What does a psychologist do?
Sales managers are responsible for leading the organization's sales team. They oversee the progress and performance of the whole team, set area assignments to team members, and set weekly or monthly quotas. Sales managers oversee training team members during onboarding and providing further coaching to help them achieve their goals. They manage the challenges that team members may meet and help mitigate any problems that come along the way. Sales managers also set the strategic direction of the sales team and follow through by ensuring that the team's activities are in line with the goals.
Psychologist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real psychologist resumes:
- Supervise mental health staff, including the overseeing of the provision of mental health services in a correctional facility.
- Provide EMDR therapy for clients with trauma and anxiety.
- Perform tests to diagnose autism in children or tests for the detection of autism at an early age.
- Provide supervision and mentoring for APA Pre-Doctoral interns.
- Supervise clinical activities of doctoral level psychology interns in APA accredit internship program.
- Evaluate veterans for psychological disorders that may have resulted secondary to their military service for compensation purposes.
- Conduct weekly PTSD assessments with Vietnam and OEF/OIF veterans dealing with combat-relate trauma and develop treatment recommendations.
- Design and direct apa-accredite internship program, practicum and post-doctoral fellowship programs, and rotation for psychiatry residents.
- Serve as a contract psychologist performing geriatric psychology services for numerous long-term care, rehabilitation, and assisted-living facilities.
- Provide psychological therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder, deficit/hyperactive disorder, specific learning disorder and others mental diagnosis.
- Attend patient staffing meetings and participate on multidisciplinary teams with other hospital staff to develop appropriate treatment intervention plans for patients.
- Develop training materials for alcohol abuse treatment & rehabilitation services, including prevention of domestic violence, child abuse and homelessness.
- Work with EAP, in & IOP clients.
- See individual clients using systems theory and MFT
- Consult with psychiatrists on diagnosis, psychopharmacology, and other relevant issues.
Psychologist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 18% of Psychologists are proficient in Patients, Crisis Intervention, and Rehabilitation. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Integrity.
We break down the percentage of Psychologists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 18%
Conducted psychological evaluations and assessments on Mentally Retarded/Developmentally Disabled hospitalized patients.
- Crisis Intervention, 7%
Job Duties: Provide individual therapy, brief psychological assessments, psychological evaluations, group psychotherapy and mental health crisis intervention.
- Rehabilitation, 6%
Review contract psychologist reports and render psychological suitability decisions for all peace officer applicants to CA Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation.
- Mental Illness, 5%
Provide consultation to individuals and agencies regarding mental illnesses, their behavioral manifestations, and associated treatments.
- Clinical Supervision, 5%
Provide clinical supervision to Assistant Psychologists/Assistant Psychology Practitioners and Psychology Practitioners within the Psychology Service as and when required.
- APA, 4%
Supervised clinical activities of doctoral level psychology interns in APA accredited internship program.
Most psychologists use their skills in "patients," "crisis intervention," and "rehabilitation" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential psychologist responsibilities here:
Analytical skills. One of the key soft skills for a psychologist to have is analytical skills. You can see how this relates to what psychologists do because "psychologists must examine the information they collect and draw logical conclusions." Additionally, a psychologist resume shows how psychologists use analytical skills: "complete comprehensive psychological report utilizing test data, clinical interview, and behavioral observations to make diagnosis and treatment recommendations. "
Communication skills. Many psychologist duties rely on communication skills. "psychologists must have strong communication skills because they spend much of their time listening to and speaking with patients or describing their research.," so a psychologist will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways psychologist responsibilities rely on communication skills: "develop and implement protocols for group therapy with children participants targeting effectivecommunication and anger prevention and management. "
Integrity. This is an important skill for psychologists to perform their duties. For an example of how psychologist responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "psychologists must keep patients’ problems in confidence, and patients must be able to trust psychologists’ expertise in treating sensitive problems." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a psychologist: "trusted to provide individual therapy to women, adolescents, pain patients, and substance abuse referrals. ".
Interpersonal skills. A big part of what psychologists do relies on "interpersonal skills." You can see how essential it is to psychologist responsibilities because "psychologists study and help individuals, so they must be able to work well with clients, patients, and other professionals." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical psychologist tasks: "provided interpersonal group therapy (ipt) to depressed adolescents. "
Patience. Another crucial skill for a psychologist to carry out their responsibilities is "patience." A big part of what psychologists relies on this skill, since "psychologists must demonstrate patience, because conducting research or treating patients may take a long time." How this skill relates to psychologist duties can be seen in an example from a psychologist resume snippet: "interviewed patients and their families to collect full information on patience's case. "
Problem-solving skills. While "problem-solving skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to psychologist responsibilities. Much of what a psychologist does relies on this skill, seeing as "psychologists need problem-solving skills to collect information, design research, evaluate programs, and find treatments or solutions to mental and behavioral problems." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of psychologists: "utilize short-term, brief, solution-focused therapies to treat veterans with mild to moderate levels of distress. "
The three companies that hire the most psychologists are:
- Thriveworks402 psychologists jobs
- Kaiser Permanente34 psychologists jobs
- Wellpath33 psychologists jobs
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Compare different psychologists
Psychologist vs. Sports therapist
A Psychotherapist's responsibility is to help clients who suffer from symptoms like depression, anxiety, and other behavioral problems. They work with individuals, couples, and families.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between psychologists and sports therapist. For instance, psychologist responsibilities require skills such as "patients," "crisis intervention," "mental illness," and "clinical supervision." Whereas a sports therapist is skilled in "acute care," "professional athletes," "outpatient rehabilitation," and "sports massage." This is part of what separates the two careers.
The education levels that sports therapists earn slightly differ from psychologists. In particular, sports therapists are 14.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a psychologist. Additionally, they're 21.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Psychologist vs. Rehabilitation psychologist
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, psychologist responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "patients," "mental illness," "clinical supervision," and "excellent interpersonal." Meanwhile, a rehabilitation psychologist has duties that require skills in areas such as "patient care," "physical medicine," "tbi," and "rehabilitation hospital." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Rehabilitation psychologists tend to reach lower levels of education than psychologists. In fact, they're 5.9% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 21.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for psychologists in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. Jim Sliwinski Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Defiance College
Psychologist vs. Developmental psychologist
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from psychologist resumes include skills like "patients," "crisis intervention," "rehabilitation," and "mental illness," whereas a developmental psychologist is more likely to list skills in "lifespan," "functional assessments," "return phone calls," and "msw. "
When it comes to education, developmental psychologists tend to earn higher degree levels compared to psychologists. In fact, they're 13.0% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 17.5% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Psychologist vs. Psychotherapist
Even though a few skill sets overlap between psychologists and psychotherapists, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a psychologist might have more use for skills like "excellent interpersonal," "apa," "psychological services," and "veterans." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of psychotherapists require skills like "community resources," "home health," "substance abuse disorders," and "treatment modalities. "
In general, psychotherapists earn the most working in the professional industry, with an average salary of $67,081. The highest-paying industry for a psychologist is the health care industry.psychotherapists reach higher levels of education compared to psychologists, in general. The difference is that they're 29.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 18.9% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of psychologist
Updated January 8, 2025
