My Future Career and Major with Technology

In the Fall I will be going to college for Psychology. I haven’t made a decision on what school yet as I’m still waiting on answers. I want to go to school to become a Forensic Psychologist. I think that Psychology is the perfect major for me because it comes with so many options. There are hundreds of different fields of Psychology and I can never really run out of options.

I find Psychology itself really interesting, but especially Forensics. Last year I took a class in Forensics and I feel like I finally found something that I can see myself being excited about for years to come. I’ve had a hard time deciding what I wanted to do after high school for the past few years, and that class was able to help me figure it out. I find it really interesting to think about and try to understand why people do the things that they do. Especially when it comes to crime. I want to be able to understand why people commit crimes, and maybe learn how to help people before they feel like they need to do these things.

Psychology and Technology

Teletherapy: During the Corona virus pandemic, the use of telehealth skyrocketed. In a time where people were still bound to their homes, the need for therapy didn’t stop. In fact, it grew. Many people found therapy helpful to ease some of their nerves or feelings of sadness and/or despair around the pandemic. Since March 2020, the need for telehealth appointments hasn’t stopped. It has been found that online therapy sessions are just as effective as traditional therapy. Many therapists and their clients have continued teletherapy since it is so convenient and accessible.

Websites and apps: There are tons of different apps out there today to give people everyday assistance with managing their mental health. Some apps help people to calm down and find their breathing after feeling panic come on, others may help connect someone to an online counselor. Websites like the Trevor Project allow people to get urgent help by reaching a hotline, or connect online with other people that feel the same.

Virtual Reality: VR has been found to be extremely helpful to psychologists to assist patients in exposure therapy. Patients can work on reducing their fear of planes from their therapist's office. Patients can also be exposed to triggering situations and have a chance to practice their coping skills as a result.

New Technology: There's new technology that allows psychologists to gather new, or more detailed information. There is a sensor that measures galvanic skin response. This is the reaction that skin will have when a person feels stress or any other intense emotion. Through this sensor, psychologists can understand how certain situations impact their patients exactly.

Education: Many colleges and universities offer online classes, some places provide lectures for free. Psychologists have the chance to observe these new lessons without paying thousands of dollars for a single class. Since these classes are online, many more psychologists, patients, and students are able to complete courses.

Participants: It is also much easier to find people to participate in psychological studies with the internet. With just a phone, you could send out invites and gather interested parties over social media in an hour. People can also anonymously send in their own information or responses online.

Research: With the use of modern day technology it is much easier to conduct psychological research. Most information that is needed can be found on virtual databases rather than in a library. Nowadays just having a computer completely changes a student or a professional’s game. They are able to gather a lot more research in a lot less time.

Forensics and Technology

In general, technology has allowed forensics to develop quickly. The ability to take notes digitally has changed the game for a lot of forensic scientists. It’s much harder to lose digital evidence than its paper counterpart. Also investigators are able to take notes much quicker with phones, tablets, and computers. This way they can gather important first impressions along with more detailed information. There is a lot less of a chance of running out of space when everything can be uploaded into storage.

Computers have also allowed forensic scientists to study physical evidence in many new ways. With the updated fingerprint database, investigators can simply submit a fingerprint to search for a match. There's a lot more information at our fingertips with all of this new internet access. Investigators can easily study different shoe prints, tire prints, and more to compare to their own cases.

Digital forensics has changed rapidly in the past couple decades. Since technology has evolved. Investigators can search for lost files on phones, tablets, computers, and more. They can also use social media to find details about people that they may have never thought of. In the past, social media has also been used to find missing people. Since people communicate on their phones so often, investigators can also use these transcripts of conversations that might reveal key details.

Forensic Psychology

“Forensic psychology, as defined by the American Psychological Association, is the application of clinical specialties to the legal arena” (Ward, par. 2). This means that forensic psychologists apply their knowledge of psychology to people who have broken the law. They then evaluate their mental states and give an expert opinion of what to do going forward. Forensic psychologists also have to have knowledge of the law, since they must understand the legal situation these people that they are evaluating are in.

Computers allow forensic psychologists to keep their paperwork neat and in order digitally. This means reports, assessments, notes, and more can all be kept in one place. Forensic psychologists may also use technology to research similar cases to their own to better understand the situation and how others have dealt with similar ones in the past.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse