Psychologist

This is a great question to turn the tables on the interviewer. Tell the interviewer that you'd like to tackle any projects they need someone to take the lead on if there is an inspection or accreditation coming up you want to be a part of it. This is your chance to ask the interviewer what they currently have in the queue to accomplish. This will give you an idea of what else the job entails.

The applicant's answer to this should reveal an inherent understanding of the skills used by psychologists on a daily basis and why they are important. The appropriate answer reflects both hard and soft skills. It includes decision making, collaboration, learning, instruction, research, crisis intervention, mental health counseling, policy development, technology standards and developing student diversity. What to look for in an answer:

Data analysis and decision making skills

Crisis prevention and intervention experience

Psychology practicing skills

Along with patience, candidates should cite empathy and emotional intelligence as key skills in a Counseling Psychologist.

You'll be able to assess the psychologist's level of experience as well as obtain a glimpse into the candidate's approach to a difficult client. Be sure that you understand the outcome of the case, the treatment time window and the correlation between treatment and results. If the candidate offers a routine case example, he or she may not have the experience needed to treat more complex psychological disorders. What to look for in an answer:

Experience level with difficult or complex cases

Case conceptualization and approach

Level of focus on positive outcomes

adrenal glands, adrenals the endocrine glands responsible for secreting the hormones adrenaline (epinephrine) and noradrenaline (norepinephrine), which regulate bodily functions and affect mood and emotion, blood pressure, blood sugar level, and redistribution of blood between internal organs and voluntary muscles

While this is typically a generic question, it holds a certain significance in the counseling profession. Counseling Psychologists are required to treat the job as more than just a job. Working with people to better themselves requires patience and perseverance. Candidates should cite a strong motivation for wanting to pursue counseling, such as a life-changing event take took place when they were younger, for example.

This is the most common interview question so don’t let this question surprise you, take the time to think about what you want to say. Read the job description and try to identify traits that the employer wants in their new hire. Have an example ready to back up your strength. If you are struggling to find your strength, ask a trusted friend or colleague what they think are your greatest strengths or go back to previous performance reviews and read over the positive feedback.

Counseling Psychologists require tremendous patience and understanding with their clients. Candidates should describe how they managed to calm them down in a level-headed, professional manner and assured them of their capacity to treat them.

agonists a group of psychoactive drugs that cause neurotransmitters to be released, prevent deactivation of neurotransmitters, or mimic the effects of neurotransmitters by binding to their receptors, drugs such as nicotine and cocaine are examples

brain growth spurt the developmental period during which more than half of a child’s eventual brain weight is added, this period occurs between the last three months of pregnancy and the first year after birth

cognitive behavioral therapy - a process by which people’s faulty cognitions about themselves and the world are changed to more accurate ones, thus changing the maladaptive behaviors based on those cognitions

dark adaptation an increase in the eye’s sensitivity to light that occurs after the reduction or complete absence of light energy reaching it, attributable to changes in the level or light-sensitive pigments in the eye’s receptor cells

systematic desensitization a behavior therapy used to treat phobias through a gradual process of counterconditioning to a response incompatible with fear, usually muscular relaxation, the stimuli are usually evoked as mental images according to an anxiety hierarchy whereby the less frightening stimuli re conterconditioned before the more frightening ones

This is one of the most common questions that are asked during interviews. Avoid answering with a character trait as those will be more difficult to bring to a team. When answering this question the most important thing to remember is, to be honest. You need to perform an honest assessment of your skills relative to the requirements of the job and identify some legitimate areas for improvement. Tell the interviewer about a functional weaknesses or skill deficiencies as can be addressed through learning and development.

Clinical psychologists typically adhere to one main model in their practice. During the interview process, you will want to understand if your candidate practices from a psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, biological, cross-cultural, evolutionary or humanistic perspective. If you're hiring in order to add to a group practice, you may be seeking a model your staff either does not have or one that will fit in with the current team. What to look for in an answer:

Experience and passion in particular areas

Understanding and appreciation for all models

Background, education and continued learning

anchoring heuristic a common decision-making shortcut through which currently available information is used as a reference point for judgment, which is then subject to later adjustment

autonomic nervous system the division of the peripheral nervous system that consists of the nerves and ganglia that serve the glands, smooth muscles, and the heart

classical conditioning the learning of a new response to a stimulus by pairing the stimulus with another stimulus that already elicits the response

consensus the extent to which a person’s reactions in response to an event are shared by others, in Kelley’s theory, this is one piece of information used to determine whether people make dispositional or situational attributions for behavior

superego according to Freudian theory, one of the basic structures of the personality, it is the partially unconscious area of the mind that contains and enforces people’s values, morals, and basic attitudes that they learned from their parents and society