Psychology or Neuroscience?

[amrdoyle]

I received my BS in Psychology with a specialization in Neuroscience from Indiana University in May. I'm taking a year or two off because I can't seem to pinpoint exactly what it is I'd like to study, and I was hoping you guys could help me out.

What interest me most are the synaptic or structural changes that occur during therapies for anxiety and depression. Yes, CBT works, yes, meditation works, yes, exposure therapy works, but what is going on in the brain? WHY does it work? What changes? That's what I'm curious about. I'm not too interested in animal models or chemistry. Super into biology and I like neuroimaging techniques. 

So, I am having trouble finding a program that really speaks to me, and I think it's because I don't know what to look up. Clinical Psychology? Neuropsychology? Behavioral Neuroscience? Cognitive Neuroscience?

Please help! 

[neuropsych76]

I received my BS in Psychology with a specialization in Neuroscience from Indiana University in May. I'm taking a year or two off because I can't seem to pinpoint exactly what it is I'd like to study, and I was hoping you guys could help me out.

What interest me most are the synaptic or structural changes that occur during therapies for anxiety and depression. Yes, CBT works, yes, meditation works, yes, exposure therapy works, but what is going on in the brain? WHY does it work? What changes? That's what I'm curious about. I'm not too interested in animal models or chemistry. Super into biology and I like neuroimaging techniques. 

So, I am having trouble finding a program that really speaks to me, and I think it's because I don't know what to look up. Clinical Psychology? Neuropsychology? Behavioral Neuroscience? Cognitive Neuroscience?

Please help! 

 

 

I can relate to this post a lot. When I was an undergrad, I majored in psychology and was very set on becoming a clinical psychologist. I knew I needed research experience to get into grad school, so I did tons of research as an undergrad. Some of that research was in neuroscience which got me very interested in neuroscience. I wanted to be a clinician, but neuroscience was really cool too. 

So my senior year came along and I was applying to both clinical psych phds and cognitive neuroscience phds. I applied to clinical psych phds that had a neuroscience focus (I wanted to do fMRI of psychotherapy), but at the last moment I retracted all my clinical psych apps and only went for neuroscience since I was focusing on research as my decision on what schools to apply for anyway.

I ended up getting accepted into one of my top choices for cognitive neuroscience doing basic research I thought sounded really interesting at the time. I thought I could still incorporate psychology into my research.

 

Fast forward 3 years. I'm in the middle of my program and I absolutely hate it. I realized that I'm way too much of a 'people person' to spend my time isolated working on analyzing brain data. My research directly doesnt help people as it is mostly focused on neuroimaging methods and is very far removed from any clinical or social significance. I'm really regretting not doing clinical psych now and I'm trying to find a way I can still help people with my neuroscience (aiming to focus on teaching/science communication instead).

 

So basically, I would suggest really knowing what you value more. Basic research or helping people. If you are REALLY curious about how the brain does something and can obsess over that problem, then do the basic neuroscience research. If you'd want an option to see clients and have more people oriented research, do clinical psych. That's my advice. 

Hope that helps. Feel free to PM me if you want more specifics as well. Good luck!

[Guest |||]

Clinical neuropsychology seems like the closest approximation, but don't as a whole let the field name determine where you go.

 

 

Find someone who you can work with whose interests overlap with yours, worry about the semantics later.

 

 

 

 

That said, I think you might find that person sooner in a psychology faculty vs neuroscience

[PsychGirl1]

^ I was also going to suggest clinical neuropsychology.

[Socrates1]

I relate to the OP's problem. In the end, I've found myself applying to mainly Psych departments with Behavioral Neuroscience areas, but I'm also going with a couple interdisciplinary neuroscience programs that aren't under the aegis of the institution's psychology department.

 

Helps to remember there are often multiple programs for neuroscience: both the traditional Psych department, and a biomedical/interdisciplinary Neuroscience program.

[amrdoyle]

So it seems like there is no simple solution here, then, huh? I will keep wading my way through research descriptions, I guess. 

[Guest |||]

Consider these individuals perhaps

 

http://mindfull.spc.org/vaughan/talks/Linden_2006_MolPsychi.pdf

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12595193

 

http://www.drbeitman.com/Papers/Change%20Part%20I.pdf

 

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0074657

[amrdoyle]

Hey thanks for looking into that for me! I think only two of those authors are located in US universities, but I like that thinking. I will do some more similar searching.