There are two types of psychologists—those who get into this business in order to help people, and those who do so in order to explain people. Now, hold your horses. I realize that splitting this way between clinicians and research psychologists is egregiously unfair and a clumsy overgeneralization. After all, it’s not as though all clinicians shrug off scientific reductionism or that all researchers are heartless data-heads. But let’s be honest. When was the last time you had a clinical psychologist chew your ear off about some hot-off-the-presses findings from Nature or Science, or for that matter saw a research psychologist all fired up over the mental health implications of their latest laboratory results? It’s not a value judgment, my carving up the camps this way, just a gist observation. (You needn’t look any further for evidence of this gross distinction, in fact, than my fellow PT bloggers.) I wanted to get this out of the way before starting my new blog here at Psychology Today so you know what you’re in for. As a true blue research psychologist, my posts won’t necessarily make you happier, healthier, or even saner, but since they’ll be stocked with quirky little things about what makes us tick, they should make you just a smidgen smarter. At least, I hope they will. And since I’m not a clinician giving you therapeutic advice or pointers for living your life (trust me, you wouldn’t want that), don’t be surprised if I’m occasionally cynical, mildly delusional, and more than a little confused myself.
So, now that we’ve cleared that up, in my next post I’ll tell you why my American accent often makes me feel like a cartoon character here in Belfast—and why, according to the latest scientific research with babies, it’s probably not doing my social life any favors either.
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