other psychology subfields.

And I know way more people who started grad school thinking they'd pursue research and ended up in clinical jobs than people who were successful (or decided to stick with) in entering academia. Good luck!

 

[WisNeuro]

Well, the clinical psych degree would be more flexible, most likely. If you set up a research route in grad school, you'd be able to research behavior-related nutrition issues, but you'd also be able to fall back on clinical work if the academic world continues to contract.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Hi everyone, I am a double-major in Clinical Nutrition and Psychology at undergrad, and I got a masters of education in human development psychology. I am currently doing the dietetic internship to become a registered dietitian. However, I also want to do research in the intersection of nutrition and psychology. I am particularly interested in ways to promote health behavior change in eating disorder, weight management, and etc. I am uncertain about whether to get a nutrition PhD or a clinical psych PhD if I want to pursue this research interests since I feel it is more focusing on the behavioral side (so maybe a clinical psych PhD?). Do you have any suggestions or researchers that you suggest me to look into? Thank you very much!

Sounds a lot like health psych and/or specialty training in eating disorders, although these can often be surprisingly disparate areas of practice (e.g., many health psychologists do not work with eating disorder patients, and patient psychologists focusing on eating disorders do little or no other health psych-oriented work). I would agree with the above posts in that A) a lot of folks who initially plan on research careers end up being primarily or entirely clinically-focused, and B) the (licensable) psych degree will probably afford more professional flexibility. You could probably also fold some of the dietician training and knowledge into that.

 

[Ollie123]

Either could work, I think it depends what specifically you want to do and how open you are to clinical work of varying forms. Even the most research-focused clinical psych PhD would involve a whole lot of time spent on things that have little to do with diet. In fact, most of your time will be spent outside that circle. You'll learn to treat depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, etc. There is some interesting overlap and fruitful research pursuits as some/many of these folks will have terrible diets and poor nutrition, but it won't be your focus and indeed you will probably be explicitly restricted from discussing most of those issues in depth with patients because of scope-of-practice/licensure issues.

The clinical psych PhD is probably more flexible in the end but will probably take longer and involve less relevant work. The nutrition PhD is probably going to be a bit more focused on what it sounds like you want to do. Just depends what you want.

 

[PsyDr]

1) Why do you want a PhD? Are you trying to become a tenure track professor? How many departments are there for that? How many jobs are there? Are you okay with the frequent geographical moves that often come with these options?
2) Are there not research opportunities with your current dietician degree? Is there some benefit to enrolling in a PhD program, instead of seeking out employment in a research setting?
3) What do you want to do? Envision 9am-5pm. What are you doing? Seeing patients? Going into a lab, writing papers, and writing grant proposals all day? The day to day mechanics of a job can be VERY different that the subject matter.
4) How much would each cost? Median student loan debt for psychologists with PhDs is ~$110k. Median student loan debt for general PhDs is ~$150k. What is the average student loan debt for a nutrition PhD? What is the average income for a nutrition PhD? What about for a clinical psychologist? What are the financial implications of those incomes? When you put all of those numbers into an online "how much house can i afford" calculator, will you ever be able to own a house? How about have a kid with a decent quality of life? Pay for college? What happens when you put those numbers into a retirement calculator? And don't say, "I'll work until I die". The literature doesn't support that, or the median health costs after 65.
5) Are you avoiding something by gathering degrees?
6) Do you think you have some solution to hedonistic behaviors, or are you trying to treat the metabolic consequences of poor nutrition? Organisms have evolved to expend as little energy as possible to obtain sugars, salts, fat.
7) Why not food science where you could affect the entire food supply? Why not med school, or PA school for endocrinology where you could directly treat the consequences of food problems? Why not personal trainer? What is the specific appeal of your career preferences?
8) What are the social consequences of these pursuits? How will your SO, or potential SOs, handle moving a few times? Getting into more debt? How will frequent moves affect your child, if you have or want one?

 

[PsycIntern2021]

Hi! Eating disorder researcher here. I definitely think you should think about what you want your day-to-day to look like. I don't know a ton about Nutrition PhDs, but clinically, dieticians focused on eating disorders are usually on an interdisciplinary team with lots of other providers and focus on the nutrition aspect with the client - in terms of psychoeducation and some behavior change around regular eating and food variety. However, if you primarily interested in treating eating disorder symptoms (behaviors and cognitions), then that is clinical psych's area. Just a heads up that eating disorders is a particularly competitive area for clinical psych PhD programs because there are less people who specialize in it. I would definitely check out Traci Mann's lab at Minnesota. Otherwise, join AED (Academy for Eating Disorders) Early Career SIG and Nutrition SIG and anything else you are interested in to be able to network and connect with folks that are doing what you want to do. People are extremely open to mentorship so you can do a lot of informational interviews and such.

EDIT: editing to add that a third possible route is a Master's in Public Health.

 

[chicandtoughness]

Hi everyone, I am a double-major in Clinical Nutrition and Psychology at undergrad, and I got a masters of education in human development psychology. I am currently doing the dietetic internship to become a registered dietitian. However, I also want to do research in the intersection of nutrition and psychology. I am particularly interested in ways to promote health behavior change in eating disorder, weight management, and etc. I am uncertain about whether to get a nutrition PhD or a clinical psych PhD if I want to pursue this research interests since I feel it is more focusing on the behavioral side (so maybe a clinical psych PhD?). Do you have any suggestions or researchers that you suggest me to look into? Thank you very much!

Eating disorder clinician and researcher here to chime in 🙂 (I almost went the PhD route but then switched career paths - I can link you with some ED grad students and PIs if you're interested in asking them more.)

For a dietitian, EDs are a small chunk of what you can do with your expertise. It would be stifling your capabilities if you went the clinical psych route just because you want to work with EDs. For a clinical psychologist, EDs are almost the only area of dietetics you can touch with your expertise (behavior change as it relates to weight management is another area, but I've found that kind of work is more suited for masters level clinicians or MPHs), unless you want to go full research.

If you are interested in the practical applications of behavior change and health promotion, get an MPH. If you are dead set on a doctorate, do a PhD in Public Health or DrPH. A PhD in Nutrition would also get you to where you want to be.

The PhD in Clinical Psychology is going to be a loooooong path and you will have to do a lot of stuff you're not interested in just to get that PhD. Are you interested in psychotherapy? in assessments? Are you ready to do 3-4 years of practica in psychiatric settings (most of which probably will have nothing to do with your interests in nutrition)? Are you ready to repeat your DI experience (underpaid, overworked), but this time as a psychologist? It seems like a lot of work just to learn a little about behavior change, which you can definitely do in the nutrition and public health realms.