Coding family interactions determining whether I'll enjoy providing therapy?

[priorities2]

So, I've coded videos of parent-parent/parent-child interactions as an undergrad for a semester now. I've found that I'm SUPER impatient with the game section... I just hate coding them while they play games. It's so boring and arbitrary to me. I do enjoy coding the couple's conversation, and I sometimes like coding the family problem-solving discussions.

I'm going to be practicing therapy/med mgmt, hopefully... is this a bad sign? Should I have more patience for coding videos of interactions, or is actual therapy much different and more exciting than coding?

I do find coding somewhat rewarding, I just get really impatient and bored with it.

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[G Costanza]

No matter what the topic, I think most get bored with coding after a while.

Watching clients on film and coding them is nothing like being in the room with them.

 

[priorities2]

Okay, thank you, that is reassuring. I should also add that I'm coding a non-clinical population, so some of it is sooooo slow. Ugh.

I guess it's especially frustrating because the coordinators on this particular project often contradict each other/the manual on how to code certain things. I feel that this makes an already uncertain science practically impossible. It makes me want to procrastinate... calming myself down long enough to even code an entire video is challenging.

 

[mcvcm92]

I guess it's especially frustrating because the coordinators on this particular project often contradict each other/the manual on how to code certain things. I feel that this makes an already uncertain science practically impossible. It makes me want to procrastinate... calming myself down long enough to even code an entire video is challenging.

I definitely understand how you feel! I currently work as a research assistant in a lab, doing primarily coding for a psychology professor and her projects. It always seems like that changes need to made for new situations that arise during specific instances in the lab, but that's kind of the way science / research goes. You have to control for as many of the confounding variables as possible, but it can be hard (especially for more complicated studies).

But in reference to your original question, it is WAY different to work with a studied population versus watching said studied population on a computer screen and methodically coding their responses.