LilyAsh

I was under the impression that the SPSP convention was a social psych thing... why is this an "infamous" party?

Your situation is very similar to mine. I'm also a writer of self-help, we're about the same age, and we followed a non-traditional path starting with a degree in business, so I would like to give you my perspective and tell you how I got to the conclusion that a PhD is not the way to go (for someone like us). I'm also a writer that talks about "issues" in psychology. I had success self-publishing on Amazon and that attracted the attention of a real publisher. People have challenged my "expertise" over the years. I've heard things like "do they teach self-esteem in business school?" and the classic "You're not a psychologist! Shut up!" and all kinds of variation of this criticism. And yes, people on social media can be very mean and many do question your authority on a subject, especially if they happen to disagree with you or you make a controversial claim (like many arguments in evolutionary psychology). Basically, if they don't agree with something you said, they will pick you apart and use whatever weakness they perceive in you to attack you. You can't really let this get to you. My publisher also suggested that I should pursue an education in psychology if I wish to continue to explore this field in my writing, and hinted that a PhD "would be nice". But the reality is that this is mostly rubbish. You should keep in mind that publishers (or more specifically, the individuals that deal with us in a big publishing house) usually only have a college degree. Some have certificates and master's degrees, but not all. They don't have a good perspective on just how involved a doctorate program is. In their minds, you could just go and sit in a classroom for a few years and you come out on the other side with a PhD, which would enhance your status as a writer and theirs as a publisher. If you're such an intelligent person, capable of writing good books, then why not get the "ultimate expert" degree to boost your CV? They really have no clue... My point is, ignore your publisher. He/she doesn't really know what he/she's talking about. You can definitely write books like the ones you mentioned without a PhD with the knowledge and expertise that you have. Basically, the trend in psychology books is to pick a very narrow topic, a point of view, an argument and cite studies and stories to argue for it and illustrate it. I believe when your publisher mentioned Kahnemann and Gilbert, the suggestion was about the STYLE, not the best-seller status or anything comparable to the authors themselves. Even Daniel Goleman (what's up the name Daniel and academia?!), acclaimed for his Emotional Intelligence books, did not write about his own experiments in the field, he just followed the same formula and talked about other people's studies. He didn't even coin the term himself. This is exactly what Malcom Gladwell has been doing for years with only a BA in history and a stint at The New Yorker. Has anyone questioned how could he possibly know what he's talking about if he doesn't have a PhD? I doubt it! Gladwell's books are more popular than Gilbert and Kahneman's by the way. Look, I'm not saying that you should strive to have Gladwell's success (or Gilbert's or Kahnemann's for that matter). As @PokePsych suggested, the chances that you'll ever become that well known or that your books/work will reach that level of visibility is tiny. My point is, even at the greatest level of visibility that an author can get, you have someone like Gladwell who gets by just fine with only a BA in an unrelated area. So, you definitely don't need a Phd if the problem is credibility or authority. Just make sure to consult primary literature to support your arguments to avoid the mistake that is so common in self-help that people will just say whatever they want even when there's no evidence to support their arguments (this is what makes the whole genre look so bad!). I can quickly think of other best-selling authors who write about psychology/self-help or science who are just journalists or have college degrees in unrelated fields: Bill Bryson (I think he's a journalist), Tony Robbins (doesn't have any degree and probably has been the best selling author in self-help for the past 30 years), Stephen Covey (although he has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a zillion "honorary" PhDs), Aubrey de Grey, although he actually writes about science, this is a good example of a guy who proposed a new way to view the problem of ageing with only a college degree (then he received a "free" PhD from his alma mater). But I think Malcom Gladwell is the best example here. He writes books in the same "style" as the ones you've mentioned and the studies he uses to support his arguments come mostly from the fields of psychology and neuroscience, and yet he has no PhD, not even a master's degree. I think it's very easy to end up in a bubble when you are surrounded by people who have certain specific expectations about you and then you start thinking that there's something wrong with you and that you need to change to fulfill these expectations. The reality is that from the point of view of having a successful career as a writer and consultant (which I assume is consulting in these areas you mention you write about) all you need is good marketing and efficient delivery. If you market yourself successfully, you get new clients and sell more books. Efficient delivery of what you promise results in repeat business and good book reviews, which in turn generates more business. Most people really don't care if you have a PhD or not. I'm sure most of my readers don't even understand what a PhD entails, they don't care that I don't have one. Occasionally, I see the random troll accusing me of not knowing what I'm talking about (I don't even think you would get this type of criticism because after all you do have degrees in psychology). I ignore these people. Naysayers are all over the place. On the other hand, one my best friends does have a PhD and is frequently accused (on social media) of being an "arrogant scholar" and similar things based on the fact that he does have the degree. It's like... you can't win for losing! For me, I made the decision not to get a PhD because I don't have any desire to go into academia and I'm already successful as a writer. Let's think about it: both of us already have the career that most people dream about: we can work at home, or wherever we want (certainly a big plus right now!), our source of income is not threatened by (possibly) anything at all (and if you have a large social media following I assume you have multiple streams of income, not just royalties). With a big following you have carte blanche to reinvent yourself and try a bunch of different things (write about different topics, put together video courses, life coaching, etc.) and your audience will likely consume it (if reception is negative, change is not costly). At 40, why would you want to plunge into the rabbit hole of a PhD? Based on the few things you said here, it looks like you're not yet ready to apply, so let's say you take 1 or 2 years to build a good application. Then 4 to 6 years to go through the program. You're almost 50 at the end of this process. Then what? What for? I agree with @Clinapp2017, you need to ask what you''ll be getting for all the effort. Will that really add a significant bonus to your credibility, value of your contracts, etc.? Honestly, I don't think so. In my case, I came to the conclusion that all the work and commitment of a PhD would drain me to the point that I would have less time to nurture my writing career and online presence. One of the problems we have today that writers didn't have back in the day is that we need to constantly engage with our audience online. Our publishers and the audience itself expects that. Now, this is very time consuming. Recording videos, podcasts, writing blogs posts, giving interviews, networking with influencers, participating in discussions and maintaining Twitter, Facebook, and other social media accounts, etc., can be a full time job. Of course, we don't have to do all that, but at least in my case, this engagement plays a big role in my success (and supports additional income sources, such as YouTube advertising). If I stop with all this marketing and engagement effort, all I would have is my publisher's marketing efforts. But since I'm not a "top" author, I doubt they would invest much (or anything) to market my books. My success comes from my own efforts, they just publish and distribute the books. I'm assuming you're on the same boat. I'm not sure you thought about it... it doesn't feel like work when I do all the things I do to maintain my writing career alive, but it actually is, and it is very time consuming. And that is work just to maintain my book sales and other income sources, not time to write new books. Other people (family members, friends) think I do nothing all day. Working from home gives others (and sometimes ourselves) the idea that we don't really "work", that we have a lot more available time than we actually do. When I seriously thought about it and calculated how I was going to manage the course load and responsibilities of a PhD with my current day-to-day routine, I realized that it wasn't going to work. If I put my writing career on the shelf for 4 to 6 years to go pursue a PhD, when I come back, the loyal audience that I have today won't be there anymore. A PhD would be an option if there was a massive benefit to getting this degree or if I had academic ambitions or needed to get a very specific job or go into a career that requires it. It's not my case and I suspect it's not yours either. That's my 2 cents. I hope my experience with this conundrum can help you make a decision.

I appreciate you guys taking the time to respond! I feel better knowing that my "soft skills" can be valued, but still feel unsure that I could apply with what I've got now. From the admissions committee's perspective, they may not have enough information to judge my academic potential and I have zero research experience. Preferably I would just start over as if I had never gone to college… After thinking about it these last few days, I don't feel as rushed as I when I wrote the post. I believe the best possible scenario to be "eligible" for a decent doctorate would be to get a new bachelor degree from a good college, get involved with research and (then) get good letters of recommendation. I think, besides the grades, that would give them an idea of how capable I am. I'll be moving to the Cambridge area in August, that's why I thought about the Harvard Extension Program. Initially I thought about the master's program, but then did a little research and there's a lot of negative opinions about the open enrollment policy and the fact that it's not a full-time program. So I thought a strategy could be starting at Harvard Extension bachelor program, as if I was taking community college classes, and then after a year or two, apply to transfer to a full-time college like Brandeis or Boston University, for a double major in psychology and neuroscience. After that I think I would be at the same level as most applicants for good doctorate programs. Do you guys think I'm complicating things too much or that could really be a good strategy? Thanks again!

I read the sticky post about "what are my chances". I've been thinking about getting a graduate degree, but I've been getting mixed opinions on what my chances are. Some people say I wouldn't be accepted in any "decent" school for a PhD program. Others say I have a chance at some "C or D schools". Then I've had people telling me they "know people" in similar situations that got into Harvard and MIT... So, I don't know where I stand and how to build the best possible application - or how long that would take. I'll try to give you guys as much details as possible, so sorry if this ends up being a story of my life kind of post! I went to college in a no name school in Brazil, got a business degree. We don't do GPA in Brazil, so I have no idea what it would be if there is a way to calculate, but my grades were very mediocre. I had a few good grades, most of them were what in US is B or C and I failed a few couses, some more than one. At the time I didn't have any perspective of what I wanted to do with my life. I went to night school and none of my colegues had dreams about graduate school. People were just trying to get a college degree to get a better job. Right after finishing school I moved to the US with my then American boyfriend (that had been working in Brazil), got married and started to build a family. Living in US I realized the "world was much bigger"! I wanted to get more education, but I had small children and my english was horrible at the time, so I decided to stay at home with them. I started to write self-help books (published in Portuguese by a publisher in Brazil) to complement the family income and found that I really like psychology and would like to teach and do research in the area. Now, 11 years after getting my college degree, I don't know where to start to walk towards being acceptable at any decent enough school that would later allow me to get a research and teching position. I am 36 now and probably don't qualify at all for acceptance anywhere, so I would have to dedicate the next few years rebuilding my resume in order to become competitive. Some people say that by then (I will be 40+) I will be too old to be considered for a good doctorate program, especially in US, is that true? The first thing I thought, since I probably don't qualify for terminal masters programs too, was to enroll in Harvard Extension School's psychology masters (masters in liberal arts) that offer a different enrollment policy (pass 3 classes with B or higher and you're in). However, from what I've heard these programs at HES are more like "vanity" degrees (despite being acredited) because no serious grad school would see it as a regular masters degree. I don't know if it's true or not, though. I also thought that I could start all over and get a new college degree in psychology. What keeps me from thinking this is the best course of action is the time I would spend getting a new degree and then maybe having to get a masters degree afterwards to be eligible for a good doctorate. I've also heard that getting a new college degree is useless, since in US once you have one, that's all you need, from there you should only get advanced degrees... I speak fluently English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German and Italian. Could that be an asset at all on my application? I don't know if my writing experience would be an asset or the opposite, since the academy dreads self-help... The people that say that I wouldn't qualify for anything say that the fact that I went to a no name school in another country, got mediocre grades, spend the last 11 years of my life raising kids (or doing nothing from the academy perspective), puts me in a place where I wouldn't be able to fix my path... I would like some opinions, since you guys probably know a lot more about it than the people giving me advice!