Does Anyone Practice Social Psychology - in Portland, Oregon?
October 25, 2014 12:35 PM Subscribe
I have two questions:
1) Has social psychology given rise to clinicians, that is, therapists whose practices use the theories and principles that come out of social psychology?
2) If so, are there any in Portland, Oregon?
According to a frequently consulted source:
Social psychologists . . . deal with the factors that lead us to behave in a given way in the presence of others, and look at the conditions under which certain behavior/actions and feelings occur. Social psychology is concerned with the way these feelings, thoughts, beliefs, intentions and goals are constructed and how such psychological factors, in turn, influence our interactions with others.
I am looking for a local therapist with a social-psychological bent as opposed, say, to a Jungian or a psychotherapist focused on exploring emotions in general and early-childhood events in particular.
I need someone who can help me unpack why I relate to people the way I do and why people relate to me the way they do. I want to work with someone who can address my issues from the standpoint of principles of interpersonal behavior and relationships.
I am not on the spectrum, btw.
According to a frequently consulted source:
Social psychologists . . . deal with the factors that lead us to behave in a given way in the presence of others, and look at the conditions under which certain behavior/actions and feelings occur. Social psychology is concerned with the way these feelings, thoughts, beliefs, intentions and goals are constructed and how such psychological factors, in turn, influence our interactions with others.
I am looking for a local therapist with a social-psychological bent as opposed, say, to a Jungian or a psychotherapist focused on exploring emotions in general and early-childhood events in particular.
I need someone who can help me unpack why I relate to people the way I do and why people relate to me the way they do. I want to work with someone who can address my issues from the standpoint of principles of interpersonal behavior and relationships.
I am not on the spectrum, btw.
Social psychology is pretty much a research-based arm of psychology and it is difficult to have that as your concentration and go on to practice clinically. That being said, there are a few arms of clinical psychology that would fit what you're talking about. You mentioned early childhood experiences, and that is a very small subsection of people who practice psychodynamic therapy. There are others that focus much more on interpersonal interaction. Someone who practices time-limited psychodynamic therapy may fit the bill. In other branches, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on the thoughts you have as you interact and helps you learn to break down when your thoughts might be influencing you to interact in ways that are not effective for you. They would also help you learn new habits to work around this. I'd also recommend looking into Interpersonal Therapy, where the whole focus is on relationships and interactions.
posted by goggie at 12:41 PM on October 25, 2014
posted by goggie at 12:41 PM on October 25, 2014
Response by poster: Yes, I have had a brief exposure to CBT.
While I am open to changing the way I think about things, I am not interested in therapy that revolves around identifying and stamping out thinking errors. It's too mechanical and can overcome one's good judgment and common sense. To borrow phrase that seems apt here, sometimes paranoid people do have enemies.
posted by ADave at 1:09 PM on October 25, 2014
While I am open to changing the way I think about things, I am not interested in therapy that revolves around identifying and stamping out thinking errors. It's too mechanical and can overcome one's good judgment and common sense. To borrow phrase that seems apt here, sometimes paranoid people do have enemies.
posted by ADave at 1:09 PM on October 25, 2014
Best answer: Social psychology is mostly research rather than clinical because one of its underlying assumptions is incompatible with what counseling does (including what you want it to do). Many types of psychology, particularly clinical, assume that there is something about a person (one person, say: you!) that they carry with them from situation to situation and affects what they do across many situations. Personality psychology would be the research-side most closely associated with this kind of thinking. In this view, the persons is the constant and some aspects of that person are carried from situations situation. An example might be that Person X is afraid they will not be liked by new people and so wherever they go, this fear follows them and affects their behaviour.
Social psychology tends more towards the sociology side (in fact, some social psychologists come from psychology and some from sociology). The assumption here is that there are situations and those situations affect people's actions. So different people in the same situation will act similarly. Here the situation is constant and some aspect of that situation affects whatever people enter it. An example of this would be that when people are in social settings where they know no one, they're more likely stay towards the outskirts of the gathering (sit in the back, be a wallflower at a party etc.) than they are in a setting where they know others.
If you want to influence/change/understand a particular person, you don't want a social psychologist. If you want to influence/change/understand social settings (maybe you're an event planner, an HR manager, a school principal) then maybe you want to hire a social psychologist as a consultant.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:13 PM on October 25, 2014
Social psychology tends more towards the sociology side (in fact, some social psychologists come from psychology and some from sociology). The assumption here is that there are situations and those situations affect people's actions. So different people in the same situation will act similarly. Here the situation is constant and some aspect of that situation affects whatever people enter it. An example of this would be that when people are in social settings where they know no one, they're more likely stay towards the outskirts of the gathering (sit in the back, be a wallflower at a party etc.) than they are in a setting where they know others.
If you want to influence/change/understand a particular person, you don't want a social psychologist. If you want to influence/change/understand social settings (maybe you're an event planner, an HR manager, a school principal) then maybe you want to hire a social psychologist as a consultant.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:13 PM on October 25, 2014
What you are looking for could be a humanist/client-centred therapist: see e.g. here or here.
Humanistic psychology has sometimes been referred to as the "third force" in psychology, distinct from the two more traditional approaches, which are psychoanalysis and behaviorism.posted by Pink Frost at 1:18 PM on October 25, 2014
Systemic and social constructionist psychotherapies might do some of what you're looking for as they focus on how meaning is made within groups.
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 1:20 PM on October 25, 2014
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 1:20 PM on October 25, 2014
Applied social psychologists do exist -- there are graduate programs that specialize in producing them -- but I don't know whether they take individual clients. My impression is that their clients are institutions, e.g. corporations, community health programs, etc.
You might prefer DBT, dialectical behavioral therapy. It draws on cognitive behavioral therapy, but says you have to combine awareness of cognitive beliefs with awareness of gut feelings, and look at how the two combine, as they do in the definition you cite. It includes ways to notice and analyze your interactions with others, and explicit techniques for making these interactions go more smoothly.
Bill Soles was super-useful to me when I lived in Portland.
posted by feral_goldfish at 1:20 PM on October 25, 2014
You might prefer DBT, dialectical behavioral therapy. It draws on cognitive behavioral therapy, but says you have to combine awareness of cognitive beliefs with awareness of gut feelings, and look at how the two combine, as they do in the definition you cite. It includes ways to notice and analyze your interactions with others, and explicit techniques for making these interactions go more smoothly.
Bill Soles was super-useful to me when I lived in Portland.
posted by feral_goldfish at 1:20 PM on October 25, 2014
Another thought: I've done something rather like what you're describing, as part of my ethnographic research, which included case studies of particular individuals. This is pretty common in anthropology, or in qualitative sociology.
There's no obvious way to get taken on as part of someone's fieldwork project, though -- which is too bad, really, because recruiting research subjects is typically a challenge. Also, the research won't have been designed with your benefit in mind (although there are ethical safeguards meant to prevent it from harming you).
posted by feral_goldfish at 1:47 PM on October 25, 2014
There's no obvious way to get taken on as part of someone's fieldwork project, though -- which is too bad, really, because recruiting research subjects is typically a challenge. Also, the research won't have been designed with your benefit in mind (although there are ethical safeguards meant to prevent it from harming you).
posted by feral_goldfish at 1:47 PM on October 25, 2014
You might be interested in the practice of autoethnography.
posted by WidgetAlley at 2:16 PM on October 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by WidgetAlley at 2:16 PM on October 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
Group psychotherapy seems like the best match for you. You will interact with others in a therapeutic environment and reflect on what is taking place. There are undoubtedly groups in Portland (though I couldn't tell you where to find them.)
posted by Obscure Reference at 3:37 PM on October 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Obscure Reference at 3:37 PM on October 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
I have a friend who is primarily a researcher, within social psychology, but she also practices clinically with a few patients a week. While, as others said, social psychology isn't a clinical framework (I believe she uses mindfulness and cbt), her way of thinking about issues is clearly driven by her research experience.
Of you want to find someone like that in your region, find a university that has social psychology (just Google) and then Google the names of the individual researchers from the progrsm to see if they have a side business seeing clients.
posted by lollusc at 4:08 PM on October 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
Of you want to find someone like that in your region, find a university that has social psychology (just Google) and then Google the names of the individual researchers from the progrsm to see if they have a side business seeing clients.
posted by lollusc at 4:08 PM on October 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
If your looking for a therapist, that person would likely have a background in clinical psychology, rather than social psychology. The form of therapy that sounds closest to what you describe is Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), which would focus on the nature of your relationships and how you might change them. If you want to improve your social skills, group therapy might help.
posted by MrBobinski at 5:26 PM on October 25, 2014
posted by MrBobinski at 5:26 PM on October 25, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by HuronBob at 12:39 PM on October 25, 2014 [1 favorite]