Does anybody know anything about Neuro Psychology?

Question

I heard about it, and as a junior ive been thinking alot about colleges and majors and such. i know i still hav a little bit of time, but i cant help but think. and i know i love the field of psychology and howthe brain works, and then i heard about neruo psychology, and i wanted to know if this is anybodys major or anyone who knows anything about it?

Answer 1

I am a PhD student in neuropsychology. Here is a little of info about the discipline.

Typically, to become a neuropsychologist, you have to also become a clinical psychologist. This is because neuropsychology is an applied science rather than pure or basic science. This means that you'll have to apply to clinical psychology programs which offer a specialization in clinical neuropsychology. However, there are a few programs which allow you to specialize in using neuropsychology exclusively for science and not clinical practice; but at that point, I believe you're really getting into neuroscience and if that's you're interest, you should just apply to a neuroscience program.

The practice of neuropsychology is heavy on assessment. This means that you'll be using standardized tests to help determine if and to what extent someone is experiencing cognitive or behavioral functional deficits as a result of structural brain damage. As a clinical neuropsychologist you can expect not to being doing too much in the way of therapy. So you're typical amount of time spent on a client won't be much longer than the few hours it would take to assess them and write up a report. This is in contrast to the weeks, months, and sometimes years that other clinical psychologists may spend with an individual client.

Most programs in neuropsyc will have you taking coursework and doing neuropsyc rounds at a nearby hospital for about four years. Then, in your fifth year, you go on internship. This means you work at some site for a year as a neuropsychology resident. After completing the internship (and your dissertation), you will receive your're PhD. At that point, you will have to complete a two year post-doc. The post-doc is required by APA for neuropsychologists.

Neuropsychology is a very interesting subfield of clinical psychology. It utilizes a medical model more than most other areas of clinical psychology. And to boot, it is one of the most lucrative fields in psychology.

Good luck on your decision and applications to graduate schools. :-)

Answer 2

I'm a senior psychology major at my university, and while my focus in Clinical Psychology, I understand the importance of Neuropsychology in the clinical world--so, I've taken it upon myself to take several classes in Neuropsychology.

Basically, a knowledge of biology, and a little chemistry, is almost necessary. I say this because you can actually learn the essential biology/chemistry by taking courses in Neuropsychology, but having a firm grasp of these two disciplines in conjuncture with Neuropsych. is extremely helpful. Neuropsychology focuses on the nervous system, and how chemicals/neurons/the brain affect behavior. Of course, the opposite is studied, as well (how behavior affects the body). Most courses you will take will start with preliminary study of neurobiology (neurons and chemicals in the body, such as serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, etc.), and how neurons talk to each other, the various parts of the brain and what they specialize in, etc. The second half of the course is usually dedicated to using what you learned in the first half and applying it to psychology, usually in a clinical sense. It's not easy, and requires more work than other areas of psychology, I think.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

You might want to look into speech pathology. You will study neuropsychology, but only need a masters to practice, vs. the PhD needed to be a neuropsychologist. Working with brain injury is a large part of being a speech pathologist.