Eighteen (56%) participants made comments regarding the utility value of psychologists. Fourteen (44%) participants viewed psychologists as useful/helpful, 3 (10%) viewed them as not useful or potentially harmful, and 7 (22%) expressed ambivalence as to their usefulness. Five (16%) o f the participants who commented on usefulness made more than one type o f response.
The women who expressed opinions regarding the utility value o f psychologists generally seemed quite positive. Ten women saw psychologists as useful, compared to 2 who were ambivalent or saw them as not useful. All the older women who expressed a view saw them as useful (5 out of 5), as did most o f the y ounger women (5 out o f 6) :
‘7 don’t think we could do without them, let's put it that way. Well because there are lots o f people that need them, or need their help or need something. I f they didn 't have the psychologist they 'd have to have somebody else. ” (OWN-2)
In contrast, the men who expressed opinions regarding utility generally seemed more negative, in that only 4 of them saw psychologists as useful, compared to 8 who were ambivalent or saw them as not useful. The younger men viewed them as useful or were ambivalent. However, most of the older men viewed them as not useful, as illustrated in the first quote below, or were ambivalent, as in the second quote :
“ ... I mean to say, if a person has got any worries, they may say all right go and speak to somebody about it and discuss it, but I don't think they could help them
all that much. I wouldn’t say so, anyway ...And if he starts to delve hack and brings that up, it ain’t going to do much good, is it? Well I wouldn’t think so anyway. ” (SMN-2)
‘1 am sceptical.. not so. I think that there are cases when it is advantageous, when it is a help, but I think that too many people are ... there's only one word to use ... gutless, and rush to it, rush to counselling and help from somebody else when they should really get down to sorting out their own problems. ” (OMS-2)
Summary. More than half the sample commented on the utility value of psychologists. Almost half the participants viewed psychologists as useful, whilst just under a quarter expressed some doubts. There seemed to be a tendency for the older women to be the most common group in expressing positive views about utility, followed by the younger women, with the younger men less sure and the older men being the most sceptical.
2,5 What kind of person is the psychologist?
The most common idea, expressed across the groups by almost two thirds o f the sample (63%) was that psychologists were academically inclined, in terms o f being either highly educated and/or intelligent ;
“ ... they’re trained to be who they are and they’re specialists. Its probably a lot o f hard work ...Must be a lot o f work ... they’re top, clever people ... / suppose they have to go through a lot o f strenuous training. Like I know normal doctors ...
but obviously psychologists they have to be a bit more something like clued up than what a normal GP does. I would have thought so. They must be clever people. ” (YMS-4)
Thirteen (41%) participants commented on the kinds of personality characteristics they associated with the psychologist. A number of descriptors emerged, which were grouped into two categories :
• ‘positive characteristics’, such as kind, caring, good-hearted, unpressurising; objective; impartial; not self-disclosing; down-to-earth; non-judgmental; strong and coping - 9 (28%) participants :
“ ... and that person doesn 7 know you so they 're not going to judge you, and they let you talk about anything or almost anything ... They wouldn’t force you into talking about anything if you didn 7 want to, I don 7 think. ” (YWN-1)
“I ’ve never thought ofpsychologists as not being nice people ... 7 think they must be nice people to want to help people. I don 7 see it as a negative. I perhaps see psychologists as positive. ” (OWS-4)
• ‘negative characteristics', i.e. expressions of psychologists as being weird or abnormal - 6 (19%) participants :
“Well I should imagine they think “This must he a queer woman or a queer bloke” like, you know what I mean, in this sort o f jo b and things like that ...”
“ people think [psychologists are] sick! ... / mean I couldn Y be a psychologist because I couldn't go and listen to everybody else’s problems ... day in and day out, and I think a lot o f people think that way as well... Its like “You must be mad! Why are you doing a job like that, listening to everybody else's problems?”... a lot of people would think ... “Why a psychologist?... is there something wrong with you? ... do you like listening to people's problems” ... or something along those kind o f lines ... its like ... thriving on somebody else's problems. I know they don't, but ...uh... I mean say in a crowd with people they think '‘Well they obviously enjoy they're job. They like people's troubles” I suppose... y 'know, misfortunes... cos they get paid for it... they get p a id fo r listening to peoples' misfortunes, so people think it's a bit sick... ” (YWN-I)
In terms of sex differences, it is interesting that women more commonly mentioned ‘positive characteristics’ (3 men; 6 women), whereas men more commonly mentioned ‘negative characteristics’ (4 men; 2 women).
Another intriguing observation is that some accounts expressed the idea of the psychologist as having both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ traits ;
“ ... a listening person, a caring person, someone that when you was at school or something was always like “Hi. What are you doing? How are you? ” and wants to know what you're doing and how you are, I suppose. Someone that cares” (YMN-4)
And then several minutes later in the same interview :
“...I think the patients and the psychologists themselves might be a little bit weird, if they do it. I'm not sure . . . / would imagine that most people think that it's a bit weird to be a psychologist. Not weird, but a little strange to be a psychologist. Its not like a doctor or somebody. An actual psychologist who sits down and speaks ... and sorts out people's problems each day would be a little bit . .. a little bit deep and ... not your normal job. Not your normal office job. ” (YMN-4)
Summary. Almost two thirds of the sample saw psychologists as clever and/or highly educated. Less than half the sample commented on other personality characteristics. These were categorised here as either positive or negative. Two thirds o f those who viewed psychologists as demonstrating positive characteristics were women, whilst two thirds of those who viewed psychologists as weird or abnormal were men.